Re: [peterz-queue:sched/core 13/19] kernel/sched/fair.c:892:34: warning: variable 'stats' set but not used

From: Peter Zijlstra
Date: Sat Sep 11 2021 - 18:34:05 EST


On Sat, Sep 11, 2021 at 04:30:41PM -0500, Segher Boessenkool wrote:
> Hi!
>
> On Sat, Sep 11, 2021 at 02:20:49PM +0200, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> > On Sat, Sep 11, 2021 at 02:21:26AM +0800, kernel test robot wrote:
> > > compiler: m68k-linux-gcc (GCC) 11.2.0
> >
> > > kernel/sched/fair.c: In function 'update_curr':
> > > kernel/sched/fair.c:860:42: warning: unused variable 'stats' [-Wunused-variable]
> > > 860 | struct sched_statistics *stats = __schedstats_from_se(curr);
> > > | ^~~~~
> >
> > OK, compiler guys, this code reads like:
> >
> > #define schedstats_enabled() (0)
> > #define __schedstat_set(x, y) do { } while (0)
> >
> >
> > if (schedstats_enabled()) {
> > struct sched_statistics *stats = __schedstats_from_se(curr);
> >
> > __schedstat_set(stats->exec_max,
> > max(delta_exec, stats->exec_max));
> > }
> >
> > So yes, we initialize a variable that then isn't used, but the whole
> > bloody thing is inside if (0) which will not ever get ran *anyway*.
> >
> > This is a crap warning if ever I saw one...
>
> Yes, we really should warn "do not use a preprocessor macro if what you
> want is a function"? The variable really *is* unused, with this macro.

Why would I want to write a bunch of one-off functions and preprocessor
guard them? That's going to be a mess.

> If we would remove dead code before warning about unused variables
> there would be many *more* false positives, fwiw.

Not if you also remove any variables declared in dead code and all
variables only used in the dead code.