Thread (13 messages) 13 messages, 6 authors, 2025-02-04

Re: [PATCH net] docs: netdev: Document guidance on inline functions

From: Simon Horman <horms@kernel.org>
Date: 2025-02-04 11:54:14
Also in: linux-doc, workflows

On Mon, Feb 03, 2025 at 08:50:39PM +0100, Mauro Carvalho Chehab wrote:
Em Mon, 03 Feb 2025 08:00:56 -0700
Jonathan Corbet [off-list ref] escreveu:
quoted
Simon Horman [off-list ref] writes:
quoted
Document preference for non inline functions in .c files.
This has been the preference for as long as I can recall
and I was recently surprised to discover that it is undocumented.

Reported-by: Alexandre Ferrieux <redacted>
Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/all/9662e6fe-cc91-4258-aba1-ab5b016a041a@orange.com/ (local)
Signed-off-by: Simon Horman <horms@kernel.org>
---
 Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst | 11 +++++++++++
 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+)
diff --git a/Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst b/Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst
index e497729525d5..1fbb8178b8cd 100644
--- a/Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst
+++ b/Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst
@@ -408,6 +408,17 @@ at a greater cost than the value of such clean-ups.
 
 Conversely, spelling and grammar fixes are not discouraged.
 
+Inline functions
+----------------
+
+The use of static inline functions in .c file is strongly discouraged
As suggested by Andrew Lunn elsewhere in this thread I will drop
"static" from the line above.
quoted
quoted
+unless there is a demonstrable reason for them, usually performance
+related. Rather, it is preferred to omit the inline keyword and allow the
+compiler to inline them as it sees fit.
You should probably point to chapter (12) of Documentation/process/coding-style.rst
where it mentions that inline for function prototypes and as a way to
static  replace macros are OK.
Thanks, perhaps something like this would help:

  Using inline in .h files is fine and is encouraged in place of macros
  [reference section 12].
quoted
quoted
+
+This is a stricter requirement than that of the general Linux Kernel
+:ref:`Coding Style<codingstyle>`  
I have no objection to this change, but I do wonder if it does indeed
belong in the central coding-style document.  I don't think anybody
encourages use of "inline" these days...?
Indeed IMO this belongs to the coding style. I would place it close
to chapter (12) at Documentation/process/coding-style.rst.
Sure, thanks to you and Jonathan for the positive feedback there.
I will prepare a revised patch that updates coding-style.rst instead.
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