Re: [PATCH] linux/compiler.h: Add __must_hold macro for functionscalled with a lock held

From: Josh Triplett
Date: Tue Oct 09 2012 - 16:36:28 EST


On Tue, Oct 09, 2012 at 01:06:37PM -0700, Andrew Morton wrote:
> On Sun, 7 Oct 2012 19:06:10 -0700
> Josh Triplett <josh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > linux/compiler.h has macros to denote functions that acquire or release
> > locks, but not to denote functions called with a lock held that return
> > with the lock still held. Add a __must_hold macro to cover that case.
>
> hum. How does this work? Any code examples and sample sparse output?
> Does it apply to all lock types, etc?

It applies to all the same lock types that __acquires and __releases
apply to: currently everything since Sparse doesn't actually do anything
with the parameter, just the context value.

Various code examples already exist in the kernel tree for __acquires
and __releases, and the mailing list contains many reports of the Sparse
context warnings.

Just as __acquires and __release annotate functions that return with a
lock acquired and get called with a lock that they drop (respectively),
__must_hold annotates a function called with a lock acquired that return
with that lock still acquired.

> IOW, where is all this stuff documented?

The Sparse manpage documents the context bits reasonably well. Other
than that, nowhere that I know of other than the Sparse testsuite and
the source trees of projects like Linux that use Sparse.

- Josh Triplett
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