[PATCH 0/2] retire bcmp, a redundant wrapper around memcmp

From: Mateusz Guzik
Date: Sat Nov 23 2024 - 04:47:48 EST


Reasoning copied from patch 2:
> While architectures could override it thanks to __HAVE_ARCH_BCMP, none
> of them did. Instead it was implemented as a call to memcmp().

> These routines differ in the API contract: memcmp()'s result indicates
> which way the difference goes (making it usable for sorting), whereas
> bcmp()'s result merely states whether the buffers differ in any way.

> This means that a dedicated optimized bcmp() is cheaper to execute than
> memcmp() for differing buffers as there is no need to compute the return
> value.

> However, per the above nobody bothered to write one and it is unclear if
> it makes sense to do it.

> Users which really want to compare stuff may want to handle it
> differently (like e.g., the path lookup).

Mateusz Guzik (2):
x86/callthunks: s/bcmp/memcmp/
string: retire bcmp()

arch/x86/boot/string.c | 8 --------
arch/x86/boot/string.h | 1 -
arch/x86/kernel/callthunks.c | 6 +++---
include/linux/string.h | 3 ---
lib/Makefile | 3 +--
lib/string.c | 19 -------------------
6 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 36 deletions(-)

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2.43.0