Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S933010AbeAHQ3X (ORCPT + 1 other); Mon, 8 Jan 2018 11:29:23 -0500 Received: from ms.lwn.net ([45.79.88.28]:41602 "EHLO ms.lwn.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S932668AbeAHQ3V (ORCPT ); Mon, 8 Jan 2018 11:29:21 -0500 Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2018 09:29:17 -0700 From: Jonathan Corbet To: Dan Williams Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Mark Rutland , linux-arch@vger.kernel.org, peterz@infradead.org, netdev@vger.kernel.org, Will Deacon , gregkh@linuxfoundation.org, tglx@linutronix.de, torvalds@linux-foundation.org, alan@linux.intel.com Subject: Re: [PATCH 02/18] Documentation: document nospec helpers Message-ID: <20180108092917.591359aa@lwn.net> In-Reply-To: <151520100323.32271.8384226462583945132.stgit@dwillia2-desk3.amr.corp.intel.com> References: <151520099201.32271.4677179499894422956.stgit@dwillia2-desk3.amr.corp.intel.com> <151520100323.32271.8384226462583945132.stgit@dwillia2-desk3.amr.corp.intel.com> Organization: LWN.net X-Mailer: Claws Mail 3.15.1-dirty (GTK+ 2.24.31; x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Return-Path: On Fri, 05 Jan 2018 17:10:03 -0800 Dan Williams wrote: > Document the rationale and usage of the new nospec*() helpers. I have just a couple of overall comments. - It would be nice if the document were done in RST and placed in the core-API manual, perhaps using kerneldoc comments for the macros themselves. It's already 99.9% RST now, so the changes required would be minimal. - More importantly: is there any way at all to give guidance to developers wondering *when* they should use these primitives? I think it would be easy to create a situation where they don't get used where they are really needed; meanwhile, there may well be a flood of "helpful" patches adding them where they make no sense at all. Thanks, jon