Re: dealing with gcc 'comparison is always false' warnings

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

 



Hi,

On 5/31/07, Tilman Schmidt <[email protected]> wrote:
Am 30.05.2007 17:41 schrieb Satyam Sharma:
> On 5/30/07, Roland Dreier <[email protected]> wrote:
>> thanks... I'm wondering if there's a consensus among kernel hackers
>> about changes like:
>>
>>  > -    if (hdr.cmd < 0 || hdr.cmd >= ARRAY_SIZE(ucma_cmd_table))
>>  > +    if (hdr.cmd >= ARRAY_SIZE(ucma_cmd_table))
>>  >              return -EINVAL;
>>
>> I understand that new gcc sees that hdr.cmd is unsigned and hence
>> can't be < 0, and generates a warning for that, and having a build
>> cluttered with warnings hides bugs and so on.  However the code here
>> looks quite sensible to me -- otherwise we end up with missing range
>> checking if hdr.cmd ever changes to a signed type.  This seems like a
>> good way to introduce bugs: delete valid range checking code to shut
>> up a silly gcc warning, and then change the type of a variable.
>
> You're *absolutely* correct about the issue that these "fixes" that remove
> such conditions end up remove range-checking making the code more
> flakey / less readable.

I disagree. Changing the type of a variable is a significant
modification. If someone does that, he or she *must* check every
use of that variable, at which point he or she will also modify
any range checks accordingly. Having checks that don't fit with
the previous type *distracts* from that job. "Oh, did I modify
that part already? Guess I can skip checking the rest of that
function then." Oops.

I did not suggest the change-variable-type-from-unsigned-to-signed
thing as a "general" solution to such cases! ... in fact what I said
was that such cases do _not_ have a general solution at all, and
that shutting gcc up might not be a good idea, because a lot of
times such warnings do un-hide bugs. [ BTW when I gave the
change-type-from-unsigned-to-signed example, I had the size_t vs
ssize_t typo/bug in mind, for which changing the type is the proper
fix; and note that similar bugs can occur for non-size_t cases too. ]

Nor is readability a suitable argument. Checking if hdr.cmd is
less than zero gives the misleading impression that it *could*
be less than zero, thus *impairing* readability.

Hmmm, but I tend to agree with the sentiment expressed in:
http://lkml.org/lkml/2006/11/28/206

Satyam
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to [email protected]
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/

[Index of Archives]     [Kernel Newbies]     [Netfilter]     [Bugtraq]     [Photo]     [Stuff]     [Gimp]     [Yosemite News]     [MIPS Linux]     [ARM Linux]     [Linux Security]     [Linux RAID]     [Video 4 Linux]     [Linux for the blind]     [Linux Resources]
  Powered by Linux