2 Linux kernel coding style
4 This is a short document describing the preferred coding style for the
5 linux kernel. Coding style is very personal, and I won't _force_ my
6 views on anybody, but this is what goes for anything that I have to be
7 able to maintain, and I'd prefer it for most other things too. Please
8 at least consider the points made here.
10 First off, I'd suggest printing out a copy of the GNU coding standards,
11 and NOT read it. Burn them, it's a great symbolic gesture.
16 Chapter 1: Indentation
18 Tabs are 8 characters, and thus indentations are also 8 characters.
19 There are heretic movements that try to make indentations 4 (or even 2!)
20 characters deep, and that is akin to trying to define the value of PI to
23 Rationale: The whole idea behind indentation is to clearly define where
24 a block of control starts and ends. Especially when you've been looking
25 at your screen for 20 straight hours, you'll find it a lot easier to see
26 how the indentation works if you have large indentations.
28 Now, some people will claim that having 8-character indentations makes
29 the code move too far to the right, and makes it hard to read on a
30 80-character terminal screen. The answer to that is that if you need
31 more than 3 levels of indentation, you're screwed anyway, and should fix
34 In short, 8-char indents make things easier to read, and have the added
35 benefit of warning you when you're nesting your functions too deep.
38 The preferred way to ease multiple indentation levels in a switch statement is
39 to align the "switch" and its subordinate "case" labels in the same column
40 instead of "double-indenting" the "case" labels. E.g.:
60 Don't put multiple statements on a single line unless you have
63 if (condition) do_this;
64 do_something_everytime;
66 Don't put multiple assignments on a single line either. Kernel coding style
67 is super simple. Avoid tricky expressions.
69 Outside of comments, documentation and except in Kconfig, spaces are never
70 used for indentation, and the above example is deliberately broken.
72 Get a decent editor and don't leave whitespace at the end of lines.
75 Chapter 2: Breaking long lines and strings
77 Coding style is all about readability and maintainability using commonly
80 The limit on the length of lines is 80 columns and this is a strongly
83 Statements longer than 80 columns will be broken into sensible chunks, unless
84 exceeding 80 columns significantly increases readability and does not hide
85 information. Descendants are always substantially shorter than the parent and
86 are placed substantially to the right. The same applies to function headers
87 with a long argument list. However, never break user-visible strings such as
88 printk messages, because that breaks the ability to grep for them.
91 Chapter 3: Placing Braces and Spaces
93 The other issue that always comes up in C styling is the placement of
94 braces. Unlike the indent size, there are few technical reasons to
95 choose one placement strategy over the other, but the preferred way, as
96 shown to us by the prophets Kernighan and Ritchie, is to put the opening
97 brace last on the line, and put the closing brace first, thusly:
103 This applies to all non-function statement blocks (if, switch, for,
117 However, there is one special case, namely functions: they have the
118 opening brace at the beginning of the next line, thus:
125 Heretic people all over the world have claimed that this inconsistency
126 is ... well ... inconsistent, but all right-thinking people know that
127 (a) K&R are _right_ and (b) K&R are right. Besides, functions are
128 special anyway (you can't nest them in C).
130 Note that the closing brace is empty on a line of its own, _except_ in
131 the cases where it is followed by a continuation of the same statement,
132 ie a "while" in a do-statement or an "else" in an if-statement, like
151 Also, note that this brace-placement also minimizes the number of empty
152 (or almost empty) lines, without any loss of readability. Thus, as the
153 supply of new-lines on your screen is not a renewable resource (think
154 25-line terminal screens here), you have more empty lines to put
157 Do not unnecessarily use braces where a single statement will do.
169 This does not apply if only one branch of a conditional statement is a single
170 statement; in the latter case use braces in both branches:
181 Linux kernel style for use of spaces depends (mostly) on
182 function-versus-keyword usage. Use a space after (most) keywords. The
183 notable exceptions are sizeof, typeof, alignof, and __attribute__, which look
184 somewhat like functions (and are usually used with parentheses in Linux,
185 although they are not required in the language, as in: "sizeof info" after
186 "struct fileinfo info;" is declared).
188 So use a space after these keywords:
189 if, switch, case, for, do, while
190 but not with sizeof, typeof, alignof, or __attribute__. E.g.,
191 s = sizeof(struct file);
193 Do not add spaces around (inside) parenthesized expressions. This example is
196 s = sizeof( struct file );
198 When declaring pointer data or a function that returns a pointer type, the
199 preferred use of '*' is adjacent to the data name or function name and not
200 adjacent to the type name. Examples:
203 unsigned long long memparse(char *ptr, char **retptr);
204 char *match_strdup(substring_t *s);
206 Use one space around (on each side of) most binary and ternary operators,
207 such as any of these:
209 = + - < > * / % | & ^ <= >= == != ? :
211 but no space after unary operators:
212 & * + - ~ ! sizeof typeof alignof __attribute__ defined
214 no space before the postfix increment & decrement unary operators:
217 no space after the prefix increment & decrement unary operators:
220 and no space around the '.' and "->" structure member operators.
222 Do not leave trailing whitespace at the ends of lines. Some editors with
223 "smart" indentation will insert whitespace at the beginning of new lines as
224 appropriate, so you can start typing the next line of code right away.
225 However, some such editors do not remove the whitespace if you end up not
226 putting a line of code there, such as if you leave a blank line. As a result,
227 you end up with lines containing trailing whitespace.
229 Git will warn you about patches that introduce trailing whitespace, and can
230 optionally strip the trailing whitespace for you; however, if applying a series
231 of patches, this may make later patches in the series fail by changing their
237 C is a Spartan language, and so should your naming be. Unlike Modula-2
238 and Pascal programmers, C programmers do not use cute names like
239 ThisVariableIsATemporaryCounter. A C programmer would call that
240 variable "tmp", which is much easier to write, and not the least more
241 difficult to understand.
243 HOWEVER, while mixed-case names are frowned upon, descriptive names for
244 global variables are a must. To call a global function "foo" is a
247 GLOBAL variables (to be used only if you _really_ need them) need to
248 have descriptive names, as do global functions. If you have a function
249 that counts the number of active users, you should call that
250 "count_active_users()" or similar, you should _not_ call it "cntusr()".
252 Encoding the type of a function into the name (so-called Hungarian
253 notation) is brain damaged - the compiler knows the types anyway and can
254 check those, and it only confuses the programmer. No wonder MicroSoft
255 makes buggy programs.
257 LOCAL variable names should be short, and to the point. If you have
258 some random integer loop counter, it should probably be called "i".
259 Calling it "loop_counter" is non-productive, if there is no chance of it
260 being mis-understood. Similarly, "tmp" can be just about any type of
261 variable that is used to hold a temporary value.
263 If you are afraid to mix up your local variable names, you have another
264 problem, which is called the function-growth-hormone-imbalance syndrome.
265 See chapter 6 (Functions).
270 Please don't use things like "vps_t".
272 It's a _mistake_ to use typedef for structures and pointers. When you see a
276 in the source, what does it mean?
278 In contrast, if it says
280 struct virtual_container *a;
282 you can actually tell what "a" is.
284 Lots of people think that typedefs "help readability". Not so. They are
287 (a) totally opaque objects (where the typedef is actively used to _hide_
290 Example: "pte_t" etc. opaque objects that you can only access using
291 the proper accessor functions.
293 NOTE! Opaqueness and "accessor functions" are not good in themselves.
294 The reason we have them for things like pte_t etc. is that there
295 really is absolutely _zero_ portably accessible information there.
297 (b) Clear integer types, where the abstraction _helps_ avoid confusion
298 whether it is "int" or "long".
300 u8/u16/u32 are perfectly fine typedefs, although they fit into
301 category (d) better than here.
303 NOTE! Again - there needs to be a _reason_ for this. If something is
304 "unsigned long", then there's no reason to do
306 typedef unsigned long myflags_t;
308 but if there is a clear reason for why it under certain circumstances
309 might be an "unsigned int" and under other configurations might be
310 "unsigned long", then by all means go ahead and use a typedef.
312 (c) when you use sparse to literally create a _new_ type for
315 (d) New types which are identical to standard C99 types, in certain
316 exceptional circumstances.
318 Although it would only take a short amount of time for the eyes and
319 brain to become accustomed to the standard types like 'uint32_t',
320 some people object to their use anyway.
322 Therefore, the Linux-specific 'u8/u16/u32/u64' types and their
323 signed equivalents which are identical to standard types are
324 permitted -- although they are not mandatory in new code of your
327 When editing existing code which already uses one or the other set
328 of types, you should conform to the existing choices in that code.
330 (e) Types safe for use in userspace.
332 In certain structures which are visible to userspace, we cannot
333 require C99 types and cannot use the 'u32' form above. Thus, we
334 use __u32 and similar types in all structures which are shared
337 Maybe there are other cases too, but the rule should basically be to NEVER
338 EVER use a typedef unless you can clearly match one of those rules.
340 In general, a pointer, or a struct that has elements that can reasonably
341 be directly accessed should _never_ be a typedef.
346 Functions should be short and sweet, and do just one thing. They should
347 fit on one or two screenfuls of text (the ISO/ANSI screen size is 80x24,
348 as we all know), and do one thing and do that well.
350 The maximum length of a function is inversely proportional to the
351 complexity and indentation level of that function. So, if you have a
352 conceptually simple function that is just one long (but simple)
353 case-statement, where you have to do lots of small things for a lot of
354 different cases, it's OK to have a longer function.
356 However, if you have a complex function, and you suspect that a
357 less-than-gifted first-year high-school student might not even
358 understand what the function is all about, you should adhere to the
359 maximum limits all the more closely. Use helper functions with
360 descriptive names (you can ask the compiler to in-line them if you think
361 it's performance-critical, and it will probably do a better job of it
362 than you would have done).
364 Another measure of the function is the number of local variables. They
365 shouldn't exceed 5-10, or you're doing something wrong. Re-think the
366 function, and split it into smaller pieces. A human brain can
367 generally easily keep track of about 7 different things, anything more
368 and it gets confused. You know you're brilliant, but maybe you'd like
369 to understand what you did 2 weeks from now.
371 In source files, separate functions with one blank line. If the function is
372 exported, the EXPORT* macro for it should follow immediately after the closing
373 function brace line. E.g.:
375 int system_is_up(void)
377 return system_state == SYSTEM_RUNNING;
379 EXPORT_SYMBOL(system_is_up);
381 In function prototypes, include parameter names with their data types.
382 Although this is not required by the C language, it is preferred in Linux
383 because it is a simple way to add valuable information for the reader.
386 Chapter 7: Centralized exiting of functions
388 Albeit deprecated by some people, the equivalent of the goto statement is
389 used frequently by compilers in form of the unconditional jump instruction.
391 The goto statement comes in handy when a function exits from multiple
392 locations and some common work such as cleanup has to be done. If there is no
393 cleanup needed then just return directly.
395 Choose label names which say what the goto does or why the goto exists. An
396 example of a good name could be "out_buffer:" if the goto frees "buffer". Avoid
397 using GW-BASIC names like "err1:" and "err2:". Also don't name them after the
398 goto location like "err_kmalloc_failed:"
400 The rationale for using gotos is:
402 - unconditional statements are easier to understand and follow
404 - errors by not updating individual exit points when making
405 modifications are prevented
406 - saves the compiler work to optimize redundant code away ;)
413 buffer = kmalloc(SIZE, GFP_KERNEL);
430 A common type of bug to be aware of it "one err bugs" which look like this:
437 The bug in this code is that on some exit paths "foo" is NULL. Normally the
438 fix for this is to split it up into two error labels "err_bar:" and "err_foo:".
441 Chapter 8: Commenting
443 Comments are good, but there is also a danger of over-commenting. NEVER
444 try to explain HOW your code works in a comment: it's much better to
445 write the code so that the _working_ is obvious, and it's a waste of
446 time to explain badly written code.
448 Generally, you want your comments to tell WHAT your code does, not HOW.
449 Also, try to avoid putting comments inside a function body: if the
450 function is so complex that you need to separately comment parts of it,
451 you should probably go back to chapter 6 for a while. You can make
452 small comments to note or warn about something particularly clever (or
453 ugly), but try to avoid excess. Instead, put the comments at the head
454 of the function, telling people what it does, and possibly WHY it does
457 When commenting the kernel API functions, please use the kernel-doc format.
458 See the files Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt and scripts/kernel-doc
461 Linux style for comments is the C89 "/* ... */" style.
462 Don't use C99-style "// ..." comments.
464 The preferred style for long (multi-line) comments is:
467 * This is the preferred style for multi-line
468 * comments in the Linux kernel source code.
469 * Please use it consistently.
471 * Description: A column of asterisks on the left side,
472 * with beginning and ending almost-blank lines.
475 For files in net/ and drivers/net/ the preferred style for long (multi-line)
476 comments is a little different.
478 /* The preferred comment style for files in net/ and drivers/net
481 * It is nearly the same as the generally preferred comment style,
482 * but there is no initial almost-blank line.
485 It's also important to comment data, whether they are basic types or derived
486 types. To this end, use just one data declaration per line (no commas for
487 multiple data declarations). This leaves you room for a small comment on each
488 item, explaining its use.
491 Chapter 9: You've made a mess of it
493 That's OK, we all do. You've probably been told by your long-time Unix
494 user helper that "GNU emacs" automatically formats the C sources for
495 you, and you've noticed that yes, it does do that, but the defaults it
496 uses are less than desirable (in fact, they are worse than random
497 typing - an infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never
498 make a good program).
500 So, you can either get rid of GNU emacs, or change it to use saner
501 values. To do the latter, you can stick the following in your .emacs file:
503 (defun c-lineup-arglist-tabs-only (ignored)
504 "Line up argument lists by tabs, not spaces"
505 (let* ((anchor (c-langelem-pos c-syntactic-element))
506 (column (c-langelem-2nd-pos c-syntactic-element))
507 (offset (- (1+ column) anchor))
508 (steps (floor offset c-basic-offset)))
512 (add-hook 'c-mode-common-hook
517 '("linux" (c-offsets-alist
518 (arglist-cont-nonempty
520 c-lineup-arglist-tabs-only))))))
522 (add-hook 'c-mode-hook
524 (let ((filename (buffer-file-name)))
525 ;; Enable kernel mode for the appropriate files
527 (string-match (expand-file-name "~/src/linux-trees")
529 (setq indent-tabs-mode t)
530 (setq show-trailing-whitespace t)
531 (c-set-style "linux-tabs-only")))))
533 This will make emacs go better with the kernel coding style for C
534 files below ~/src/linux-trees.
536 But even if you fail in getting emacs to do sane formatting, not
537 everything is lost: use "indent".
539 Now, again, GNU indent has the same brain-dead settings that GNU emacs
540 has, which is why you need to give it a few command line options.
541 However, that's not too bad, because even the makers of GNU indent
542 recognize the authority of K&R (the GNU people aren't evil, they are
543 just severely misguided in this matter), so you just give indent the
544 options "-kr -i8" (stands for "K&R, 8 character indents"), or use
545 "scripts/Lindent", which indents in the latest style.
547 "indent" has a lot of options, and especially when it comes to comment
548 re-formatting you may want to take a look at the man page. But
549 remember: "indent" is not a fix for bad programming.
552 Chapter 10: Kconfig configuration files
554 For all of the Kconfig* configuration files throughout the source tree,
555 the indentation is somewhat different. Lines under a "config" definition
556 are indented with one tab, while help text is indented an additional two
560 bool "Auditing support"
563 Enable auditing infrastructure that can be used with another
564 kernel subsystem, such as SELinux (which requires this for
565 logging of avc messages output). Does not do system-call
566 auditing without CONFIG_AUDITSYSCALL.
568 Seriously dangerous features (such as write support for certain
569 filesystems) should advertise this prominently in their prompt string:
572 bool "ADFS write support (DANGEROUS)"
576 For full documentation on the configuration files, see the file
577 Documentation/kbuild/kconfig-language.txt.
580 Chapter 11: Data structures
582 Data structures that have visibility outside the single-threaded
583 environment they are created and destroyed in should always have
584 reference counts. In the kernel, garbage collection doesn't exist (and
585 outside the kernel garbage collection is slow and inefficient), which
586 means that you absolutely _have_ to reference count all your uses.
588 Reference counting means that you can avoid locking, and allows multiple
589 users to have access to the data structure in parallel - and not having
590 to worry about the structure suddenly going away from under them just
591 because they slept or did something else for a while.
593 Note that locking is _not_ a replacement for reference counting.
594 Locking is used to keep data structures coherent, while reference
595 counting is a memory management technique. Usually both are needed, and
596 they are not to be confused with each other.
598 Many data structures can indeed have two levels of reference counting,
599 when there are users of different "classes". The subclass count counts
600 the number of subclass users, and decrements the global count just once
601 when the subclass count goes to zero.
603 Examples of this kind of "multi-level-reference-counting" can be found in
604 memory management ("struct mm_struct": mm_users and mm_count), and in
605 filesystem code ("struct super_block": s_count and s_active).
607 Remember: if another thread can find your data structure, and you don't
608 have a reference count on it, you almost certainly have a bug.
611 Chapter 12: Macros, Enums and RTL
613 Names of macros defining constants and labels in enums are capitalized.
615 #define CONSTANT 0x12345
617 Enums are preferred when defining several related constants.
619 CAPITALIZED macro names are appreciated but macros resembling functions
620 may be named in lower case.
622 Generally, inline functions are preferable to macros resembling functions.
624 Macros with multiple statements should be enclosed in a do - while block:
626 #define macrofun(a, b, c) \
632 Things to avoid when using macros:
634 1) macros that affect control flow:
642 is a _very_ bad idea. It looks like a function call but exits the "calling"
643 function; don't break the internal parsers of those who will read the code.
645 2) macros that depend on having a local variable with a magic name:
647 #define FOO(val) bar(index, val)
649 might look like a good thing, but it's confusing as hell when one reads the
650 code and it's prone to breakage from seemingly innocent changes.
652 3) macros with arguments that are used as l-values: FOO(x) = y; will
653 bite you if somebody e.g. turns FOO into an inline function.
655 4) forgetting about precedence: macros defining constants using expressions
656 must enclose the expression in parentheses. Beware of similar issues with
657 macros using parameters.
659 #define CONSTANT 0x4000
660 #define CONSTEXP (CONSTANT | 3)
662 5) namespace collisions when defining local variables in macros resembling
672 ret is a common name for a local variable - __foo_ret is less likely
673 to collide with an existing variable.
675 The cpp manual deals with macros exhaustively. The gcc internals manual also
676 covers RTL which is used frequently with assembly language in the kernel.
679 Chapter 13: Printing kernel messages
681 Kernel developers like to be seen as literate. Do mind the spelling
682 of kernel messages to make a good impression. Do not use crippled
683 words like "dont"; use "do not" or "don't" instead. Make the messages
684 concise, clear, and unambiguous.
686 Kernel messages do not have to be terminated with a period.
688 Printing numbers in parentheses (%d) adds no value and should be avoided.
690 There are a number of driver model diagnostic macros in <linux/device.h>
691 which you should use to make sure messages are matched to the right device
692 and driver, and are tagged with the right level: dev_err(), dev_warn(),
693 dev_info(), and so forth. For messages that aren't associated with a
694 particular device, <linux/printk.h> defines pr_notice(), pr_info(),
695 pr_warn(), pr_err(), etc.
697 Coming up with good debugging messages can be quite a challenge; and once
698 you have them, they can be a huge help for remote troubleshooting. However
699 debug message printing is handled differently than printing other non-debug
700 messages. While the other pr_XXX() functions print unconditionally,
701 pr_debug() does not; it is compiled out by default, unless either DEBUG is
702 defined or CONFIG_DYNAMIC_DEBUG is set. That is true for dev_dbg() also,
703 and a related convention uses VERBOSE_DEBUG to add dev_vdbg() messages to
704 the ones already enabled by DEBUG.
706 Many subsystems have Kconfig debug options to turn on -DDEBUG in the
707 corresponding Makefile; in other cases specific files #define DEBUG. And
708 when a debug message should be unconditionally printed, such as if it is
709 already inside a debug-related #ifdef section, printk(KERN_DEBUG ...) can be
713 Chapter 14: Allocating memory
715 The kernel provides the following general purpose memory allocators:
716 kmalloc(), kzalloc(), kmalloc_array(), kcalloc(), vmalloc(), and
717 vzalloc(). Please refer to the API documentation for further information
720 The preferred form for passing a size of a struct is the following:
722 p = kmalloc(sizeof(*p), ...);
724 The alternative form where struct name is spelled out hurts readability and
725 introduces an opportunity for a bug when the pointer variable type is changed
726 but the corresponding sizeof that is passed to a memory allocator is not.
728 Casting the return value which is a void pointer is redundant. The conversion
729 from void pointer to any other pointer type is guaranteed by the C programming
732 The preferred form for allocating an array is the following:
734 p = kmalloc_array(n, sizeof(...), ...);
736 The preferred form for allocating a zeroed array is the following:
738 p = kcalloc(n, sizeof(...), ...);
740 Both forms check for overflow on the allocation size n * sizeof(...),
741 and return NULL if that occurred.
744 Chapter 15: The inline disease
746 There appears to be a common misperception that gcc has a magic "make me
747 faster" speedup option called "inline". While the use of inlines can be
748 appropriate (for example as a means of replacing macros, see Chapter 12), it
749 very often is not. Abundant use of the inline keyword leads to a much bigger
750 kernel, which in turn slows the system as a whole down, due to a bigger
751 icache footprint for the CPU and simply because there is less memory
752 available for the pagecache. Just think about it; a pagecache miss causes a
753 disk seek, which easily takes 5 milliseconds. There are a LOT of cpu cycles
754 that can go into these 5 milliseconds.
756 A reasonable rule of thumb is to not put inline at functions that have more
757 than 3 lines of code in them. An exception to this rule are the cases where
758 a parameter is known to be a compiletime constant, and as a result of this
759 constantness you *know* the compiler will be able to optimize most of your
760 function away at compile time. For a good example of this later case, see
761 the kmalloc() inline function.
763 Often people argue that adding inline to functions that are static and used
764 only once is always a win since there is no space tradeoff. While this is
765 technically correct, gcc is capable of inlining these automatically without
766 help, and the maintenance issue of removing the inline when a second user
767 appears outweighs the potential value of the hint that tells gcc to do
768 something it would have done anyway.
771 Chapter 16: Function return values and names
773 Functions can return values of many different kinds, and one of the
774 most common is a value indicating whether the function succeeded or
775 failed. Such a value can be represented as an error-code integer
776 (-Exxx = failure, 0 = success) or a "succeeded" boolean (0 = failure,
779 Mixing up these two sorts of representations is a fertile source of
780 difficult-to-find bugs. If the C language included a strong distinction
781 between integers and booleans then the compiler would find these mistakes
782 for us... but it doesn't. To help prevent such bugs, always follow this
785 If the name of a function is an action or an imperative command,
786 the function should return an error-code integer. If the name
787 is a predicate, the function should return a "succeeded" boolean.
789 For example, "add work" is a command, and the add_work() function returns 0
790 for success or -EBUSY for failure. In the same way, "PCI device present" is
791 a predicate, and the pci_dev_present() function returns 1 if it succeeds in
792 finding a matching device or 0 if it doesn't.
794 All EXPORTed functions must respect this convention, and so should all
795 public functions. Private (static) functions need not, but it is
796 recommended that they do.
798 Functions whose return value is the actual result of a computation, rather
799 than an indication of whether the computation succeeded, are not subject to
800 this rule. Generally they indicate failure by returning some out-of-range
801 result. Typical examples would be functions that return pointers; they use
802 NULL or the ERR_PTR mechanism to report failure.
805 Chapter 17: Don't re-invent the kernel macros
807 The header file include/linux/kernel.h contains a number of macros that
808 you should use, rather than explicitly coding some variant of them yourself.
809 For example, if you need to calculate the length of an array, take advantage
812 #define ARRAY_SIZE(x) (sizeof(x) / sizeof((x)[0]))
814 Similarly, if you need to calculate the size of some structure member, use
816 #define FIELD_SIZEOF(t, f) (sizeof(((t*)0)->f))
818 There are also min() and max() macros that do strict type checking if you
819 need them. Feel free to peruse that header file to see what else is already
820 defined that you shouldn't reproduce in your code.
823 Chapter 18: Editor modelines and other cruft
825 Some editors can interpret configuration information embedded in source files,
826 indicated with special markers. For example, emacs interprets lines marked
835 compile-command: "gcc -DMAGIC_DEBUG_FLAG foo.c"
839 Vim interprets markers that look like this:
841 /* vim:set sw=8 noet */
843 Do not include any of these in source files. People have their own personal
844 editor configurations, and your source files should not override them. This
845 includes markers for indentation and mode configuration. People may use their
846 own custom mode, or may have some other magic method for making indentation
850 Chapter 19: Inline assembly
852 In architecture-specific code, you may need to use inline assembly to interface
853 with CPU or platform functionality. Don't hesitate to do so when necessary.
854 However, don't use inline assembly gratuitously when C can do the job. You can
855 and should poke hardware from C when possible.
857 Consider writing simple helper functions that wrap common bits of inline
858 assembly, rather than repeatedly writing them with slight variations. Remember
859 that inline assembly can use C parameters.
861 Large, non-trivial assembly functions should go in .S files, with corresponding
862 C prototypes defined in C header files. The C prototypes for assembly
863 functions should use "asmlinkage".
865 You may need to mark your asm statement as volatile, to prevent GCC from
866 removing it if GCC doesn't notice any side effects. You don't always need to
867 do so, though, and doing so unnecessarily can limit optimization.
869 When writing a single inline assembly statement containing multiple
870 instructions, put each instruction on a separate line in a separate quoted
871 string, and end each string except the last with \n\t to properly indent the
872 next instruction in the assembly output:
874 asm ("magic %reg1, #42\n\t"
875 "more_magic %reg2, %reg3"
876 : /* outputs */ : /* inputs */ : /* clobbers */);
879 Chapter 20: Conditional Compilation
881 Wherever possible, don't use preprocessor conditionals (#if, #ifdef) in .c
882 files; doing so makes code harder to read and logic harder to follow. Instead,
883 use such conditionals in a header file defining functions for use in those .c
884 files, providing no-op stub versions in the #else case, and then call those
885 functions unconditionally from .c files. The compiler will avoid generating
886 any code for the stub calls, producing identical results, but the logic will
887 remain easy to follow.
889 Prefer to compile out entire functions, rather than portions of functions or
890 portions of expressions. Rather than putting an ifdef in an expression, factor
891 out part or all of the expression into a separate helper function and apply the
892 conditional to that function.
894 If you have a function or variable which may potentially go unused in a
895 particular configuration, and the compiler would warn about its definition
896 going unused, mark the definition as __maybe_unused rather than wrapping it in
897 a preprocessor conditional. (However, if a function or variable *always* goes
900 Within code, where possible, use the IS_ENABLED macro to convert a Kconfig
901 symbol into a C boolean expression, and use it in a normal C conditional:
903 if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_SOMETHING)) {
907 The compiler will constant-fold the conditional away, and include or exclude
908 the block of code just as with an #ifdef, so this will not add any runtime
909 overhead. However, this approach still allows the C compiler to see the code
910 inside the block, and check it for correctness (syntax, types, symbol
911 references, etc). Thus, you still have to use an #ifdef if the code inside the
912 block references symbols that will not exist if the condition is not met.
914 At the end of any non-trivial #if or #ifdef block (more than a few lines),
915 place a comment after the #endif on the same line, noting the conditional
916 expression used. For instance:
918 #ifdef CONFIG_SOMETHING
920 #endif /* CONFIG_SOMETHING */
923 Appendix I: References
925 The C Programming Language, Second Edition
926 by Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie.
927 Prentice Hall, Inc., 1988.
928 ISBN 0-13-110362-8 (paperback), 0-13-110370-9 (hardback).
929 URL: http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/cbook/
931 The Practice of Programming
932 by Brian W. Kernighan and Rob Pike.
933 Addison-Wesley, Inc., 1999.
935 URL: http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/tpop/
937 GNU manuals - where in compliance with K&R and this text - for cpp, gcc,
938 gcc internals and indent, all available from http://www.gnu.org/manual/
940 WG14 is the international standardization working group for the programming
941 language C, URL: http://www.open-std.org/JTC1/SC22/WG14/
943 Kernel CodingStyle, by greg@kroah.com at OLS 2002:
944 http://www.kroah.com/linux/talks/ols_2002_kernel_codingstyle_talk/html/