[dpdk-dev] [PATCH] checkpatch: re-enable warnings about split long strings

[Bruce Richardson]

On Mon, Oct 02, 2017 at 01:53:17PM +0200, Adrien Mazarguil wrote:
> Hi Stephen,
> 
> On Fri, Sep 29, 2017 at 08:37:49AM -0700, Stephen Hemminger wrote:
> > The Linux kernel style policy about strings is that strings should
> > be always put on one line. This makes sense since a typical use case
> > is for a user to type the error message into a search engine or
> > grep, and it won't be found if split across lines.  This patch just
> > re-enables that check.
> > 
> > Yes, lots of DPDK code now splits strings, that doesn't make it
> > right.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Stephen Hemminger <sthemmin at microsoft.com> ---
> > devtools/checkpatches.sh | 1 - 1 file changed, 1 deletion(-)
> > 
> > diff --git a/devtools/checkpatches.sh b/devtools/checkpatches.sh
> > index a56c41a301c0..3e6081dd673e 100755 ---
> > a/devtools/checkpatches.sh +++ b/devtools/checkpatches.sh @@ -44,7
> > +44,6 @@ options="$options --show-types" options="$options
> > --ignore=LINUX_VERSION_CODE,FILE_PATH_CHANGES,\
> > VOLATILE,PREFER_PACKED,PREFER_ALIGNED,PREFER_PRINTF,\
> > PREFER_KERNEL_TYPES,BIT_MACRO,CONST_STRUCT,\
> > -SPLIT_STRING,LONG_LINE_STRING,\
> > LINE_SPACING,PARENTHESIS_ALIGNMENT,NETWORKING_BLOCK_COMMENT_STYLE,\
> > NEW_TYPEDEFS,COMPARISON_TO_NULL"
> 
> I'm not sure, given that the main reason for splitting strings in the
> first place is to avoid LONG_LINE_STRING warnings, I think we must
> choose between the two options. If split strings are not allowed, then
> long lines must be.
> 
> Since checkpatches.sh is used by various automated scripts to complain
> loudly about problems in submissions, the above change prevents
> maintainers from writing long string at all (can't split and can't go
> past 80 columns).
> 
> As a result, they will be tempted to cripple their code with nasty
> workarounds to shut up checkpatches.sh, we don't want that to happen.
> 
> Also I think the reasons stated by original commit cf75514c8e2e are
> still relevant. My vote would be to keep things as is.
> 
In my experience, checkpatch is smart enough to recognise when a long
line overflows the 80 character limit because of a single long string,
so the two options are not mutually exclusive. In other words, long
lines are not allowed except in the case where shortening the line
involves splitting a string. There may be a small amount of work in
getting checkpatch happy, i.e. by putting the string on a line on it's
own, but we can indeed have our cake and eat it too in this case.

/Bruce