Re: [PATCH] media: do not use C++ style comments in uapi headers

From: Joe Perches
Date: Tue Jun 04 2019 - 08:08:54 EST


On Tue, 2019-06-04 at 20:48 +0900, Masahiro Yamada wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 4, 2019 at 8:24 PM Joe Perches <joe@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > On Tue, 2019-06-04 at 20:13 +0900, Masahiro Yamada wrote:
> > > On the other hand, uapi headers are written in more strict C, where
> > > the C++ comment style is forbidden.
> >
> > Is this a real problem for any toolchain?
>
> I was waiting for this comment!
>
> Which standard should UAPI headers follow?
> Is it defined somewhere?
>
> If there is no rule, is it up to subsystem maintainers?
>
> We have a certain of unknowledge in user-space,
> I do not know it it is a real problem.
>
> Actually, this patch is related to this thread:
> https://lkml.org/lkml/2019/5/22/1441
>
> Thomas and you agreed
> // should be avoided for SPDX tags in UAPI headers.

If it's really a generic issue, I think there are more
uses of // comments in uapi files.

$ git grep '//' include/uapi/ | grep -vP '(http://|https://|ftp:/)' | wc -l
101

> So, I just thought C99 was forbidden for user-space.

No idea, I just believe if it's really a problem
it likely would have been reported already.

> If C89/C90 is already fantasy,
> let's clearly say "Kernel requires C99 for user-space",
> and use // everywhere for SPDX tags?

OK by me.

I have a checkpatch patch waiting to submit to remove the
requirement to use the /* */ comment style in .h files.

The docs need to be updated too.

cheers, Joe