Am 13.07.19 um 12:44 schrieb Johannes Sixt: > Am 12.07.19 um 18:44 schrieb Junio C Hamano: >> Johannes Sixt <j6t@xxxxxxxx> writes: >> >>> Am 12.07.19 um 00:03 schrieb Ramsay Jones: >>>> diff --git a/range-diff.c b/range-diff.c >>>> index ba1e9a4265..0f24a4ad12 100644 >>>> --- a/range-diff.c >>>> +++ b/range-diff.c >>>> @@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ static int read_patches(const char *range, struct string_list *list) >>>> } >>>> >>>> if (starts_with(line, "diff --git")) { >>>> - struct patch patch = { 0 }; >>>> + struct patch patch = { NULL }; >>> >>> There is nothing wrong with 0 here. IMHO, zero-initialization should >>> *always* be written as = { 0 } and nothing else. Changing 0 to NULL to >>> pacify sparse encourages a wrong style. >> >> Hmm, care to elaborate a bit? Certainly, we have a clear preference >> between these two: >> >> struct patch patch; >> patch.new_name = 0; >> patch.new_name = NULL; >> >> where the "char *new_name" field is the first one in the structure. >> We always try to write the latter, even though we know they ought to >> be equivalent to the language lawyers. > > I'm not questioning this case; the latter form is clearly preferable. > > Using only = { 0 } for zero-initialization makes the code immune to > rearrangements of the struct members. That is not the case with = { NULL > } because it requires that the first member is a pointer; if > rearrangement makes the first member a non-pointer, the initializations > must be adjusted. > > On the other hand, I'm not arguing that > > struct string_list dup_it = { NULL, 0, 0, 1, NULL }; > > should be written as > > struct string_list dup_it = { 0, 0, 0, 1, 0 }; > > I'm only complaining about the single-initializer = { 0 } "please Of course, I'm not "complaining about" it; I'm "arguing for" it... > initialize this whole struct with zero values" form. > >> Is the reason why you say 0 is fine here because we consider >> >> struct patch patch, *dpatch; >> memset(&patch, 0, sizeof(patch)); >> dpatch = xcalloc(1, sizeof(patch)); >> >> are perfectly good way to trivially iniitialize an instance of the >> struct? > > Absolutely not. Both forms are evildoing as far as struct initialization > is concerned because they ignore the types of the members. The memset > form should always be replaced by = { 0 }. The correct replacement for > the xcalloc form would be > > struct patch zero = { 0 }; > struct patch *dpatch = xmalloc(sizeof(*dpatch)); > *dpatch = zero; > > but I do understand that this transformation is unacceptably verbose. > >> Do we want to talk to sparse folks about this? > > I've no idea which camp they are in. How would they respond to an > exceptional case that is also very much a matter of taste? > > -- Hannes >