Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: net-PA Semi: Deletion of unnecessary checks before the function call "pci_dev_put" | From | Johannes Berg <> | Date | Mon, 01 Dec 2014 21:29:05 +0100 |
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On Mon, 2014-12-01 at 02:34 +0100, SF Markus Elfring wrote:
> > Some of those NULL pointer checks on input parameters may have been > > added subsequently to functions. So there may be older kernel versions > > out there in which those checks dont exists in some cases. If some of > > the now "cleaned up" code is backported to such a kernel chances are > > good that those missing checks are overseen. And then neither caller nor > > callee is doing the NULL pointer check.
> I assume that a few backporters can tell you more about their corresponding > software development experiences. > http://www.do-not-panic.com/2014/04/automatic-linux-kernel-backporting-with-coccinelle.html
In such cases we just provide an appropriate wrapper and replace callers of the original function by callers of the wrapper, typically with a #define.
So this kind of evolution is no problem for the (automated) backports using the backports project - although it can be difficult to detect such a thing is needed.
johannes
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