Re: [PATCH v3] Documentation/process/coding-style.rst: space around const

[Guenter Roeck]

On Tue, Oct 10, 2023 at 02:58:31PM +0200, Max Kellermann wrote:
> There are currently no rules on the placement of "const", but a recent
> code submission revealed that there is clearly a preference for spaces
> around it.
> 
> checkpatch.pl has no check at all for this; though it does sometimes
> complain, but only because it erroneously thinks that the "*" (on
> local variables) is an unary dereference operator, not a pointer type.
> 
> Current coding style for const pointers-to-pointers:
> 
>  "*const*": 2 occurrences
>  "* const*": 3
>  "*const *": 182
>  "* const *": 681
> 
> Just const pointers:
> 
>  "*const": 2833 occurrences
>  "* const": 16615
> 
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/264fa39d-aed6-4a54-a085-107997078f8d@xxxxxxxxxxxx/
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/f511170fe61d7e7214a3a062661cf4103980dad6.camel@xxxxxxxxxxx/
> Signed-off-by: Max Kellermann <max.kellermann@xxxxxxxxx>

Reviewed-by: Guenter Roeck <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

> ---
> V1 -> V2: removed "volatile" on gregkh's request.
> V2 -> V3: moved patch changelog below the "---" line
> ---
>  Documentation/process/coding-style.rst | 11 +++++++++++
>  1 file changed, 11 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/process/coding-style.rst b/Documentation/process/coding-style.rst
> index 6db37a46d305..71d62d81e506 100644
> --- a/Documentation/process/coding-style.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/process/coding-style.rst
> @@ -271,6 +271,17 @@ adjacent to the type name.  Examples:
>  	unsigned long long memparse(char *ptr, char **retptr);
>  	char *match_strdup(substring_t *s);
>  
> +Use space around the ``const`` keyword (except when adjacent to
> +parentheses).  Example:
> +
> +.. code-block:: c
> +
> +	const void *a;
> +	void * const b;
> +	void ** const c;
> +	void * const * const d;
> +	int strcmp(const char *a, const char *b);
> +
>  Use one space around (on each side of) most binary and ternary operators,
>  such as any of these::
>  
> -- 
> 2.39.2
>