Re: [PATCH] iio: imu: adis16550: rework clock range test

From: Jonathan Cameron
Date: Wed Jul 02 2025 - 11:38:53 EST


On Wed, 2 Jul 2025 18:17:24 +0300
Andy Shevchenko <andriy.shevchenko@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On Wed, Jul 02, 2025 at 10:07:17AM -0500, David Lechner wrote:
> > On 7/2/25 9:59 AM, Andy Shevchenko wrote:
> > > On Wed, Jul 02, 2025 at 05:53:57PM +0300, Andy Shevchenko wrote:
> > >> On Wed, Jul 02, 2025 at 09:27:45AM -0500, David Lechner wrote:
> > >>> Rework the clock rate range test to test if sync_mode_data != NULL
> > >>> instead of testing if the for loop index variable. This makes it easier
> > >>> for static analyzers to see that we aren't using an uninitialized
> > >>> sync_mode_data [1].
> > >>
> > >> But at the same time it makes it not to be the usual pattern.,,
> > >
> > > Reading the static analyser output I think the first hunk is only what we need,
> > > but this is still false positive and it's problem of that static
> > > analyser. Have you filed a bug there? (My point is that modifying the code for
> > > the advantage of false positives of some static analyser is wrong road to go
> > > in my opinion.)
> >
> > I agree that we shouldn't fix this _only_ to make the static analyzer
> > happy. But I had to think quite a bit harder to see that the existing
> > code was correct compared to what I have proposed here.
> >
> > But if this is a common pattern that I just haven't learned to identify
> > at a glance yet and everybody else can easily see that the existing code
> > is correct, then perhaps it isn't worth the change.
>
> To me checking against index variable (when it's integer, obviously) is correct
> thing to do and regular pattern. OTOH, if the "index" is a pointer and rather
> we call it "iterator", the angle of view is different because in some cases
> it may lead to stale or invalid value which might be mistakenly dereferenced or
> speculated (see more in the discussion about list entry APIs [entry is a
> keyword here] and if list_entry_is_head() is a good approach.)
>

Original code looks fine to me and is a very common pattern. So I'd argue
the static analyzer needs some work.

Jonathan