Re: [PATCH 2/4] scripts/kernel-doc: avoid error_count overflows

[Jani Nikula]

On Mon, 12 Jan 2026, Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab+huawei@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> The glibc library limits the return code to 8 bits. We need to
> stick to this limit when using sys.exit(error_count).
>
> Signed-off-by: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab+huawei@xxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
>  scripts/kernel-doc.py | 32 ++++++++++++++++++++++----------
>  1 file changed, 22 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/scripts/kernel-doc.py b/scripts/kernel-doc.py
> index 7a1eaf986bcd..600bdfea6a96 100755
> --- a/scripts/kernel-doc.py
> +++ b/scripts/kernel-doc.py
> @@ -176,7 +176,14 @@ class MsgFormatter(logging.Formatter):
>          return logging.Formatter.format(self, record)
>  
>  def main():
> -    """Main program"""
> +    """
> +    Main program
> +    By default, the return value is zero on parsing errors or when the
> +    Python version is not compatible with kernel-doc. The rationale is
> +    to not break Linux compilation on such cases.
> +    If -Werror is used, it will return the number of parse errors, up to
> +    255 errors, as this is the maximum value allowed by glibc.
> +    """
>  
>      parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(formatter_class=argparse.RawTextHelpFormatter,
>                                       description=DESC)
> @@ -321,18 +328,23 @@ def main():
>      if not error_count:
>          sys.exit(0)
>  
> +    if args.verbose:
> +        print("%s errors" % error_count)                # pylint: disable=C0209
> +
> +
>      if args.werror:
>          print("%s warnings as errors" % error_count)    # pylint: disable=C0209
> +
> +        #
> +        # Return code is 8-bits, as seen at:
> +        #   https://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/Exit-Status.html
> +        # Truncate to avoid overflow
> +        #
> +        if error_count > 255:
> +            error_count = 255

What's the point in returning the error count anyway?

I'd rather see some error/warning classification in the exit code than a
count. Like, the argparser uses exit code 2 by default, so you can't
even trust the exit code to return the count anyway.

BR,
Jani.

> +
>          sys.exit(error_count)
> -
> -    if args.verbose:
> -        print("%s errors" % error_count)                # pylint: disable=C0209
> -
> -    if args.none:
> -        sys.exit(0)
> -
> -    sys.exit(error_count)
> -
> +    sys.exit(0)
>  
>  # Call main method
>  if __name__ == "__main__":

-- 
Jani Nikula, Intel