Re: [PATCH] gc: remove unused launchctl_get_uid() call

On Thu, Sep 09 2021, Johannes Schindelin wrote:

Hi Ævar,

On Thu, 9 Sep 2021, Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason wrote:

quoted

When the launchctl_boot_plist() function was added in
a16eb6b1ff3 (maintenance: skip bootout/bootstrap when plist is
registered, 2021-08-24), an unused call to launchctl_get_uid() was
added along with it. That call appears to have been copy/pasted from
launchctl_boot_plist().

Since we can remove that, we can also get rid of the "result"
variable, whose only purpose was allow for the free() between its
assignment and the return. That pattern also appears to have been
copy/pasted from launchctl_boot_plist().

I don't find the most crucial information in that commit message: what is
the fall-out of the removal of this call?

Such an analysis (_with_ a summary of it in the commit message) is
definitely required. And it should not be left as an exercise for the
reader.

Do you mean an assurance to the reader that the removed code doesn't
have any side-effects? E.g. an addition of

    As the patch shows the returned value wasn't used at all in this
    function, the launchctl_get_uid() function itself just calls
    xstrfmt() and getuid(), neither of which have any subtle global
    side-effects, so this removal is safe.

?