Re: [PATCH] staging: rtl8712: remove dead code

[Joshua Clayton <stillcompiling@gmail.com>]

On Monday, September 28, 2015 10:52:33 PM Luis de Bethencourt wrote:
> The while() loop will only exit in a return or a goto ask_for_joinbss,
> which means it will never break and execute the return after it.
> Removing return _FAIL since it is dead code.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Luis de Bethencourt <luisbg@osg.samsung.com>
> ---
>  drivers/staging/rtl8712/rtl871x_mlme.c | 2 +-
>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
> 
> diff --git a/drivers/staging/rtl8712/rtl871x_mlme.c b/drivers/staging/rtl8712/rtl871x_mlme.c
> index fc5dbea..fbcb248 100644
> --- a/drivers/staging/rtl8712/rtl871x_mlme.c
> +++ b/drivers/staging/rtl8712/rtl871x_mlme.c
> @@ -1190,7 +1190,7 @@ int r8712_select_and_join_from_scan(struct mlme_priv *pmlmepriv)
>  			}
>  		}
>  	}
> -	return _FAIL;
> +
>  ask_for_joinbss:
>  	return r8712_joinbss_cmd(adapter, pnetwork);
>  }
> 

Yes, that line is unreachable, (no breaks, only returns and gotos to get out of the loop).

but ugh, that function is an abomination.
removing the return _FAIL does little to improve the code flow or
readability. 

perhaps a nicer fix would be to change it to follow the convention
of gotos for the failure path, so instead of 5 levels of nesting, 
it would flow naturally toward r8712_joinbss_cmd();