> My intention was to make the API a bit more defensive. While the current
> implementation only has one failure path, spacemit_i2s_init_dai() may
> grow additional error paths in the future. Initializing *dp to NULL
> ensures it is left in a well-defined state on any failure.
>
> It would also avoid leaving dai uninitialized if a future caller
> accidentally skipped checking the return value before using it.

I still do not think this initialization is necessary. Currently,
spacemit_i2s_init_dai() has exactly one failure path: devm_kmemdup() fails
and the function returns -ENOMEM. The sole caller checks that return value
and exits immediately.

A caller that continued after ignoring the error would itself be incorrect
and should not be accommodated. The helper is also static and has only this
one caller, so there is no current API contract that requires the output to
be initialized on failure.

I suggest dropping this patch.

                                            - Troy