Re: [PATCH v2] printk: Fix preferred console selection with multiple matches

From: Sergey Senozhatsky
Date: Mon Jan 06 2020 - 00:15:14 EST


On (19/12/20 10:11), Petr Mladek wrote:
[..]
> > > > +enum con_match {
> > > > + con_matched,
> > > > + con_matched_preferred,
> > > > + con_braille,
> > > > + con_failed,
> > > > + con_no_match,
> > > > +};
> > >
> > > Please, replace this with int, where:
> > >
> > > + con_matched -> 0
> > > + con_matched_preferred -> 0 and make "has_preferred" global variable
> > > + con_braile -> 0 later check for CON_BRL flag
> > > + con_failed -> -EFAULT
> > > + con_no_match -> -ENOENT
> >
> > Not fan of using -EFAULT here, it's a detail since it's rather kernel
> > internal, but I'd rather use -ENXIO for no match and -EIO for failed
> > (or pass the original error code up if any). That said it's really bike
> > shed painting at this point :-)
>
> Sigh, either variant is somehow confusing.
>
> I think that -ENOENT is a bit better than -EIO. It is abbreviation of
> "No entry or No entity" which quite fits here. Also the device might
> exist but it is not used when not requested.

Can we please keep the enum? Enum is super self-descriptive, can't
get any better. Any other alternative - be it -EFAULT or -EIO or
-ENOENT - would force one to always look at what is actually going
on in try_match_new_console() and what particular errno means. None
of those errnos fit, they make things cryptic. IMHO.

-ss