This is a note to let you know that I've just added the patch titled
minmax.h: update some comments
to the 6.1-stable tree which can be found at:
http://www.kernel.org/git/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/stable-queue.git;a=summary
The filename of the patch is:
minmax.h-update-some-comments.patch
and it can be found in the queue-6.1 subdirectory.
If you, or anyone else, feels it should not be added to the stable tree,
please let <[email protected]> know about it.
>From [email protected] Fri Oct 3 14:18:49
>2025
From: Eliav Farber <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2025 12:15:15 +0000
Subject: minmax.h: update some comments
To: <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>,
<[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>,
<[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>,
<[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>,
<[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>,
<[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>,
<[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>,
<[email protected]>, <[email protected]>,
<[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>,
<[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>,
<[email protected]>, <[email protected]>,
<[email protected]>, <[email protected]>,
<[email protected]>, <[email protected]>,
<[email protected]>, <[email protected]>,
<[email protected]>, <stable@vger.
kernel.org>, <[email protected]>
Cc: Arnd Bergmann <[email protected]>, Christoph Hellwig <[email protected]>,
Dan Carpenter <[email protected]>, "Jason A. Donenfeld"
<[email protected]>, Jens Axboe <[email protected]>, Lorenzo Stoakes
<[email protected]>, Mateusz Guzik <[email protected]>, "Matthew
Wilcox" <[email protected]>, Pedro Falcato <[email protected]>
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
From: David Laight <[email protected]>
[ Upstream commit 10666e99204818ef45c702469488353b5bb09ec7 ]
- Change three to several.
- Remove the comment about retaining constant expressions, no longer true.
- Realign to nearer 80 columns and break on major punctiation.
- Add a leading comment to the block before __signed_type() and __is_nonneg()
Otherwise the block explaining the cast is a bit 'floating'.
Reword the rest of that comment to improve readability.
Link:
https://lkml.kernel.org/r/[email protected]
Signed-off-by: David Laight <[email protected]>
Cc: Andy Shevchenko <[email protected]>
Cc: Arnd Bergmann <[email protected]>
Cc: Christoph Hellwig <[email protected]>
Cc: Dan Carpenter <[email protected]>
Cc: Jason A. Donenfeld <[email protected]>
Cc: Jens Axboe <[email protected]>
Cc: Lorenzo Stoakes <[email protected]>
Cc: Mateusz Guzik <[email protected]>
Cc: Matthew Wilcox <[email protected]>
Cc: Pedro Falcato <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Eliav Farber <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <[email protected]>
---
include/linux/minmax.h | 61 ++++++++++++++++++++++---------------------------
1 file changed, 28 insertions(+), 33 deletions(-)
--- a/include/linux/minmax.h
+++ b/include/linux/minmax.h
@@ -8,13 +8,10 @@
#include <linux/types.h>
/*
- * min()/max()/clamp() macros must accomplish three things:
+ * min()/max()/clamp() macros must accomplish several things:
*
* - Avoid multiple evaluations of the arguments (so side-effects like
* "x++" happen only once) when non-constant.
- * - Retain result as a constant expressions when called with only
- * constant expressions (to avoid tripping VLA warnings in stack
- * allocation usage).
* - Perform signed v unsigned type-checking (to generate compile
* errors instead of nasty runtime surprises).
* - Unsigned char/short are always promoted to signed int and can be
@@ -31,25 +28,23 @@
* bit #0 set if ok for unsigned comparisons
* bit #1 set if ok for signed comparisons
*
- * In particular, statically non-negative signed integer
- * expressions are ok for both.
+ * In particular, statically non-negative signed integer expressions
+ * are ok for both.
*
- * NOTE! Unsigned types smaller than 'int' are implicitly
- * converted to 'int' in expressions, and are accepted for
- * signed conversions for now. This is debatable.
- *
- * Note that 'x' is the original expression, and 'ux' is
- * the unique variable that contains the value.
- *
- * We use 'ux' for pure type checking, and 'x' for when
- * we need to look at the value (but without evaluating
- * it for side effects! Careful to only ever evaluate it
- * with sizeof() or __builtin_constant_p() etc).
- *
- * Pointers end up being checked by the normal C type
- * rules at the actual comparison, and these expressions
- * only need to be careful to not cause warnings for
- * pointer use.
+ * NOTE! Unsigned types smaller than 'int' are implicitly converted to 'int'
+ * in expressions, and are accepted for signed conversions for now.
+ * This is debatable.
+ *
+ * Note that 'x' is the original expression, and 'ux' is the unique variable
+ * that contains the value.
+ *
+ * We use 'ux' for pure type checking, and 'x' for when we need to look at the
+ * value (but without evaluating it for side effects!
+ * Careful to only ever evaluate it with sizeof() or __builtin_constant_p()
etc).
+ *
+ * Pointers end up being checked by the normal C type rules at the actual
+ * comparison, and these expressions only need to be careful to not cause
+ * warnings for pointer use.
*/
#define __signed_type_use(x, ux) (2 + __is_nonneg(x, ux))
#define __unsigned_type_use(x, ux) (1 + 2 * (sizeof(ux) < 4))
@@ -57,19 +52,19 @@
__signed_type_use(x, ux) : __unsigned_type_use(x, ux))
/*
- * To avoid warnings about casting pointers to integers
- * of different sizes, we need that special sign type.
+ * Check whether a signed value is always non-negative.
*
- * On 64-bit we can just always use 'long', since any
- * integer or pointer type can just be cast to that.
+ * A cast is needed to avoid any warnings from values that aren't signed
+ * integer types (in which case the result doesn't matter).
*
- * This does not work for 128-bit signed integers since
- * the cast would truncate them, but we do not use s128
- * types in the kernel (we do use 'u128', but they will
- * be handled by the !is_signed_type() case).
- *
- * NOTE! The cast is there only to avoid any warnings
- * from when values that aren't signed integer types.
+ * On 64-bit any integer or pointer type can safely be cast to 'long'.
+ * But on 32-bit we need to avoid warnings about casting pointers to integers
+ * of different sizes without truncating 64-bit values so 'long' or 'long long'
+ * must be used depending on the size of the value.
+ *
+ * This does not work for 128-bit signed integers since the cast would truncate
+ * them, but we do not use s128 types in the kernel (we do use 'u128',
+ * but they are handled by the !is_signed_type() case).
*/
#ifdef CONFIG_64BIT
#define __signed_type(ux) long
Patches currently in stable-queue which might be from [email protected] are
queue-6.1/minmax-improve-macro-expansion-and-type-checking.patch
queue-6.1/minmax.h-simplify-the-variants-of-clamp.patch
queue-6.1/minmax.h-move-all-the-clamp-definitions-after-the-min-max-ones.patch
queue-6.1/minmax-don-t-use-max-in-situations-that-want-a-c-constant-expression.patch
queue-6.1/minmax.h-remove-some-defines-that-are-only-expanded-once.patch
queue-6.1/minmax.h-use-build_bug_on_msg-for-the-lo-hi-test-in-clamp.patch
queue-6.1/minmax-simplify-min-max-clamp-implementation.patch
queue-6.1/minmax.h-add-whitespace-around-operators-and-after-commas.patch
queue-6.1/minmax-fix-up-min3-and-max3-too.patch
queue-6.1/minmax.h-reduce-the-define-expansion-of-min-max-and-clamp.patch
queue-6.1/minmax.h-update-some-comments.patch
