Re: [PATCH v2] checkpatch: add warning for unnecessary use of %h[xudi] and %hh[xudi]

[Joe Perches <joe@perches.com>]

On Thu, 2020-11-26 at 14:16 +0530, Dwaipayan Ray wrote:
> Modifiers %h and %hh should never be used.
> 
> Commit cbacb5ab0aa0 ("docs: printk-formats: Stop encouraging use
> of unnecessary %h[xudi] and %hh[xudi]") specifies that:
> 
> "Standard integer promotion is already done and %hx and %hhx is useless
> so do not encourage the use of %hh[xudi] or %h[xudi]."
> 
> "The "h" and "hh" things should never be used. The only reason for them
> being used if you have an "int", but you want to print it out as a
> "char" (and honestly, that is a really bad reason, you'd be better off
> just using a proper cast to make the code more obvious)."
> 
> Add a new check to emit a warning on finding an unneeded use of %h or
> %hh modifier.
> 
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/4910042649a4f3ab22fac93191b8c1fa0a2e17c3.camel@perches.com/
> 
> Suggested-by: Lukas Bulwahn <lukas.bulwahn@gmail.com>
> Signed-off-by: Dwaipayan Ray <dwaipayanray1@gmail.com>
> ---
> Changes in v2:
> - Use $logFunctions instead of the manual list.
> - Relocate the check to after logging continuations check.
> - Remove perl_version_ok condition which is unneeded here.
[]
> diff --git a/scripts/checkpatch.pl b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
[]
> @@ -6027,6 +6027,18 @@ sub process {
>  			     "Avoid logging continuation uses where feasible\n" . $herecurr);
>  		}
> 
> +# check for unnecessary use of %h[xudi] and %hh[xudi] in logging functions
> +		if (defined $stat &&
> +		    $line =~ /\b$logFunctions\s*\(/) {
> +			my $lc = $stat =~ tr@\n@@;
> +			$lc = $lc + $linenr;
> +			my $stat_real = get_stat_real($linenr, $lc);
> +			if ($stat_real =~ /\"[^\"]*%[\d\.\*\-]*h+[idux].*\"/i) {
> +				WARN("UNNECESSARY_MODIFIER",
> +				     "Unnecessary use of modifiers %h[xudi] or %hh[xudi]\n" . "$here\n$stat_real\n");

o Why not capture the group and show the actual integer format portion here?
  (%[\d\.\*\-]*h+[idux])
o This might also show every unnecessary use of %h. (using while (.../g)
o The .*\" isn't useful.
o The /i is probably wrong.
o Perhaps this could use a --fix line if the format is on the same line
  as $logFunctions
o Perhaps the message should say something about integer promotion.
  Maybe something like:
  "Integer promotion: using 'h' in '$1' is unnecessary\n"