Re: [PATCH net-next v2 1/6] rust: time: Implement PartialEq and PartialOrd for Ktime

From: Alice Ryhl
Date: Mon Oct 07 2024 - 09:59:38 EST


On Mon, Oct 7, 2024 at 3:16 PM Andrew Lunn <andrew@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On Mon, Oct 07, 2024 at 10:41:23AM +0200, Alice Ryhl wrote:
> > On Mon, Oct 7, 2024 at 7:37 AM FUJITA Tomonori
> > <fujita.tomonori@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > >
> > > On Sun, 06 Oct 2024 12:28:59 +0200
> > > Fiona Behrens <finn@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > >
> > > >> Implement PartialEq and PartialOrd trait for Ktime by using C's
> > > >> ktime_compare function so two Ktime instances can be compared to
> > > >> determine whether a timeout is met or not.
> > > >
> > > > Why is this only PartialEq/PartialOrd? Could we either document why or implement Eq/Ord as well?
> > >
> > > Because what we need to do is comparing two Ktime instances so we
> > > don't need them?
> >
> > When you implement PartialEq without Eq, you are telling the reader
> > that this is a weird type such as floats where there exists values
> > that are not equal to themselves. That's not the case here, so don't
> > confuse the reader by leaving out `Eq`.
>
> This might be one of those areas where there needs to be a difference
> between C and Rust in terms of kernel rules. For C, there would need
> to be a user. Here you seem to be saying the type system needs it, for
> the type to be meaningful, even if there is no user?
>
> Without Eq, would the compiler complain on an == operation, saying it
> is not a valid operation? Is there a clear difference between nobody
> has implemented this yet, vs such an operation is impossible, such as
> your float example?

Think of it this way: I wrote an implementation of something that
works in situations A and B, but I only use it in situation A. Must I
write my program in a way to make it impossible to use it in situation
B? That's how I see this case. Implementing Eq does not involve adding
any new functions.

Alice