Re: [PATCH 3/8] arch/x86: Remove sentinel elem from ctl_table arrays

From: Dave Hansen
Date: Wed Sep 06 2023 - 10:45:14 EST


On 9/6/23 03:03, Joel Granados via B4 Relay wrote:
> This commit comes at the tail end of a greater effort to remove the
> empty elements at the end of the ctl_table arrays (sentinels) which
> will reduce the overall build time size of the kernel and run time
> memory bloat by ~64 bytes per sentinel (further information Link :
> https://lore.kernel.org/all/ZO5Yx5JFogGi%2FcBo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/)
>
> Remove sentinel element from sld_sysctl and itmt_kern_table.

There's a *LOT* of content to read for a reviewer to figure out what's
going on here between all the links. I would have appreciated one more
sentence here, maybe:

This is now safe because the sysctl registration code
(register_sysctl()) implicitly uses ARRAY_SIZE() in addition
to checking for a sentinel.

That needs to be more prominent _somewhere_. Maybe here, or maybe in
the cover letter, but _somewhere_.

That said, feel free to add this to the two x86 patches:

Acked-by: Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> # for x86