Date: Sat, 29 Sep 2007 03:51:56 -0700
From: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
To: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
Cc: LKML <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
       Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>,
       David Brownell <david-b@pacbell.net>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] CodingStyle: Printing numbers in parentheses is fine
Message-Id: <20070929035156.cd6fe860.akpm@linux-foundation.org>
In-Reply-To: <20070929122530.5c45f743@hyperion.delvare>
References: <20070929122530.5c45f743@hyperion.delvare>
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On Sat, 29 Sep 2007 12:25:30 +0200 Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org> wrote:

> Remove a not particularly relevant rule from CodingStyle.
> Sometimes, printing numbers in parentheses doesn't add value, but in
> some (most?) cases it makes the message easier to read. As a matter of
> fact, this practice is widely used in the kernel:
> 
> linux-2.6.23-rc8$ quilt grep -I '(%l*[du])' | wc -l
> 3166
> linux-2.6.23-rc8$
> 
> Signed-off-by: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
> ---
>  Documentation/CodingStyle |    2 --
>  1 file changed, 2 deletions(-)
> 
> --- linux-2.6.23-rc8.orig/Documentation/CodingStyle	2007-07-23 16:44:32.000000000 +0200
> +++ linux-2.6.23-rc8/Documentation/CodingStyle	2007-09-28 23:53:23.000000000 +0200
> @@ -638,8 +638,6 @@ concise, clear, and unambiguous.
>  
>  Kernel messages do not have to be terminated with a period.
>  
> -Printing numbers in parentheses (%d) adds no value and should be avoided.
> -
>  There are a number of driver model diagnostic macros in <linux/device.h>
>  which you should use to make sure messages are matched to the right device
>  and driver, and are tagged with the right level:  dev_err(), dev_warn(),

I wonder how that got there.

Printing something like

	bytes remaining: 0x12 (18)

is a quite logical thing to do, although pretty darm pointless.


otoh, looking at the various instances, we have lots of stuff like this:


  printk(KERN_ERR "seq-oss: unable to delete queue %d (%d)\n", queue, rc);

which I would argue is wrong and is inconsistent with most other error
reporting.  It should be

	unable to delete queue %d: %d


And this:

	printk(KERN_ERR "%s:  context size (%u) exceeds payload "

doesn't need the parens


Here:

	printk("hardirqs last  enabled at (%u): ", curr->hardirq_enable_event);
	print_ip_sym(curr->hardirq_enable_ip);
	printk("hardirqs last disabled at (%u): ", curr->hardirq_disable_event);
	print_ip_sym(curr->hardirq_disable_ip);
	printk("softirqs last  enabled at (%u): ", curr->softirq_enable_event);
	print_ip_sym(curr->softirq_enable_ip);
	printk("softirqs last disabled at (%u): ", curr->softirq_disable_event);
	print_ip_sym(curr->softirq_disable_ip);

all the parens are just illogical and should be removed.


Here:

		xlog_warn("XFS: %s: unrecognised log version (%d).",
			__FUNCTION__, INT_GET(rhead->h_version, ARCH_CONVERT));

should use "unrecognised log version: %d"


This:

		printk(KERN_ERR "udf: unknown compression code (%d) stri=%s\n",
		       cmp_id, ocu_i->u_name);

should use colon as well.


So in fact a large number of the instances I see in there are illogical and
basically gramatically wrong and should be converted to use a colon.

-
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