Re: [PATCH] no need to check for NULL before calling kfree() -fs/ext2/

From: Jan Engelhardt
Date: Sun Mar 27 2005 - 10:13:58 EST


>Just looking at the third run, it seems to me that "if (likely(p))
>kfree(p);" beats a naked "kfree(p);" everytime, whether p is half
>NULL's, or very few NULL's, or almost all NULL's.

Well, kfree inlined was already mentioned but forgotten again.
What if this was used:

inline static void kfree_WRAP(void *addr) {
if(likely(addr != NULL)) {
kfree_real(addr);
}
return;
}

And remove the NULL-test in kfree_real()? Then we would have:

test eax, eax
jz afterwards;
<some more stuff for call>
call kfree_real;
.afterwards:
<continue execution>

The two cases then:
ptr==NULL: test-jmp
ptr!=NULL: test-call(freeit-return)

Looks like the least expensive way to me.


Jan Engelhardt
--
No TOFU for me, please.
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/