Re: [PATCH] checkpatch: don't encourage new code to use "networking" style comments

From: Joe Perches
Date: Fri Apr 28 2017 - 14:24:38 EST


On Fri, 2017-04-28 at 10:55 -0700, Brian Norris wrote:
> Our glorious leader has made his opinion known [1]: the "networking"
> comment style is not useful for new code.

<shrug> and yet nothing was done.

I think _very_ few people concern themselves one way
or another.

I believe the only person that actually cares about
the networking
comment style is David Miller.

> While the same rules as usual
> still apply -- e.g., don't unnecessarily churn existing code, and follow
> existing practice within files -- that doesn't mean that checkpatch
> should be enforcing that for entire directories. Among other reasons,
> this can cause automatic patch generators to do the exact wrong thing:
> convert perfectly good existing code into the "networking style", just
> because it's in a similar directory.

I believe the patch generator you are referring to is
checkpatch.

And checkpatch doesn't actually offer to "--fix" any
comment style. It just bleats a message.

I don't know of another tool that proposes patches
that vary comment styles based on directory.