Re: [PATCH] Remove pointless <0 comparison for unsigned variable in fs/fcntl.c

Jesper Juhl
2004-11-23T23:09:50Z

On Tue, 23 Nov 2004, Linus Torvalds wrote:
>
>
> On Tue, 23 Nov 2004, Jesper Juhl wrote:
> >
> > Shutting up gcc is not the primary goal here, the goal is/was to
> > a) review the code and make sure that it is safe and correct, and fix it
> > when it is not.
> > b) remove comparisons that are just a waste of CPU cycles when the result
> > is always true or false (in *all* cases on *all* archs).
>
> Well, I'm convinced that (b) is unnecessary, as any compiler that notices
> the range thing enough to warn will also be smart enough to just remove
> the test internally.
>
That makes sense. I'll try and ignore (b).

> But yes, as long as the thing is a "review and fix bugs" and not a quest
> to remove warnings which may well be compiler figments, that's obviously
> ok.

That was the main thing, yes. Of course I may make mistakes and end up
posting patches that are less than perfect, but review and fix bugs is
my intent, building with -W is merely a way for me to find relevant bits
to review.

But enough of this, I understand your views on the issue and thank you for
your examples, now I'll focus on the code and see if it results in a few
patches :)

--
Jesper Juhl