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-common-hook 487 (lambda () 488 ;; Add kernel style 489 (c-add-style 490 "linux-tabs-only" 491 '("linux" (c-offsets-alist 492 (arglist-cont-nonempty 493 c-lineup-gcc-asm-reg 494 c-lineup-arglist-tabs-only)))))) 495 496(add-hook 'c-mode-hook 497 (lambda () 498 (let ((filename (buffer-file-name))) 499 ;; Enable kernel mode for the appropriate files 500 (when (and filename 501 (string-match (expand-file-name "~/src/linux-trees") 502 filename)) 503 (setq indent-tabs-mode t) 504 (c-set-style "linux-tabs-only"))))) 505 506This will make emacs go better with the kernel coding style for C 507files below ~/src/linux-trees. 508 509But even if you fail in getting emacs to do sane formatting, not 510everything is lost: use "indent". 511 512Now, again, GNU indent has the same brain-dead settings that GNU emacs 513has, which is why you need to give it a few command line options. 514However, that's not too bad, because even the makers of GNU indent 515recognize the authority of K&R (the GNU people aren't evil, they are 516just severely misguided in this matter), so you just give indent the 517options "-kr -i8" (stands for "K&R, 8 character indents"), or use 518"scripts/Lindent", which indents in the latest style. 519 520"indent" has a lot of options, and especially when it comes to comment 521re-formatting you may want to take a look at the man page. But 522remember: "indent" is not a fix for bad programming. 523 524 525 Chapter 10: Kconfig configuration files 526 527For all of the Kconfig* configuration files throughout the source tree, 528the indentation is somewhat different. Lines under a "config" definition 529are indented with one tab, while help text is indented an additional two 530spaces. Example: 531 532config AUDIT 533 bool "Auditing support" 534 depends on NET 535 help 536 Enable auditing infrastructure that can be used with another 537 kernel subsystem, such as SELinux (which requires this for 538 logging of avc messages output). Does not do system-call 539 auditing without CONFIG_AUDITSYSCALL. 540 541Features that might still be considered unstable should be defined as 542dependent on "EXPERIMENTAL": 543 544config SLUB 545 depends on EXPERIMENTAL && !ARCH_USES_SLAB_PAGE_STRUCT 546 bool "SLUB (Unqueued Allocator)" 547 ... 548 549while seriously dangerous features (such as write support for certain 550filesystems) should advertise this prominently in their prompt string: 551 552config ADFS_FS_RW 553 bool "ADFS write support (DANGEROUS)" 554 depends on ADFS_FS 555 ... 556 557For full documentation on the configuration files, see the file 558Documentation/kbuild/kconfig-language.txt. 559 560 561 Chapter 11: Data structures 562 563Data structures that have visibility outside the single-threaded 564environment they are created and destroyed in should always have 565reference counts. In the kernel, garbage collection doesn't exist (and 566outside the kernel garbage collection is slow and inefficient), which 567means that you absolutely _have_ to reference count all your uses. 568 569Reference counting means that you can avoid locking, and allows multiple 570users to have access to the data structure in parallel - and not having 571to worry about the structure suddenly going away from under them just 572because they slept or did something else for a while. 573 574Note that locking is _not_ a replacement for reference counting. 575Locking is used to keep data structures coherent, while reference 576counting is a memory management technique. Usually both are needed, and 577they are not to be confused with each other. 578 579Many data structures can indeed have two levels of reference counting, 580when there are users of different "classes". The subclass count counts 581the number of subclass users, and decrements the global count just once 582when the subclass count goes to zero. 583 584Examples of this kind of "multi-level-reference-counting" can be found in 585memory management ("struct mm_struct": mm_users and mm_count), and in 586filesystem code ("struct super_block": s_count and s_active). 587 588Remember: if another thread can find your data structure, and you don't 589have a reference count on it, you almost certainly have a bug. 590 591 592 Chapter 12: Macros, Enums and RTL 593 594Names of macros defining constants and labels in enums are capitalized. 595 596#define CONSTANT 0x12345 597 598Enums are preferred when defining several related constants. 599 600CAPITALIZED macro names are appreciated but macros resembling functions 601may be named in lower case. 602 603Generally, inline functions are preferable to macros resembling functions. 604 605Macros with multiple statements should be enclosed in a do - while block: 606 607#define macrofun(a, b, c) \ 608 do { \ 609 if (a == 5) \ 610 do_this(b, c); \ 611 } while (0) 612 613Things to avoid when using macros: 614 6151) macros that affect control flow: 616 617#define FOO(x) \ 618 do { \ 619 if (blah(x) < 0) \ 620 return -EBUGGERED; \ 621 } while(0) 622 623is a _very_ bad idea. It looks like a function call but exits the "calling" 624function; don't break the internal parsers of those who will read the code. 625 6262) macros that depend on having a local variable with a magic name: 627 628#define FOO(val) bar(index, val) 629 630might look like a good thing, but it's confusing as hell when one reads the 631code and it's prone to breakage from seemingly innocent changes. 632 6333) macros with arguments that are used as l-values: FOO(x) = y; will 634bite you if somebody e.g. turns FOO into an inline function. 635 6364) forgetting about precedence: macros defining constants using expressions 637must enclose the expression in parentheses. Beware of similar issues with 638macros using parameters. 639 640#define CONSTANT 0x4000 641#define CONSTEXP (CONSTANT | 3) 642 643The cpp manual deals with macros exhaustively. The gcc internals manual also 644covers RTL which is used frequently with assembly language in the kernel. 645 646 647 Chapter 13: Printing kernel messages 648 649Kernel developers like to be seen as literate. Do mind the spelling 650of kernel messages to make a good impression. Do not use crippled 651words like "dont"; use "do not" or "don't" instead. Make the messages 652concise, clear, and unambiguous. 653 654Kernel messages do not have to be terminated with a period. 655 656Printing numbers in parentheses (%d) adds no value and should be avoided. 657 658There are a number of driver model diagnostic macros in <linux/device.h> 659which you should use to make sure messages are matched to the right device 660and driver, and are tagged with the right level: dev_err(), dev_warn(), 661dev_info(), and so forth. For messages that aren't associated with a 662particular device, <linux/kernel.h> defines pr_debug() and pr_info(). 663 664Coming up with good debugging messages can be quite a challenge; and once 665you have them, they can be a huge help for remote troubleshooting. Such 666messages should be compiled out when the DEBUG symbol is not defined (that 667is, by default they are not included). When you use dev_dbg() or pr_debug(), 668that's automatic. Many subsystems have Kconfig options to turn on -DDEBUG. 669A related convention uses VERBOSE_DEBUG to add dev_vdbg() messages to the 670ones already enabled by DEBUG. 671 672 673 Chapter 14: Allocating memory 674 675The kernel provides the following general purpose memory allocators: 676kmalloc(), kzalloc(), kcalloc(), and vmalloc(). Please refer to the API 677documentation for further information about them. 678 679The preferred form for passing a size of a struct is the following: 680 681 p = kmalloc(sizeof(*p), ...); 682 683The alternative form where struct name is spelled out hurts readability and 684introduces an opportunity for a bug when the pointer variable type is changed 685but the corresponding sizeof that is passed to a memory allocator is not. 686 687Casting the return value which is a void pointer is redundant. The conversion 688from void pointer to any other pointer type is guaranteed by the C programming 689language. 690 691 692 Chapter 15: The inline disease 693 694There appears to be a common misperception that gcc has a magic "make me 695faster" speedup option called "inline". While the use of inlines can be 696appropriate (for example as a means of replacing macros, see Chapter 12), it 697very often is not. Abundant use of the inline keyword leads to a much bigger 698kernel, which in turn slows the system as a whole down, due to a bigger 699icache footprint for the CPU and simply because there is less memory 700available for the pagecache. Just think about it; a pagecache miss causes a 701disk seek, which easily takes 5 milliseconds. There are a LOT of cpu cycles 702that can go into these 5 milliseconds. 703 704A reasonable rule of thumb is to not put inline at functions that have more 705than 3 lines of code in them. An exception to this rule are the cases where 706a parameter is known to be a compiletime constant, and as a result of this 707constantness you *know* the compiler will be able to optimize most of your 708function away at compile time. For a good example of this later case, see 709the kmalloc() inline function. 710 711Often people argue that adding inline to functions that are static and used 712only once is always a win since there is no space tradeoff. While this is 713technically correct, gcc is capable of inlining these automatically without 714help, and the maintenance issue of removing the inline when a second user 715appears outweighs the potential value of the hint that tells gcc to do 716something it would have done anyway. 717 718 719 Chapter 16: Function return values and names 720 721Functions can return values of many different kinds, and one of the 722most common is a value indicating whether the function succeeded or 723failed. Such a value can be represented as an error-code integer 724(-Exxx = failure, 0 = success) or a "succeeded" boolean (0 = failure, 725non-zero = success). 726 727Mixing up these two sorts of representations is a fertile source of 728difficult-to-find bugs. If the C language included a strong distinction 729between integers and booleans then the compiler would find these mistakes 730for us... but it doesn't. To help prevent such bugs, always follow this 731convention: 732 733 If the name of a function is an action or an imperative command, 734 the function should return an error-code integer. If the name 735 is a predicate, the function should return a "succeeded" boolean. 736 737For example, "add work" is a command, and the add_work() function returns 0 738for success or -EBUSY for failure. In the same way, "PCI device present" is 739a predicate, and the pci_dev_present() function returns 1 if it succeeds in 740finding a matching device or 0 if it doesn't. 741 742All EXPORTed functions must respect this convention, and so should all 743public functions. Private (static) functions need not, but it is 744recommended that they do. 745 746Functions whose return value is the actual result of a computation, rather 747than an indication of whether the computation succeeded, are not subject to 748this rule. Generally they indicate failure by returning some out-of-range 749result. Typical examples would be functions that return pointers; they use 750NULL or the ERR_PTR mechanism to report failure. 751 752 753 Chapter 17: Don't re-invent the kernel macros 754 755The header file include/linux/kernel.h contains a number of macros that 756you should use, rather than explicitly coding some variant of them yourself. 757For example, if you need to calculate the length of an array, take advantage 758of the macro 759 760 #define ARRAY_SIZE(x) (sizeof(x) / sizeof((x)[0])) 761 762Similarly, if you need to calculate the size of some structure member, use 763 764 #define FIELD_SIZEOF(t, f) (sizeof(((t*)0)->f)) 765 766There are also min() and max() macros that do strict type checking if you 767need them. Feel free to peruse that header file to see what else is already 768defined that you shouldn't reproduce in your code. 769 770 771 Chapter 18: Editor modelines and other cruft 772 773Some editors can interpret configuration information embedded in source files, 774indicated with special markers. For example, emacs interprets lines marked 775like this: 776 777-*- mode: c -*- 778 779Or like this: 780 781/* 782Local Variables: 783compile-command: "gcc -DMAGIC_DEBUG_FLAG foo.c" 784End: 785*/ 786 787Vim interprets markers that look like this: 788 789/* vim:set sw=8 noet */ 790 791Do not include any of these in source files. People have their own personal 792editor configurations, and your source files should not override them. This 793includes markers for indentation and mode configuration. People may use their 794own custom mode, or may have some other magic method for making indentation 795work correctly. 796 797 798 799 Appendix I: References 800 801The C Programming Language, Second Edition 802by Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie. 803Prentice Hall, Inc., 1988. 804ISBN 0-13-110362-8 (paperback), 0-13-110370-9 (hardback). 805URL: http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/cbook/ 806 807The Practice of Programming 808by Brian W. Kernighan and Rob Pike. 809Addison-Wesley, Inc., 1999. 810ISBN 0-201-61586-X. 811URL: http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/tpop/ 812 813GNU manuals - where in compliance with K&R and this text - for cpp, gcc, 814gcc internals and indent, all available from http://www.gnu.org/manual/ 815 816WG14 is the international standardization working group for the programming 817language C, URL: http://www.open-std.org/JTC1/SC22/WG14/ 818 819Kernel CodingStyle, by greg@kroah.com at OLS 2002: 820http://www.kroah.com/linux/talks/ols_2002_kernel_codingstyle_talk/html/ 821 822-- 823Last updated on 2007-July-13. 824 825