Re: linux-next: dock_link_device is oopsy

[Holger Macht <holger@homac.de>]

On Fr 17. Feb - 13:46:04, Hugh Dickins wrote:
> Matthew,
> 
> A linux-next oops at bootup in dock_link_device() tells me that you
> were not feeling well when you wrote that and dock_unlink_device():
> I hope you're feeling better now and can rewrite them soon.

Andrew Morton experienced a similar problem. What system are you using?
I didn't encounter this problem with the systems I tested with.

Do you actually have a /sys/devices/platform/dock.?/ directory with a
file 'type' that contains 'dock_station'?

> I think my particular problem comes from dock_station_count 0,
> so kmalloc() returns NULL, which you don't check for.  But those
> functions appear to be minor masterpieces of doing things in the
> wrong order, not checking allocation, not freeing resource on failure.
> 
> I'm not attaching a proposed patch because, on that record, I bet when
> you look closer you'll find more wrong that I wouldn't know about.
> 
> Let's hope this isn't diverted into an endless discussion of whether
> you ought to use kaalloc() or kballoc() or ....  me, I'd just like to
> boot, and have put #if 0..#endif around everything in those functions.

Nevertheless, we should check for this error case or make sure we aren't
able to run into it.

Thanks,
 Holger