Re: [PATCH v3 2/9] kernel/api: enable kerneldoc-based API specifications

[Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>]

On Thu, Apr 30, 2026 at 04:47:10PM +0200, Nicolas Schier wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 24, 2026 at 12:51:22PM -0400, Sasha Levin wrote:
> > +# Generate API spec headers from kernel-doc comments
> > +ifeq ($(CONFIG_KAPI_SPEC),y)
> > +# Function to check if a file has API specifications
> > +has-apispec = $(shell grep -qE '^\s*\*\s*context-flags:' $(src)/$(1) 2>/dev/null && echo $(1))
> > +
> > +# Get base names without directory prefix
> > +c-objs-base := $(notdir $(real-obj-y) $(real-obj-m))
> > +# Filter to only .o files with corresponding .c source files
> > +c-files := $(foreach o,$(c-objs-base),$(if $(wildcard $(src)/$(o:.o=.c)),$(o:.o=.c)))
>
> Looks to me as if the two lines above are redundant, since 'find'
> (below) will find all files gathered in $(c-files).

Right, those two lines are dropped in v4. The replacement uses the
kbuild-derived file list described below, so neither set survives.

> > +# Also check for any additional .c files that contain API specs but are included
> > +extra-c-files := $(shell find $(src) -maxdepth 1 -name "*.c" -exec grep -l '^\s*\*\s*\(long-desc\|context-flags\|state-trans\):' {} \; 2>/dev/null | xargs -r basename -a)
> > +# Combine both lists and remove duplicates
> > +all-c-files := $(sort $(c-files) $(extra-c-files))
> > +# Only include files that actually have API specifications
> > +apispec-files := $(foreach f,$(all-c-files),$(call has-apispec,$(f)))
> > +# Generate apispec targets with proper directory prefix
> > +apispec-y := $(addprefix $(obj)/,$(apispec-files:.c=.apispec.h))
>
> To goal is to find any relevant C file in $(src)/ (but not deeper below)
> that holds KAPI documentation, right?
>
> I do not like the find call, as it picks up anything.  Might it make
> sense to evaluate $(obj-) along with $(obj-y) and $(obj-m) to pick up
> all C files that are references in kbuild?
>
>
>
> # in top definition block -- before 'include $(kbuild-file)' et al.
> obj- :=
>
> # below the definitions of real-obj-{y,m}
> real-obj-any := $(call real-search, $(obj-y) $(obj-m) $(obj-), .o, -objs -y -m -)
>
> has-apispec = $(shell grep -lE '^\s*\*\s*context-flags:' $(1) 2>/dev/null)
> apispec-y := $(patsubst $(src)/%.c, $(obj)/%.apispec.h, $(call has-apispec,
> 		    $(patsubst $(obj)/%.o, $(src)/%.c, $(real-obj-any))))
>
> #...
>
> # Source files that include their own apispec.h need to depend on it
> $(apispec-y:.apispec.h=.o): $(obj)/%.o: $(obj)/%.apispec.h
>
> (untested)

Thanks, the kbuild-driven approach is much cleaner. v4 takes your sketch
with two adjustments:

1. obj-m is already addprefix'd with $(obj)/ by line 116 of
   Makefile.build at the point where this block runs, so calling
   real-search again on the mixed list double-prefixes the module
   entries (giving $(src)/$(obj)/foo.c). v4 uses the existing
   $(real-obj-y)/$(real-obj-m) and strips the prefix in patsubst
   instead:

       apispec-c-files := $(call has-apispec, \
           $(patsubst $(obj)/%.o,$(src)/%.c, \
               $(filter-out %/built-in.a,$(real-obj-y) $(real-obj-m))))
       apispec-y := $(patsubst $(src)/%.c,$(obj)/%.apispec.h,$(apispec-c-files))

2. The has-apispec grep needs to match the same set of keys that
   tools/lib/python/kdoc/kdoc_apispec.py actually parses, which is
   "contexts:", "context-flags:" and "context:" interchangeably (see
   _get_section calls around line 866 of kdoc_apispec.py). The original
   grep for "context-flags:" matched zero files in the tree (every
   instrumented file uses "contexts:"), which is the latent bug behind
   the build failure you saw. v4 widens the regex:

       has-apispec = $(shell grep -lE \
           '^[[:space:]]*\*[[:space:]]*(contexts|context-flags|context):' \
           $(1) 2>/dev/null)

> > diff --git a/scripts/Makefile.clean b/scripts/Makefile.clean
> > index 6ead00ec7313b..f78dbbe637f27 100644
> > --- a/scripts/Makefile.clean
> > +++ b/scripts/Makefile.clean
> > @@ -35,6 +35,9 @@ __clean-files   := $(filter-out $(no-clean-files), $(__clean-files))
> >
> >  __clean-files   := $(wildcard $(addprefix $(obj)/, $(__clean-files)))
> >
> > +# Also clean generated apispec headers (computed dynamically in Makefile.build)
> > +__clean-files   += $(wildcard $(obj)/*.apispec.h)
>
> We have a list of wildcard clean patterns in top-level Makefile
> (line 2114 ff.); please add '*.apispec.h' there instead.

Will fix.

> When I apply the series on top of v7.1, compilation fails with
>
> ../fs/open.c:2148:10: fatal error: open.apispec.h: No such file or directory
> ../fs/read_write.c:2519:10: fatal error: read_write.apispec.h: No such file or directory

This is the symptom of (2) above. fs/open.c and fs/read_write.c only
declare "contexts: process, sleepable" (no "context-flags:" anywhere in
the tree, confirmed via grep), so apispec-files was always empty and no
*.apispec.h ever got generated. With CONFIG_KAPI_SPEC=y the
"#if IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_KAPI_SPEC)" guarded include then fails. Also
reproducible on v7.0; thanks for catching it.

Thanks for the review and the kbuild sketch!

--
Thanks,
Sasha