Re: [PATCH] s390: kernel: no need to check return value of debugfs_create functions

From: Heiko Carstens
Date: Tue Jan 22 2019 - 11:25:08 EST


On Tue, Jan 22, 2019 at 04:21:02PM +0100, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> When calling debugfs functions, there is no need to ever check the
> return value. The function can work or not, but the code logic should
> never do something different based on this.
>
> Cc: Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Heiko Carstens <heiko.carstens@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Kees Cook <keescook@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Christian Borntraeger <borntraeger@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Hendrik Brueckner <brueckner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: linux-s390@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> arch/s390/kernel/debug.c | 6 ------
> arch/s390/kernel/kdebugfs.c | 2 --
> arch/s390/kernel/sysinfo.c | 2 --
> 3 files changed, 10 deletions(-)
> diff --git a/arch/s390/kernel/sysinfo.c b/arch/s390/kernel/sysinfo.c
> index 12f80d1f0415..2ac3c9b56a13 100644
> --- a/arch/s390/kernel/sysinfo.c
> +++ b/arch/s390/kernel/sysinfo.c
> @@ -545,8 +545,6 @@ static __init int stsi_init_debugfs(void)
> int lvl, i;
>
> stsi_root = debugfs_create_dir("stsi", arch_debugfs_dir);
> - if (IS_ERR_OR_NULL(stsi_root))
> - return 0;

No objections, however will you also change the odd behaviour that
e.g. debugfs_create_file() returns -ENODEV instead of (the expected)
NULL pointer if CONFIG_DEBUGFS is disabled?

I do remember this since it caused at least one crash ;)

19cdd08ba155 ("[S390] qdio: fix broken pointer in case of CONFIG_DEBUG_FS is disabled").