Stupid luser question

Stupid luser question

[jbradford]

Just wondering, what is the purpose of the comment /* { */ which is found in various seemingly random places in the kernel:

# grep -F -r "/* { */" *

drivers/video/font_acorn_8x8.c:/* 7B */  0x0C, 0x18, 0x18, 0x70, 0x18, 0x18, 0x0C, 0x00, /* { */
drivers/scsi/scsi_syms.c:#if defined(CONFIG_SCSI_LOGGING)       /* { */
drivers/scsi/scsi.c:#ifdef CONFIG_SCSI_LOGGING          /* { */
drivers/scsi/scsi.c:#ifdef CONFIG_SCSI_LOGGING          /* { */
drivers/message/fusion/mptbase.h:#ifdef __KERNEL__      /* { */
drivers/message/fusion/mptscsih.c:#ifndef MPT_SCSI_USE_NEW_EH   /* { */
drivers/message/fusion/mptscsih.c:#ifdef MPT_SCSI_USE_NEW_EH            /* { */
drivers/message/fusion/mptscsih.c:#if 0         /* { */
drivers/message/fusion/mptbase.c:#ifdef CONFIG_PROC_FS              /* { */

John.

Re: Stupid luser question

[Eli Carter]

jbradford@dial.pipex.com wrote:
> Just wondering, what is the purpose of the comment /* { */ which is found in various seemingly random places in the kernel:
> 
> # grep -F -r "/* { */" *
> 
> drivers/video/font_acorn_8x8.c:/* 7B */  0x0C, 0x18, 0x18, 0x70, 0x18, 0x18, 0x0C, 0x00, /* { */
[snip]

Probably folding... possibly from vim/gvim.

If you're curious, look at: http://vim.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/fold.html
:set foldmethod=marker
:set foldmarker={,}
:set foldcolumn=6
Gets folding "mostly right" for C/C++ code.  Manually added folds add in 
a C comment containing the foldmarker, in this case "/* { */"
and "/* } */"

emacs probably has this feature as well, but I'm a vim person myself. :)

If you are not familiar with folding, look into it.  I find it very 
useful when dealing with unfamiliar code or looking at program structure.

HTH,

Eli
--------------------. "If it ain't broke now,
Eli Carter           \                  it will be soon." -- crypto-gram
eli.carter(a)inet.com `-------------------------------------------------

Re: Stupid luser question

[Petr Vandrovec]

On  1 Oct 02 at 19:14, jbradford@dial.pipex.com wrote:

> Just wondering, what is the purpose of the comment /* { */ which is found in various seemingly random places in the kernel:
> 
> # grep -F -r "/* { */" *
> 
> drivers/video/font_acorn_8x8.c:/* 7B */  0x0C, 0x18, 0x18, 0x70, 0x18, 0x18, 0x0C, 0x00, /* { */

Body of character "{"...

> drivers/scsi/scsi_syms.c:#if defined(CONFIG_SCSI_LOGGING)       /* { */
> drivers/scsi/scsi.c:#ifdef CONFIG_SCSI_LOGGING          /* { */
> drivers/scsi/scsi.c:#ifdef CONFIG_SCSI_LOGGING          /* { */
> drivers/message/fusion/mptbase.h:#ifdef __KERNEL__      /* { */
> drivers/message/fusion/mptscsih.c:#ifndef MPT_SCSI_USE_NEW_EH   /* { */
> drivers/message/fusion/mptscsih.c:#ifdef MPT_SCSI_USE_NEW_EH            /* { */
> drivers/message/fusion/mptscsih.c:#if 0         /* { */
> drivers/message/fusion/mptbase.c:#ifdef CONFIG_PROC_FS              /* { */

All these are for cooperation with editors which find matching 
brace/bracket/... for you:

#ifdef __KERNEL__   /* { */
...
#endif /* } __KERNEL__ */

and then you can quickly jump from ifdef to endif and back even in
editor which does not know about #if/ifdef/else/elif/ifndef/endif...
                                            Best regards,
                                                        Petr Vandrovec
                                                        vandrove@vc.cvut.cz
                                                                                        

RE: Stupid luser question

[John Hall]

On 01 October 2002 19:14 jbradford@dial.pipex.com
<jbradford@dial.pipex.com> wrote:

> Just wondering, what is the purpose of the comment /* { */ which is
> found in various seemingly random places in the kernel:
> 
> # grep -F -r "/* { */" *

I would guess that they were put there by someone who uses a folding
editor. If you look for matching #endif's you will find a /* } */.

regards,
john