1 2 Linux kernel coding style 3 4This is a short document describing the preferred coding style for the 5linux kernel. Coding style is very personal, and I won't _force_ my 6views on anybody, but this is what goes for anything that I have to be 7able to maintain, and I'd prefer it for most other things too. Please 8at least consider the points made here. 9 10First off, I'd suggest printing out a copy of the GNU coding standards, 11and NOT read it. Burn them, it's a great symbolic gesture. 12 13Anyway, here goes: 14 15 16 Chapter 1: Indentation 17 18Tabs are 8 characters, and thus indentations are also 8 characters. 19There are heretic movements that try to make indentations 4 (or even 2!) 20characters deep, and that is akin to trying to define the value of PI to 21be 3. 22 23Rationale: The whole idea behind indentation is to clearly define where 24a block of control starts and ends. Especially when you've been looking 25at your screen for 20 straight hours, you'll find it a lot easier to see 26how the indentation works if you have large indentations. 27 28Now, some people will claim that having 8-character indentations makes 29the code move too far to the right, and makes it hard to read on a 3080-character terminal screen. The answer to that is that if you need 31more than 3 levels of indentation, you're screwed anyway, and should fix 32your program. 33 34In short, 8-char indents make things easier to read, and have the added 35benefit of warning you when you're nesting your functions too deep. 36Heed that warning. 37 38The preferred way to ease multiple indentation levels in a switch statement is 39to align the "switch" and its subordinate "case" labels in the same column 40instead of "double-indenting" the "case" labels. E.g.: 41 42 switch (suffix) { 43 case 'G': 44 case 'g': 45 mem <<= 30; 46 break; 47 case 'M': 48 case 'm': 49 mem <<= 20; 50 break; 51 case 'K': 52 case 'k': 53 mem <<= 10; 54 /* fall through */ 55 default: 56 break; 57 } 58 59 60Don't put multiple statements on a single line unless you have 61something to hide: 62 63 if (condition) do_this; 64 do_something_everytime; 65 66Don't put multiple assignments on a single line either. Kernel coding style 67is super simple. Avoid tricky expressions. 68 69Outside of comments, documentation and except in Kconfig, spaces are never 70used for indentation, and the above example is deliberately broken. 71 72Get a decent editor and don't leave whitespace at the end of lines. 73 74 75 Chapter 2: Breaking long lines and strings 76 77Coding style is all about readability and maintainability using commonly 78available tools. 79 80The limit on the length of lines is 80 columns and this is a strongly 81preferred limit. 82 83Statements longer than 80 columns will be broken into sensible chunks. 84Descendants are always substantially shorter than the parent and are placed 85substantially to the right. The same applies to function headers with a long 86argument list. Long strings are as well broken into shorter strings. The 87only exception to this is where exceeding 80 columns significantly increases 88readability and does not hide information. 89 90void fun(int a, int b, int c) 91{ 92 if (condition) 93 printk(KERN_WARNING "Warning this is a long printk with " 94 "3 parameters a: %u b: %u " 95 "c: %u \n", a, b, c); 96 else 97 next_statement; 98} 99 100 Chapter 3: Placing Braces and Spaces 101 102The other issue that always comes up in C styling is the placement of 103braces. Unlike the indent size, there are few technical reasons to 104choose one placement strategy over the other, but the preferred way, as 105shown to us by the prophets Kernighan and Ritchie, is to put the opening 106brace last on the line, and put the closing brace first, thusly: 107 108 if (x is true) { 109 we do y 110 } 111 112This applies to all non-function statement blocks (if, switch, for, 113while, do). E.g.: 114 115 switch (action) { 116 case KOBJ_ADD: 117 return "add"; 118 case KOBJ_REMOVE: 119 return "remove"; 120 case KOBJ_CHANGE: 121 return "change"; 122 default: 123 return NULL; 124 } 125 126However, there is one special case, namely functions: they have the 127opening brace at the beginning of the next line, thus: 128 129 int function(int x) 130 { 131 body of function 132 } 133 134Heretic people all over the world have claimed that this inconsistency 135is ... well ... inconsistent, but all right-thinking people know that 136(a) K&R are _right_ and (b) K&R are right. Besides, functions are 137special anyway (you can't nest them in C). 138 139Note that the closing brace is empty on a line of its own, _except_ in 140the cases where it is followed by a continuation of the same statement, 141ie a "while" in a do-statement or an "else" in an if-statement, like 142this: 143 144 do { 145 body of do-loop 146 } while (condition); 147 148and 149 150 if (x == y) { 151 .. 152 } else if (x > y) { 153 ... 154 } else { 155 .... 156 } 157 158Rationale: K&R. 159 160Also, note that this brace-placement also minimizes the number of empty 161(or almost empty) lines, without any loss of readability. Thus, as the 162supply of new-lines on your screen is not a renewable resource (think 16325-line terminal screens here), you have more empty lines to put 164comments on. 165 166Do not unnecessarily use braces where a single statement will do. 167 168if (condition) 169 action(); 170 171This does not apply if one branch of a conditional statement is a single 172statement. Use braces in both branches. 173 174if (condition) { 175 do_this(); 176 do_that(); 177} else { 178 otherwise(); 179} 180 181 3.1: Spaces 182 183Linux kernel style for use of spaces depends (mostly) on 184function-versus-keyword usage. Use a space after (most) keywords. The 185notable exceptions are sizeof, typeof, alignof, and __attribute__, which look 186somewhat like functions (and are usually used with parentheses in Linux, 187although they are not required in the language, as in: "sizeof info" after 188"struct fileinfo info;" is declared). 189 190So use a space after these keywords: 191 if, switch, case, for, do, while 192but not with sizeof, typeof, alignof, or __attribute__. E.g., 193 s = sizeof(struct file); 194 195Do not add spaces around (inside) parenthesized expressions. This example is 196*bad*: 197 198 s = sizeof( struct file ); 199 200When declaring pointer data or a function that returns a pointer type, the 201preferred use of '*' is adjacent to the data name or function name and not 202adjacent to the type name. Examples: 203 204 char *linux_banner; 205 unsigned long long memparse(char *ptr, char **retptr); 206 char *match_strdup(substring_t *s); 207 208Use one space around (on each side of) most binary and ternary operators, 209such as any of these: 210 211 = + - < > * / % | & ^ <= >= == != ? : 212 213but no space after unary operators: 214 & * + - ~ ! sizeof typeof alignof __attribute__ defined 215 216no space before the postfix increment & decrement unary operators: 217 ++ -- 218 219no space after the prefix increment & decrement unary operators: 220 ++ -- 221 222and no space around the '.' and "->" structure member operators. 223 224Do not leave trailing whitespace at the ends of lines. Some editors with 225"smart" indentation will insert whitespace at the beginning of new lines as 226appropriate, so you can start typing the next line of code right away. 227However, some such editors do not remove the whitespace if you end up not 228putting a line of code there, such as if you leave a blank line. As a result, 229you end up with lines containing trailing whitespace. 230 231Git will warn you about patches that introduce trailing whitespace, and can 232optionally strip the trailing whitespace for you; however, if applying a series 233of patches, this may make later patches in the series fail by changing their 234context lines. 235 236 237 Chapter 4: Naming 238 239C is a Spartan language, and so should your naming be. Unlike Modula-2 240and Pascal programmers, C programmers do not use cute names like 241ThisVariableIsATemporaryCounter. A C programmer would call that 242variable "tmp", which is much easier to write, and not the least more 243difficult to understand. 244 245HOWEVER, while mixed-case names are frowned upon, descriptive names for 246global variables are a must. To call a global function "foo" is a 247shooting offense. 248 249GLOBAL variables (to be used only if you _really_ need them) need to 250have descriptive names, as do global functions. If you have a function 251that counts the number of active users, you should call that 252"count_active_users()" or similar, you should _not_ call it "cntusr()". 253 254Encoding the type of a function into the name (so-called Hungarian 255notation) is brain damaged - the compiler knows the types anyway and can 256check those, and it only confuses the programmer. No wonder MicroSoft 257makes buggy programs. 258 259LOCAL variable names should be short, and to the point. If you have 260some random integer loop counter, it should probably be called "i". 261Calling it "loop_counter" is non-productive, if there is no chance of it 262being mis-understood. Similarly, "tmp" can be just about any type of 263variable that is used to hold a temporary value. 264 265If you are afraid to mix up your local variable names, you have another 266problem, which is called the function-growth-hormone-imbalance syndrome. 267See chapter 6 (Functions). 268 269 270 Chapter 5: Typedefs 271 272Please don't use things like "vps_t". 273 274It's a _mistake_ to use typedef for structures and pointers. When you see a 275 276 vps_t a; 277 278in the source, what does it mean? 279 280In contrast, if it says 281 282 struct virtual_container *a; 283 284you can actually tell what "a" is. 285 286Lots of people think that typedefs "help readability". Not so. They are 287useful only for: 288 289 (a) totally opaque objects (where the typedef is actively used to _hide_ 290 what the object is). 291 292 Example: "pte_t" etc. opaque objects that you can only access using 293 the proper accessor functions. 294 295 NOTE! Opaqueness and "accessor functions" are not good in themselves. 296 The reason we have them for things like pte_t etc. is that there 297 really is absolutely _zero_ portably accessible information there. 298 299 (b) Clear integer types, where the abstraction _helps_ avoid confusion 300 whether it is "int" or "long". 301 302 u8/u16/u32 are perfectly fine typedefs, although they fit into 303 category (d) better than here. 304 305 NOTE! Again - there needs to be a _reason_ for this. If something is 306 "unsigned long", then there's no reason to do 307 308 typedef unsigned long myflags_t; 309 310 but if there is a clear reason for why it under certain circumstances 311 might be an "unsigned int" and under other configurations might be 312 "unsigned long", then by all means go ahead and use a typedef. 313 314 (c) when you use sparse to literally create a _new_ type for 315 type-checking. 316 317 (d) New types which are identical to standard C99 types, in certain 318 exceptional circumstances. 319 320 Although it would only take a short amount of time for the eyes and 321 brain to become accustomed to the standard types like 'uint32_t', 322 some people object to their use anyway. 323 324 Therefore, the Linux-specific 'u8/u16/u32/u64' types and their 325 signed equivalents which are identical to standard types are 326 permitted -- although they are not mandatory in new code of your 327 own. 328 329 When editing existing code which already uses one or the other set 330 of types, you should conform to the existing choices in that code. 331 332 (e) Types safe for use in userspace. 333 334 In certain structures which are visible to userspace, we cannot 335 require C99 types and cannot use the 'u32' form above. Thus, we 336 use __u32 and similar types in all structures which are shared 337 with userspace. 338 339Maybe there are other cases too, but the rule should basically be to NEVER 340EVER use a typedef unless you can clearly match one of those rules. 341 342In general, a pointer, or a struct that has elements that can reasonably 343be directly accessed should _never_ be a typedef. 344 345 346 Chapter 6: Functions 347 348Functions should be short and sweet, and do just one thing. They should 349fit on one or two screenfuls of text (the ISO/ANSI screen size is 80x24, 350as we all know), and do one thing and do that well. 351 352The maximum length of a function is inversely proportional to the 353complexity and indentation level of that function. So, if you have a 354conceptually simple function that is just one long (but simple) 355case-statement, where you have to do lots of small things for a lot of 356different cases, it's OK to have a longer function. 357 358However, if you have a complex function, and you suspect that a 359less-than-gifted first-year high-school student might not even 360understand what the function is all about, you should adhere to the 361maximum limits all the more closely. Use helper functions with 362descriptive names (you can ask the compiler to in-line them if you think 363it's performance-critical, and it will probably do a better job of it 364than you would have done). 365 366Another measure of the function is the number of local variables. They 367shouldn't exceed 5-10, or you're doing something wrong. Re-think the 368function, and split it into smaller pieces. A human brain can 369generally easily keep track of about 7 different things, anything more 370and it gets confused. You know you're brilliant, but maybe you'd like 371to understand what you did 2 weeks from now. 372 373In source files, separate functions with one blank line. If the function is 374exported, the EXPORT* macro for it should follow immediately after the closing 375function brace line. E.g.: 376 377int system_is_up(void) 378{ 379 return system_state == SYSTEM_RUNNING; 380} 381EXPORT_SYMBOL(system_is_up); 382 383In function prototypes, include parameter names with their data types. 384Although this is not required by the C language, it is preferred in Linux 385because it is a simple way to add valuable information for the reader. 386 387 388 Chapter 7: Centralized exiting of functions 389 390Albeit deprecated by some people, the equivalent of the goto statement is 391used frequently by compilers in form of the unconditional jump instruction. 392 393The goto statement comes in handy when a function exits from multiple 394locations and some common work such as cleanup has to be done. 395 396The rationale is: 397 398- unconditional statements are easier to understand and follow 399- nesting is reduced 400- errors by not updating individual exit points when making 401 modifications are prevented 402- saves the compiler work to optimize redundant code away ;) 403 404int fun(int a) 405{ 406 int result = 0; 407 char *buffer = kmalloc(SIZE); 408 409 if (buffer == NULL) 410 return -ENOMEM; 411 412 if (condition1) { 413 while (loop1) { 414 ... 415 } 416 result = 1; 417 goto out; 418 } 419 ... 420out: 421 kfree(buffer); 422 return result; 423} 424 425 Chapter 8: Commenting 426 427Comments are good, but there is also a danger of over-commenting. NEVER 428try to explain HOW your code works in a comment: it's much better to 429write the code so that the _working_ is obvious, and it's a waste of 430time to explain badly written code. 431 432Generally, you want your comments to tell WHAT your code does, not HOW. 433Also, try to avoid putting comments inside a function body: if the 434function is so complex that you need to separately comment parts of it, 435you should probably go back to chapter 6 for a while. You can make 436small comments to note or warn about something particularly clever (or 437ugly), but try to avoid excess. Instead, put the comments at the head 438of the function, telling people what it does, and possibly WHY it does 439it. 440 441When commenting the kernel API functions, please use the kernel-doc format. 442See the files Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt and scripts/kernel-doc 443for details. 444 445Linux style for comments is the C89 "/* ... */" style. 446Don't use C99-style "// ..." comments. 447 448The preferred style for long (multi-line) comments is: 449 450 /* 451 * This is the preferred style for multi-line 452 * comments in the Linux kernel source code. 453 * Please use it consistently. 454 * 455 * Description: A column of asterisks on the left side, 456 * with beginning and ending almost-blank lines. 457 */ 458 459It's also important to comment data, whether they are basic types or derived 460types. To this end, use just one data declaration per line (no commas for 461multiple data declarations). This leaves you room for a small comment on each 462item, explaining its use. 463 464 465 Chapter 9: You've made a mess of it 466 467That's OK, we all do. You've probably been told by your long-time Unix 468user helper that "GNU emacs" automatically formats the C sources for 469you, and you've noticed that yes, it does do that, but the defaults it 470uses are less than desirable (in fact, they are worse than random 471typing - an infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never 472make a good program). 473 474So, you can either get rid of GNU emacs, or change it to use saner 475values. To do the latter, you can stick the following in your .emacs file: 476 477(defun c-lineup-arglist-tabs-only (ignored) 478 "Line up argument lists by tabs, not spaces" 479 (let* ((anchor (c-langelem-pos c-syntactic-element)) 480 (column (c-langelem-2nd-pos c-syntactic-element)) 481 (offset (- (1+ column) anchor)) 482 (steps (floor offset c-basic-offset))) 483 (* (max steps 1) 484 c-basic-offset))) 485 486(add-hook 'c-mode-hook 487 (lambda () 488 (let ((filename (buffer-file-name))) 489 ;; Enable kernel mode for the appropriate files 490 (when (and filename 491 (string-match "~/src/linux-trees" filename)) 492 (setq indent-tabs-mode t) 493 (c-set-style "linux") 494 (c-set-offset 'arglist-cont-nonempty 495 '(c-lineup-gcc-asm-reg 496 c-lineup-arglist-tabs-only)))))) 497 498This will make emacs go better with the kernel coding style for C 499files below ~/src/linux-trees. 500 501But even if you fail in getting emacs to do sane formatting, not 502everything is lost: use "indent". 503 504Now, again, GNU indent has the same brain-dead settings that GNU emacs 505has, which is why you need to give it a few command line options. 506However, that's not too bad, because even the makers of GNU indent 507recognize the authority of K&R (the GNU people aren't evil, they are 508just severely misguided in this matter), so you just give indent the 509options "-kr -i8" (stands for "K&R, 8 character indents"), or use 510"scripts/Lindent", which indents in the latest style. 511 512"indent" has a lot of options, and especially when it comes to comment 513re-formatting you may want to take a look at the man page. But 514remember: "indent" is not a fix for bad programming. 515 516 517 Chapter 10: Kconfig configuration files 518 519For all of the Kconfig* configuration files throughout the source tree, 520the indentation is somewhat different. Lines under a "config" definition 521are indented with one tab, while help text is indented an additional two 522spaces. Example: 523 524config AUDIT 525 bool "Auditing support" 526 depends on NET 527 help 528 Enable auditing infrastructure that can be used with another 529 kernel subsystem, such as SELinux (which requires this for 530 logging of avc messages output). Does not do system-call 531 auditing without CONFIG_AUDITSYSCALL. 532 533Features that might still be considered unstable should be defined as 534dependent on "EXPERIMENTAL": 535 536config SLUB 537 depends on EXPERIMENTAL && !ARCH_USES_SLAB_PAGE_STRUCT 538 bool "SLUB (Unqueued Allocator)" 539 ... 540 541while seriously dangerous features (such as write support for certain 542filesystems) should advertise this prominently in their prompt string: 543 544config ADFS_FS_RW 545 bool "ADFS write support (DANGEROUS)" 546 depends on ADFS_FS 547 ... 548 549For full documentation on the configuration files, see the file 550Documentation/kbuild/kconfig-language.txt. 551 552 553 Chapter 11: Data structures 554 555Data structures that have visibility outside the single-threaded 556environment they are created and destroyed in should always have 557reference counts. In the kernel, garbage collection doesn't exist (and 558outside the kernel garbage collection is slow and inefficient), which 559means that you absolutely _have_ to reference count all your uses. 560 561Reference counting means that you can avoid locking, and allows multiple 562users to have access to the data structure in parallel - and not having 563to worry about the structure suddenly going away from under them just 564because they slept or did something else for a while. 565 566Note that locking is _not_ a replacement for reference counting. 567Locking is used to keep data structures coherent, while reference 568counting is a memory management technique. Usually both are needed, and 569they are not to be confused with each other. 570 571Many data structures can indeed have two levels of reference counting, 572when there are users of different "classes". The subclass count counts 573the number of subclass users, and decrements the global count just once 574when the subclass count goes to zero. 575 576Examples of this kind of "multi-level-reference-counting" can be found in 577memory management ("struct mm_struct": mm_users and mm_count), and in 578filesystem code ("struct super_block": s_count and s_active). 579 580Remember: if another thread can find your data structure, and you don't 581have a reference count on it, you almost certainly have a bug. 582 583 584 Chapter 12: Macros, Enums and RTL 585 586Names of macros defining constants and labels in enums are capitalized. 587 588#define CONSTANT 0x12345 589 590Enums are preferred when defining several related constants. 591 592CAPITALIZED macro names are appreciated but macros resembling functions 593may be named in lower case. 594 595Generally, inline functions are preferable to macros resembling functions. 596 597Macros with multiple statements should be enclosed in a do - while block: 598 599#define macrofun(a, b, c) \ 600 do { \ 601 if (a == 5) \ 602 do_this(b, c); \ 603 } while (0) 604 605Things to avoid when using macros: 606 6071) macros that affect control flow: 608 609#define FOO(x) \ 610 do { \ 611 if (blah(x) < 0) \ 612 return -EBUGGERED; \ 613 } while(0) 614 615is a _very_ bad idea. It looks like a function call but exits the "calling" 616function; don't break the internal parsers of those who will read the code. 617 6182) macros that depend on having a local variable with a magic name: 619 620#define FOO(val) bar(index, val) 621 622might look like a good thing, but it's confusing as hell when one reads the 623code and it's prone to breakage from seemingly innocent changes. 624 6253) macros with arguments that are used as l-values: FOO(x) = y; will 626bite you if somebody e.g. turns FOO into an inline function. 627 6284) forgetting about precedence: macros defining constants using expressions 629must enclose the expression in parentheses. Beware of similar issues with 630macros using parameters. 631 632#define CONSTANT 0x4000 633#define CONSTEXP (CONSTANT | 3) 634 635The cpp manual deals with macros exhaustively. The gcc internals manual also 636covers RTL which is used frequently with assembly language in the kernel. 637 638 639 Chapter 13: Printing kernel messages 640 641Kernel developers like to be seen as literate. Do mind the spelling 642of kernel messages to make a good impression. Do not use crippled 643words like "dont"; use "do not" or "don't" instead. Make the messages 644concise, clear, and unambiguous. 645 646Kernel messages do not have to be terminated with a period. 647 648Printing numbers in parentheses (%d) adds no value and should be avoided. 649 650There are a number of driver model diagnostic macros in <linux/device.h> 651which you should use to make sure messages are matched to the right device 652and driver, and are tagged with the right level: dev_err(), dev_warn(), 653dev_info(), and so forth. For messages that aren't associated with a 654particular device, <linux/kernel.h> defines pr_debug() and pr_info(). 655 656Coming up with good debugging messages can be quite a challenge; and once 657you have them, they can be a huge help for remote troubleshooting. Such 658messages should be compiled out when the DEBUG symbol is not defined (that 659is, by default they are not included). When you use dev_dbg() or pr_debug(), 660that's automatic. Many subsystems have Kconfig options to turn on -DDEBUG. 661A related convention uses VERBOSE_DEBUG to add dev_vdbg() messages to the 662ones already enabled by DEBUG. 663 664 665 Chapter 14: Allocating memory 666 667The kernel provides the following general purpose memory allocators: 668kmalloc(), kzalloc(), kcalloc(), and vmalloc(). Please refer to the API 669documentation for further information about them. 670 671The preferred form for passing a size of a struct is the following: 672 673 p = kmalloc(sizeof(*p), ...); 674 675The alternative form where struct name is spelled out hurts readability and 676introduces an opportunity for a bug when the pointer variable type is changed 677but the corresponding sizeof that is passed to a memory allocator is not. 678 679Casting the return value which is a void pointer is redundant. The conversion 680from void pointer to any other pointer type is guaranteed by the C programming 681language. 682 683 684 Chapter 15: The inline disease 685 686There appears to be a common misperception that gcc has a magic "make me 687faster" speedup option called "inline". While the use of inlines can be 688appropriate (for example as a means of replacing macros, see Chapter 12), it 689very often is not. Abundant use of the inline keyword leads to a much bigger 690kernel, which in turn slows the system as a whole down, due to a bigger 691icache footprint for the CPU and simply because there is less memory 692available for the pagecache. Just think about it; a pagecache miss causes a 693disk seek, which easily takes 5 miliseconds. There are a LOT of cpu cycles 694that can go into these 5 miliseconds. 695 696A reasonable rule of thumb is to not put inline at functions that have more 697than 3 lines of code in them. An exception to this rule are the cases where 698a parameter is known to be a compiletime constant, and as a result of this 699constantness you *know* the compiler will be able to optimize most of your 700function away at compile time. For a good example of this later case, see 701the kmalloc() inline function. 702 703Often people argue that adding inline to functions that are static and used 704only once is always a win since there is no space tradeoff. While this is 705technically correct, gcc is capable of inlining these automatically without 706help, and the maintenance issue of removing the inline when a second user 707appears outweighs the potential value of the hint that tells gcc to do 708something it would have done anyway. 709 710 711 Chapter 16: Function return values and names 712 713Functions can return values of many different kinds, and one of the 714most common is a value indicating whether the function succeeded or 715failed. Such a value can be represented as an error-code integer 716(-Exxx = failure, 0 = success) or a "succeeded" boolean (0 = failure, 717non-zero = success). 718 719Mixing up these two sorts of representations is a fertile source of 720difficult-to-find bugs. If the C language included a strong distinction 721between integers and booleans then the compiler would find these mistakes 722for us... but it doesn't. To help prevent such bugs, always follow this 723convention: 724 725 If the name of a function is an action or an imperative command, 726 the function should return an error-code integer. If the name 727 is a predicate, the function should return a "succeeded" boolean. 728 729For example, "add work" is a command, and the add_work() function returns 0 730for success or -EBUSY for failure. In the same way, "PCI device present" is 731a predicate, and the pci_dev_present() function returns 1 if it succeeds in 732finding a matching device or 0 if it doesn't. 733 734All EXPORTed functions must respect this convention, and so should all 735public functions. Private (static) functions need not, but it is 736recommended that they do. 737 738Functions whose return value is the actual result of a computation, rather 739than an indication of whether the computation succeeded, are not subject to 740this rule. Generally they indicate failure by returning some out-of-range 741result. Typical examples would be functions that return pointers; they use 742NULL or the ERR_PTR mechanism to report failure. 743 744 745 Chapter 17: Don't re-invent the kernel macros 746 747The header file include/linux/kernel.h contains a number of macros that 748you should use, rather than explicitly coding some variant of them yourself. 749For example, if you need to calculate the length of an array, take advantage 750of the macro 751 752 #define ARRAY_SIZE(x) (sizeof(x) / sizeof((x)[0])) 753 754Similarly, if you need to calculate the size of some structure member, use 755 756 #define FIELD_SIZEOF(t, f) (sizeof(((t*)0)->f)) 757 758There are also min() and max() macros that do strict type checking if you 759need them. Feel free to peruse that header file to see what else is already 760defined that you shouldn't reproduce in your code. 761 762 763 Chapter 18: Editor modelines and other cruft 764 765Some editors can interpret configuration information embedded in source files, 766indicated with special markers. For example, emacs interprets lines marked 767like this: 768 769-*- mode: c -*- 770 771Or like this: 772 773/* 774Local Variables: 775compile-command: "gcc -DMAGIC_DEBUG_FLAG foo.c" 776End: 777*/ 778 779Vim interprets markers that look like this: 780 781/* vim:set sw=8 noet */ 782 783Do not include any of these in source files. People have their own personal 784editor configurations, and your source files should not override them. This 785includes markers for indentation and mode configuration. People may use their 786own custom mode, or may have some other magic method for making indentation 787work correctly. 788 789 790 791 Appendix I: References 792 793The C Programming Language, Second Edition 794by Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie. 795Prentice Hall, Inc., 1988. 796ISBN 0-13-110362-8 (paperback), 0-13-110370-9 (hardback). 797URL: http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/cbook/ 798 799The Practice of Programming 800by Brian W. Kernighan and Rob Pike. 801Addison-Wesley, Inc., 1999. 802ISBN 0-201-61586-X. 803URL: http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/tpop/ 804 805GNU manuals - where in compliance with K&R and this text - for cpp, gcc, 806gcc internals and indent, all available from http://www.gnu.org/manual/ 807 808WG14 is the international standardization working group for the programming 809language C, URL: http://www.open-std.org/JTC1/SC22/WG14/ 810 811Kernel CodingStyle, by greg@kroah.com at OLS 2002: 812http://www.kroah.com/linux/talks/ols_2002_kernel_codingstyle_talk/html/ 813 814-- 815Last updated on 2007-July-13. 816 817