On Sat, May 12, 2018 at 05:07:48AM -0400, Jeff King wrote: > So no, it wouldn't work to directly store depths with the code as > written. I'm not sure if the depth can ever be 0. If not, then it would > be a suitable sentinel as: > > int *slot = commit_depth_at(&depths, p->item); > if (!*slot || cur_depth < *slot) > *slot = cur_depth; > > But somebody would have to dig into the possible values of cur_depth > there (which would make sense to do as a separate patch anyway, since > the point of this is to be a direct conversion). By the way, one other approach if xcalloc() doesn't produce a good sentinel is to use a data type that does. ;) E.g., something like this should work: struct depth { unsigned valid:1; int value; }; define_commit_slab(commit_depth, struct depth); ... struct depth *slot = commit_depth_at(&depths, p->item); if (!slot->valid || cur_depth < slot->value) { slot->value = cur_depth; slot->valid = 1; } That wastes an extra 4 bytes per slot over storing an int directly, but it's the same as storing an 8-byte pointer, plus you avoid the storage and runtime overhead of malloc. I actually wonder if we could wrap commit_slab with a variant that stores the sentinel data itself, to make this pattern easier. I.e., something like: #define define_commit_slab_sentinel(name, type) \ struct name##_value { \ unsigned valid:1; \ type value; \ }; \ define_commit_slab(name, struct name##_value) and some matching "peek" and "at" functions to manipulate value directly. I think the end result would be nicer, but it's turning into a little bit of a rabbit hole. So I don't mind going with your direct conversion here for now. -Peff