Re: [PATCH v5 next 00/17] Enhance printf()

[Willy Tarreau]

On Fri, Mar 13, 2026 at 10:40:48PM +0000, David Laight wrote:
> On Fri, 13 Mar 2026 21:07:28 +0100
> Thomas Weißschuh <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> > Hi David,
> > 
> > On 2026-03-08 22:41:21+0000, David Laight wrote:
> > > On Sun, 8 Mar 2026 22:01:19 +0100
> > > Thomas Weißschuh <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:  
> > > > On 2026-03-08 11:37:25+0000, david.laight.linux@xxxxxxxxx wrote:  
> > > > > From: David Laight <david.laight.linux@xxxxxxxxx>
> > > > > David Laight (17):
> > > > >   tools/nolibc: Add _NOLIBC_OPTIMIZER_HIDE_VAR() to compiler.h
> > > > >   selftests/nolibc: Rename w to written in expect_vfprintf()
> > > > >   tools/nolibc: Implement strerror() in terms of strerror_r()
> > > > >   tools/nolibc: Rename the 'errnum' parameter to strerror()
> > > > >   tools/nolibc/printf: Output pad characters in 16 byte chunks
> > > > >   tools/nolibc/printf: Simplify __nolibc_printf()
> > > > >   tools/nolibc/printf: Use goto and reduce indentation
> > > > >   tools/nolibc/printf: Use bit-masks to hold requested flag, length and
> > > > >     conversion chars
> > > > >   tools/nolibc/printf: Add support for length modifiers tzqL and formats
> > > > >     iX
> > > > >   tools/nolibc/printf: Handle "%s" with the numeric formats
> > > > >   tools/nolibc/printf: Prepend sign to converted number
> > > > >   tools/nolibc/printf: Add support for conversion flags space and plus
> > > > >   tools/nolibc/printf: Special case 0 and add support for %#x
> > > > >   tools/nolibc/printf: Add support for left aligning fields
> > > > >   tools/nolibc/printf: Add support for zero padding and field precision
> > > > >   tools/nolibc/printf: Add support for octal output    
> > > > 
> > > > Beginning from here we have another sign-compare warning:
> > > > 
> > > > /home/t-8ch/.cache/crosstools/gcc-13.2.0-nolibc/i386-linux/bin/i386-linux-gcc -Os -fno-ident -fno-asynchronous-unwind-tables -std=c89 -W -Wall -Wextra -fno-stack-protector -Wmissing-prototypes  -fstack-protector-all -mstack-protector-guard=global -fsanitize=undefined -fsanitize-trap=all -m32 -Werror -Wl,--fatal-warnings  -o nolibc-test \
> > > >   -nostdlib -nostdinc -static -Isysroot/i386/include nolibc-test.c nolibc-test-linkage.c -lgcc
> > > > In file included from sysroot/i386/include/nolibc.h:123,
> > > >                  from sysroot/i386/include/stdio.h:8,
> > > >                  from nolibc-test.c:12:
> > > > sysroot/i386/include/stdio.h: In function '__nolibc_printf':
> > > > sysroot/i386/include/stdio.h:569:41: error: comparison of integer expressions of different signedness: 'unsigned int' and 'char' [-Werror=sign-compare]
> > > >   569 |                         if (sign_prefix != *out) {
> > > >       |                                         ^~
> > > > cc1: all warnings being treated as errors
> > > > 
> > > > I have applied all of the patches *before*
> > > > "tools/nolibc/printf: Prepend sign to converted number", which
> > > > introduced the sign_prefix variable.
> > > > 
> > > > Could you fix this up and repost the remaining patches?  
> > > 
> > > I hate 'sign compare' ...
> > > I dislike using casts to 'fix' it - random 'integer' casts have caused me
> > > grief in the past.
> > > I don't want to make 'sign_prefix' signed - stops you adding 4 characters
> > > (should you so desire); not to mention >> being either UB or implementation
> > > defined on signed values (or maybe just negative ones).  
> > 
> > Sorry for the long delay, I missed these mails.
> > 
> > > 
> > > The two obvious fixes are:
> > > 	if (sign_prefix - *out)  
> > 
> > I went with this and applied the rest of the series.
> > Thanks for all your patches!
> 
> Thanks - I hadn't got around to resending them.

Thanks to both of you, I think it's a really nice improvement, and the
final quality was worth the number of round trips.

Willy