On Thu, Dec 13, 2018 at 03:20:52PM -0800, Ivan Delalande wrote: > @@ -474,7 +474,7 @@ static struct inode *proc_sys_make_inode(struct super_block *sb, > if (unlikely(head->unregistering)) { > spin_unlock(&sysctl_lock); > iput(inode); > - inode = NULL; > + inode = ERR_PTR(-ENOENT); > goto out; > } Applied, with one modification: if you look at the target of that goto, you'll see out: return inode; so this place should be simply spin_unlock(&sysctl_lock); iput(inode); return ERR_PTR(-ENOENT); } That way the label becomes unused and goes away.