Re: [PATCH] platform/x86: dell-smbios: make a function and a pointer static

[Darren Hart <dvhart@infradead.org>]

On Sat, Jun 23, 2018 at 08:24:26AM +0200, Julia Lawall wrote:
> 
> 
> On Fri, 22 Jun 2018, Darren Hart wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, Jun 21, 2018 at 07:15:24PM +0100, Colin King wrote:
> > > From: Colin Ian King <colin.king@canonical.com>
> > >
> > > The function dell_smbios_smm_call and pointer platform_device are
> > > local to the source and do not need to be in global scope, so make
> > > them static.
> > >
> > > Cleans up sparse warnings:
> > > warning: symbol 'platform_device' was not declared. Should it be static?
> > > warning: symbol 'dell_smbios_smm_call' was not declared. Should it be
> > > static?
> > >
> > > Signed-off-by: Colin Ian King <colin.king@canonical.com>
> > > ---
> > >  drivers/platform/x86/dell-smbios-smm.c | 4 ++--
> > >  1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
> > >
> > > diff --git a/drivers/platform/x86/dell-smbios-smm.c b/drivers/platform/x86/dell-smbios-smm.c
> > > index e9e9da556318..97a90bebc360 100644
> > > --- a/drivers/platform/x86/dell-smbios-smm.c
> > > +++ b/drivers/platform/x86/dell-smbios-smm.c
> > > @@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
> > >  static int da_command_address;
> > >  static int da_command_code;
> > >  static struct calling_interface_buffer *buffer;
> > > -struct platform_device *platform_device;
> > > +static struct platform_device *platform_device;
> > >  static DEFINE_MUTEX(smm_mutex);
> > >
> > >  static const struct dmi_system_id dell_device_table[] __initconst = {
> > > @@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ static void find_cmd_address(const struct dmi_header *dm, void *dummy)
> > >  	}
> > >  }
> > >
> > > -int dell_smbios_smm_call(struct calling_interface_buffer *input)
> > > +static int dell_smbios_smm_call(struct calling_interface_buffer *input)
> >
> > Hrm. So these are passed by pointer to dell_smbios_register_device(), which is in
> > turn called by dell_smbios_call() from dell-smbios-base.c.
> >
> > So while it is valid to make these static, since we're not referencing the
> > symbol, but the pointer value instead - I do worry about the "static" suggesting
> > to someone reading the code that this data is not used outside of this file,
> > when it is.
> 
> Static protects the name.  The name in this case is very generic.

Indeed "platform_device" is even more generic than I'd like for a static ;-)

-- 
Darren Hart
VMware Open Source Technology Center