Re: [PATCH] kfifo: fix warn_unused_result

From: Andrew Morton
Date: Sun Dec 13 2009 - 17:30:39 EST


On Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:18:28 +0100 Stefani Seibold <stefani@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> As requested by Andrew Morton:
>
> This patch fix the "ignoring return value of '...', declared with
> attribute warn_unused_result" compiler warning in several users of the
> new kfifo API.
>
> The patch-set is against current mm tree from 11-Dec-2009
>
> ...
>
> --- mmotm/drivers/char/nozomi.c 2009-12-11 08:31:46.670736197 +0100
> +++ linux-2.6.32/drivers/char/nozomi.c 2009-12-11 09:25:46.941436203 +0100
> @@ -685,8 +685,9 @@ static int nozomi_read_config_table(stru
> dump_table(dc);
>
> for (i = PORT_MDM; i < MAX_PORT; i++) {
> - kfifo_alloc(&dc->port[i].fifo_ul,
> - FIFO_BUFFER_SIZE_UL, GFP_ATOMIC);
> + if (kfifo_alloc(&dc->port[i].fifo_ul,
> + FIFO_BUFFER_SIZE_UL, GFP_ATOMIC))
> + BUG();

No, we can't do this. GFP_ATOMIC allocations are unreliable and can
fail. The calling code *has* to detect the failure and then take some
recovery action.

It would be better to leave the warning in place, rather than to add
this runtime landmine.

> input_sync(kp.dev);
> - kfifo_in_locked(&sonypi_device.input_fifo,
> + if (kfifo_in_locked(&sonypi_device.input_fifo,
> (unsigned char *)&kp, sizeof(kp),
> - &sonypi_device.input_fifo_lock);
> + &sonypi_device.input_fifo_lock) != sizeof(kp))
> + BUG();

The rest of the patch seems to be adding BUG()s if kfifo_in() fails.
All over the place.

If that's the appropriate way to handle failure for these callsites
then it would be neater to do this in the callee. ie, add a new

unsigned int kfifo_in_nonpartial(struct kfifo *fifo,
const unsigned char *from, unsigned int len)
{
unsigned int ret = kfifo_in(fifo, from, len);

BUG_ON(ret != len);
return ret;
}

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