| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 1 |  | 
 | 2 | 		Linux kernel coding style | 
 | 3 |  | 
 | 4 | This is a short document describing the preferred coding style for the | 
 | 5 | linux kernel.  Coding style is very personal, and I won't _force_ my | 
 | 6 | views on anybody, but this is what goes for anything that I have to be | 
 | 7 | able to maintain, and I'd prefer it for most other things too.  Please | 
 | 8 | at least consider the points made here. | 
 | 9 |  | 
 | 10 | First off, I'd suggest printing out a copy of the GNU coding standards, | 
 | 11 | and NOT read it.  Burn them, it's a great symbolic gesture. | 
 | 12 |  | 
 | 13 | Anyway, here goes: | 
 | 14 |  | 
 | 15 |  | 
 | 16 | 	 	Chapter 1: Indentation | 
 | 17 |  | 
 | 18 | Tabs are 8 characters, and thus indentations are also 8 characters. | 
 | 19 | There are heretic movements that try to make indentations 4 (or even 2!) | 
 | 20 | characters deep, and that is akin to trying to define the value of PI to | 
 | 21 | be 3. | 
 | 22 |  | 
 | 23 | Rationale: The whole idea behind indentation is to clearly define where | 
 | 24 | a block of control starts and ends.  Especially when you've been looking | 
 | 25 | at your screen for 20 straight hours, you'll find it a lot easier to see | 
 | 26 | how the indentation works if you have large indentations. | 
 | 27 |  | 
 | 28 | Now, some people will claim that having 8-character indentations makes | 
 | 29 | the code move too far to the right, and makes it hard to read on a | 
 | 30 | 80-character terminal screen.  The answer to that is that if you need | 
 | 31 | more than 3 levels of indentation, you're screwed anyway, and should fix | 
 | 32 | your program. | 
 | 33 |  | 
 | 34 | In short, 8-char indents make things easier to read, and have the added | 
 | 35 | benefit of warning you when you're nesting your functions too deep. | 
 | 36 | Heed that warning. | 
 | 37 |  | 
| Randy Dunlap | b3fc994 | 2006-12-10 02:18:56 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 38 | The preferred way to ease multiple indentation levels in a switch statement is | 
 | 39 | to align the "switch" and its subordinate "case" labels in the same column | 
 | 40 | instead of "double-indenting" the "case" labels.  E.g.: | 
 | 41 |  | 
 | 42 | 	switch (suffix) { | 
 | 43 | 	case 'G': | 
 | 44 | 	case 'g': | 
 | 45 | 		mem <<= 30; | 
 | 46 | 		break; | 
 | 47 | 	case 'M': | 
 | 48 | 	case 'm': | 
 | 49 | 		mem <<= 20; | 
 | 50 | 		break; | 
 | 51 | 	case 'K': | 
 | 52 | 	case 'k': | 
 | 53 | 		mem <<= 10; | 
 | 54 | 		/* fall through */ | 
 | 55 | 	default: | 
 | 56 | 		break; | 
 | 57 | 	} | 
 | 58 |  | 
 | 59 |  | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 60 | Don't put multiple statements on a single line unless you have | 
 | 61 | something to hide: | 
 | 62 |  | 
 | 63 | 	if (condition) do_this; | 
 | 64 | 	  do_something_everytime; | 
 | 65 |  | 
| Randy Dunlap | b3fc994 | 2006-12-10 02:18:56 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 66 | Don't put multiple assignments on a single line either.  Kernel coding style | 
 | 67 | is super simple.  Avoid tricky expressions. | 
 | 68 |  | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 69 | Outside of comments, documentation and except in Kconfig, spaces are never | 
 | 70 | used for indentation, and the above example is deliberately broken. | 
 | 71 |  | 
 | 72 | Get a decent editor and don't leave whitespace at the end of lines. | 
 | 73 |  | 
 | 74 |  | 
 | 75 | 		Chapter 2: Breaking long lines and strings | 
 | 76 |  | 
 | 77 | Coding style is all about readability and maintainability using commonly | 
 | 78 | available tools. | 
 | 79 |  | 
| Alan Cox | dff4982 | 2007-10-16 23:27:33 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 80 | The limit on the length of lines is 80 columns and this is a strongly | 
 | 81 | preferred limit. | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 82 |  | 
 | 83 | Statements longer than 80 columns will be broken into sensible chunks. | 
 | 84 | Descendants are always substantially shorter than the parent and are placed | 
 | 85 | substantially to the right. The same applies to function headers with a long | 
| Alan Cox | dff4982 | 2007-10-16 23:27:33 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 86 | argument list. Long strings are as well broken into shorter strings. The | 
 | 87 | only exception to this is where exceeding 80 columns significantly increases | 
 | 88 | readability and does not hide information. | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 89 |  | 
 | 90 | void fun(int a, int b, int c) | 
 | 91 | { | 
 | 92 | 	if (condition) | 
 | 93 | 		printk(KERN_WARNING "Warning this is a long printk with " | 
 | 94 | 						"3 parameters a: %u b: %u " | 
 | 95 | 						"c: %u \n", a, b, c); | 
 | 96 | 	else | 
 | 97 | 		next_statement; | 
 | 98 | } | 
 | 99 |  | 
| Randy Dunlap | b3fc994 | 2006-12-10 02:18:56 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 100 | 		Chapter 3: Placing Braces and Spaces | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 101 |  | 
 | 102 | The other issue that always comes up in C styling is the placement of | 
 | 103 | braces.  Unlike the indent size, there are few technical reasons to | 
 | 104 | choose one placement strategy over the other, but the preferred way, as | 
 | 105 | shown to us by the prophets Kernighan and Ritchie, is to put the opening | 
 | 106 | brace last on the line, and put the closing brace first, thusly: | 
 | 107 |  | 
 | 108 | 	if (x is true) { | 
 | 109 | 		we do y | 
 | 110 | 	} | 
 | 111 |  | 
| Randy Dunlap | b3fc994 | 2006-12-10 02:18:56 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 112 | This applies to all non-function statement blocks (if, switch, for, | 
 | 113 | while, do).  E.g.: | 
 | 114 |  | 
 | 115 | 	switch (action) { | 
 | 116 | 	case KOBJ_ADD: | 
 | 117 | 		return "add"; | 
 | 118 | 	case KOBJ_REMOVE: | 
 | 119 | 		return "remove"; | 
 | 120 | 	case KOBJ_CHANGE: | 
 | 121 | 		return "change"; | 
 | 122 | 	default: | 
 | 123 | 		return NULL; | 
 | 124 | 	} | 
 | 125 |  | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 126 | However, there is one special case, namely functions: they have the | 
 | 127 | opening brace at the beginning of the next line, thus: | 
 | 128 |  | 
 | 129 | 	int function(int x) | 
 | 130 | 	{ | 
 | 131 | 		body of function | 
 | 132 | 	} | 
 | 133 |  | 
 | 134 | Heretic people all over the world have claimed that this inconsistency | 
 | 135 | is ...  well ...  inconsistent, but all right-thinking people know that | 
 | 136 | (a) K&R are _right_ and (b) K&R are right.  Besides, functions are | 
 | 137 | special anyway (you can't nest them in C). | 
 | 138 |  | 
 | 139 | Note that the closing brace is empty on a line of its own, _except_ in | 
 | 140 | the cases where it is followed by a continuation of the same statement, | 
 | 141 | ie a "while" in a do-statement or an "else" in an if-statement, like | 
 | 142 | this: | 
 | 143 |  | 
 | 144 | 	do { | 
 | 145 | 		body of do-loop | 
 | 146 | 	} while (condition); | 
 | 147 |  | 
 | 148 | and | 
 | 149 |  | 
 | 150 | 	if (x == y) { | 
 | 151 | 		.. | 
 | 152 | 	} else if (x > y) { | 
 | 153 | 		... | 
 | 154 | 	} else { | 
 | 155 | 		.... | 
 | 156 | 	} | 
 | 157 |  | 
 | 158 | Rationale: K&R. | 
 | 159 |  | 
 | 160 | Also, note that this brace-placement also minimizes the number of empty | 
 | 161 | (or almost empty) lines, without any loss of readability.  Thus, as the | 
 | 162 | supply of new-lines on your screen is not a renewable resource (think | 
 | 163 | 25-line terminal screens here), you have more empty lines to put | 
 | 164 | comments on. | 
 | 165 |  | 
| Oliver Neukum | e659ba4 | 2007-05-08 00:30:34 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 166 | Do not unnecessarily use braces where a single statement will do. | 
 | 167 |  | 
 | 168 | if (condition) | 
 | 169 | 	action(); | 
 | 170 |  | 
 | 171 | This does not apply if one branch of a conditional statement is a single | 
 | 172 | statement. Use braces in both branches. | 
 | 173 |  | 
 | 174 | if (condition) { | 
 | 175 | 	do_this(); | 
 | 176 | 	do_that(); | 
 | 177 | } else { | 
 | 178 | 	otherwise(); | 
 | 179 | } | 
 | 180 |  | 
| Randy Dunlap | b3fc994 | 2006-12-10 02:18:56 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 181 | 		3.1:  Spaces | 
 | 182 |  | 
 | 183 | Linux kernel style for use of spaces depends (mostly) on | 
 | 184 | function-versus-keyword usage.  Use a space after (most) keywords.  The | 
 | 185 | notable exceptions are sizeof, typeof, alignof, and __attribute__, which look | 
 | 186 | somewhat like functions (and are usually used with parentheses in Linux, | 
 | 187 | although they are not required in the language, as in: "sizeof info" after | 
 | 188 | "struct fileinfo info;" is declared). | 
 | 189 |  | 
 | 190 | So use a space after these keywords: | 
 | 191 | 	if, switch, case, for, do, while | 
 | 192 | but not with sizeof, typeof, alignof, or __attribute__.  E.g., | 
 | 193 | 	s = sizeof(struct file); | 
 | 194 |  | 
 | 195 | Do not add spaces around (inside) parenthesized expressions.  This example is | 
 | 196 | *bad*: | 
 | 197 |  | 
 | 198 | 	s = sizeof( struct file ); | 
 | 199 |  | 
 | 200 | When declaring pointer data or a function that returns a pointer type, the | 
 | 201 | preferred use of '*' is adjacent to the data name or function name and not | 
 | 202 | adjacent to the type name.  Examples: | 
 | 203 |  | 
 | 204 | 	char *linux_banner; | 
 | 205 | 	unsigned long long memparse(char *ptr, char **retptr); | 
 | 206 | 	char *match_strdup(substring_t *s); | 
 | 207 |  | 
 | 208 | Use one space around (on each side of) most binary and ternary operators, | 
 | 209 | such as any of these: | 
 | 210 |  | 
 | 211 | 	=  +  -  <  >  *  /  %  |  &  ^  <=  >=  ==  !=  ?  : | 
 | 212 |  | 
 | 213 | but no space after unary operators: | 
 | 214 | 	&  *  +  -  ~  !  sizeof  typeof  alignof  __attribute__  defined | 
 | 215 |  | 
 | 216 | no space before the postfix increment & decrement unary operators: | 
 | 217 | 	++  -- | 
 | 218 |  | 
 | 219 | no space after the prefix increment & decrement unary operators: | 
 | 220 | 	++  -- | 
 | 221 |  | 
 | 222 | and no space around the '.' and "->" structure member operators. | 
 | 223 |  | 
| Josh Triplett | a923fd6 | 2007-07-15 23:41:37 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 224 | Do not leave trailing whitespace at the ends of lines.  Some editors with | 
 | 225 | "smart" indentation will insert whitespace at the beginning of new lines as | 
 | 226 | appropriate, so you can start typing the next line of code right away. | 
 | 227 | However, some such editors do not remove the whitespace if you end up not | 
 | 228 | putting a line of code there, such as if you leave a blank line.  As a result, | 
 | 229 | you end up with lines containing trailing whitespace. | 
 | 230 |  | 
 | 231 | Git will warn you about patches that introduce trailing whitespace, and can | 
 | 232 | optionally strip the trailing whitespace for you; however, if applying a series | 
 | 233 | of patches, this may make later patches in the series fail by changing their | 
 | 234 | context lines. | 
 | 235 |  | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 236 |  | 
 | 237 | 		Chapter 4: Naming | 
 | 238 |  | 
 | 239 | C is a Spartan language, and so should your naming be.  Unlike Modula-2 | 
 | 240 | and Pascal programmers, C programmers do not use cute names like | 
 | 241 | ThisVariableIsATemporaryCounter.  A C programmer would call that | 
 | 242 | variable "tmp", which is much easier to write, and not the least more | 
 | 243 | difficult to understand. | 
 | 244 |  | 
 | 245 | HOWEVER, while mixed-case names are frowned upon, descriptive names for | 
 | 246 | global variables are a must.  To call a global function "foo" is a | 
 | 247 | shooting offense. | 
 | 248 |  | 
 | 249 | GLOBAL variables (to be used only if you _really_ need them) need to | 
 | 250 | have descriptive names, as do global functions.  If you have a function | 
 | 251 | that counts the number of active users, you should call that | 
 | 252 | "count_active_users()" or similar, you should _not_ call it "cntusr()". | 
 | 253 |  | 
 | 254 | Encoding the type of a function into the name (so-called Hungarian | 
 | 255 | notation) is brain damaged - the compiler knows the types anyway and can | 
 | 256 | check those, and it only confuses the programmer.  No wonder MicroSoft | 
 | 257 | makes buggy programs. | 
 | 258 |  | 
 | 259 | LOCAL variable names should be short, and to the point.  If you have | 
 | 260 | some random integer loop counter, it should probably be called "i". | 
 | 261 | Calling it "loop_counter" is non-productive, if there is no chance of it | 
 | 262 | being mis-understood.  Similarly, "tmp" can be just about any type of | 
 | 263 | variable that is used to hold a temporary value. | 
 | 264 |  | 
 | 265 | If you are afraid to mix up your local variable names, you have another | 
 | 266 | problem, which is called the function-growth-hormone-imbalance syndrome. | 
| Randy Dunlap | b3fc994 | 2006-12-10 02:18:56 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 267 | See chapter 6 (Functions). | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 268 |  | 
 | 269 |  | 
| Randy Dunlap | 226a6b8 | 2006-06-23 02:05:58 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 270 | 		Chapter 5: Typedefs | 
 | 271 |  | 
 | 272 | Please don't use things like "vps_t". | 
 | 273 |  | 
 | 274 | It's a _mistake_ to use typedef for structures and pointers. When you see a | 
 | 275 |  | 
 | 276 | 	vps_t a; | 
 | 277 |  | 
 | 278 | in the source, what does it mean? | 
 | 279 |  | 
 | 280 | In contrast, if it says | 
 | 281 |  | 
 | 282 | 	struct virtual_container *a; | 
 | 283 |  | 
 | 284 | you can actually tell what "a" is. | 
 | 285 |  | 
 | 286 | Lots of people think that typedefs "help readability". Not so. They are | 
 | 287 | useful only for: | 
 | 288 |  | 
 | 289 |  (a) totally opaque objects (where the typedef is actively used to _hide_ | 
 | 290 |      what the object is). | 
 | 291 |  | 
 | 292 |      Example: "pte_t" etc. opaque objects that you can only access using | 
 | 293 |      the proper accessor functions. | 
 | 294 |  | 
 | 295 |      NOTE! Opaqueness and "accessor functions" are not good in themselves. | 
 | 296 |      The reason we have them for things like pte_t etc. is that there | 
 | 297 |      really is absolutely _zero_ portably accessible information there. | 
 | 298 |  | 
 | 299 |  (b) Clear integer types, where the abstraction _helps_ avoid confusion | 
 | 300 |      whether it is "int" or "long". | 
 | 301 |  | 
 | 302 |      u8/u16/u32 are perfectly fine typedefs, although they fit into | 
 | 303 |      category (d) better than here. | 
 | 304 |  | 
 | 305 |      NOTE! Again - there needs to be a _reason_ for this. If something is | 
 | 306 |      "unsigned long", then there's no reason to do | 
 | 307 |  | 
 | 308 | 	typedef unsigned long myflags_t; | 
 | 309 |  | 
 | 310 |      but if there is a clear reason for why it under certain circumstances | 
 | 311 |      might be an "unsigned int" and under other configurations might be | 
 | 312 |      "unsigned long", then by all means go ahead and use a typedef. | 
 | 313 |  | 
 | 314 |  (c) when you use sparse to literally create a _new_ type for | 
 | 315 |      type-checking. | 
 | 316 |  | 
 | 317 |  (d) New types which are identical to standard C99 types, in certain | 
 | 318 |      exceptional circumstances. | 
 | 319 |  | 
 | 320 |      Although it would only take a short amount of time for the eyes and | 
 | 321 |      brain to become accustomed to the standard types like 'uint32_t', | 
 | 322 |      some people object to their use anyway. | 
 | 323 |  | 
 | 324 |      Therefore, the Linux-specific 'u8/u16/u32/u64' types and their | 
 | 325 |      signed equivalents which are identical to standard types are | 
 | 326 |      permitted -- although they are not mandatory in new code of your | 
 | 327 |      own. | 
 | 328 |  | 
 | 329 |      When editing existing code which already uses one or the other set | 
 | 330 |      of types, you should conform to the existing choices in that code. | 
 | 331 |  | 
 | 332 |  (e) Types safe for use in userspace. | 
 | 333 |  | 
 | 334 |      In certain structures which are visible to userspace, we cannot | 
 | 335 |      require C99 types and cannot use the 'u32' form above. Thus, we | 
 | 336 |      use __u32 and similar types in all structures which are shared | 
 | 337 |      with userspace. | 
 | 338 |  | 
 | 339 | Maybe there are other cases too, but the rule should basically be to NEVER | 
 | 340 | EVER use a typedef unless you can clearly match one of those rules. | 
 | 341 |  | 
 | 342 | In general, a pointer, or a struct that has elements that can reasonably | 
 | 343 | be directly accessed should _never_ be a typedef. | 
 | 344 |  | 
 | 345 |  | 
 | 346 | 		Chapter 6: Functions | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 347 |  | 
 | 348 | Functions should be short and sweet, and do just one thing.  They should | 
 | 349 | fit on one or two screenfuls of text (the ISO/ANSI screen size is 80x24, | 
 | 350 | as we all know), and do one thing and do that well. | 
 | 351 |  | 
 | 352 | The maximum length of a function is inversely proportional to the | 
 | 353 | complexity and indentation level of that function.  So, if you have a | 
 | 354 | conceptually simple function that is just one long (but simple) | 
 | 355 | case-statement, where you have to do lots of small things for a lot of | 
 | 356 | different cases, it's OK to have a longer function. | 
 | 357 |  | 
 | 358 | However, if you have a complex function, and you suspect that a | 
 | 359 | less-than-gifted first-year high-school student might not even | 
 | 360 | understand what the function is all about, you should adhere to the | 
 | 361 | maximum limits all the more closely.  Use helper functions with | 
 | 362 | descriptive names (you can ask the compiler to in-line them if you think | 
 | 363 | it's performance-critical, and it will probably do a better job of it | 
 | 364 | than you would have done). | 
 | 365 |  | 
 | 366 | Another measure of the function is the number of local variables.  They | 
 | 367 | shouldn't exceed 5-10, or you're doing something wrong.  Re-think the | 
 | 368 | function, and split it into smaller pieces.  A human brain can | 
 | 369 | generally easily keep track of about 7 different things, anything more | 
 | 370 | and it gets confused.  You know you're brilliant, but maybe you'd like | 
 | 371 | to understand what you did 2 weeks from now. | 
 | 372 |  | 
| Randy Dunlap | b3fc994 | 2006-12-10 02:18:56 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 373 | In source files, separate functions with one blank line.  If the function is | 
 | 374 | exported, the EXPORT* macro for it should follow immediately after the closing | 
 | 375 | function brace line.  E.g.: | 
 | 376 |  | 
 | 377 | int system_is_up(void) | 
 | 378 | { | 
 | 379 | 	return system_state == SYSTEM_RUNNING; | 
 | 380 | } | 
 | 381 | EXPORT_SYMBOL(system_is_up); | 
 | 382 |  | 
 | 383 | In function prototypes, include parameter names with their data types. | 
 | 384 | Although this is not required by the C language, it is preferred in Linux | 
 | 385 | because it is a simple way to add valuable information for the reader. | 
 | 386 |  | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 387 |  | 
| Randy Dunlap | 226a6b8 | 2006-06-23 02:05:58 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 388 | 		Chapter 7: Centralized exiting of functions | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 389 |  | 
 | 390 | Albeit deprecated by some people, the equivalent of the goto statement is | 
 | 391 | used frequently by compilers in form of the unconditional jump instruction. | 
 | 392 |  | 
 | 393 | The goto statement comes in handy when a function exits from multiple | 
 | 394 | locations and some common work such as cleanup has to be done. | 
 | 395 |  | 
 | 396 | The rationale is: | 
 | 397 |  | 
 | 398 | - unconditional statements are easier to understand and follow | 
 | 399 | - nesting is reduced | 
 | 400 | - errors by not updating individual exit points when making | 
 | 401 |     modifications are prevented | 
 | 402 | - saves the compiler work to optimize redundant code away ;) | 
 | 403 |  | 
| Jesper Juhl | dc3d28d | 2006-01-09 20:53:51 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 404 | int fun(int a) | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 405 | { | 
 | 406 | 	int result = 0; | 
 | 407 | 	char *buffer = kmalloc(SIZE); | 
 | 408 |  | 
 | 409 | 	if (buffer == NULL) | 
 | 410 | 		return -ENOMEM; | 
 | 411 |  | 
 | 412 | 	if (condition1) { | 
 | 413 | 		while (loop1) { | 
 | 414 | 			... | 
 | 415 | 		} | 
 | 416 | 		result = 1; | 
 | 417 | 		goto out; | 
 | 418 | 	} | 
 | 419 | 	... | 
 | 420 | out: | 
 | 421 | 	kfree(buffer); | 
 | 422 | 	return result; | 
 | 423 | } | 
 | 424 |  | 
| Randy Dunlap | 226a6b8 | 2006-06-23 02:05:58 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 425 | 		Chapter 8: Commenting | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 426 |  | 
 | 427 | Comments are good, but there is also a danger of over-commenting.  NEVER | 
 | 428 | try to explain HOW your code works in a comment: it's much better to | 
 | 429 | write the code so that the _working_ is obvious, and it's a waste of | 
 | 430 | time to explain badly written code. | 
 | 431 |  | 
 | 432 | Generally, you want your comments to tell WHAT your code does, not HOW. | 
 | 433 | Also, try to avoid putting comments inside a function body: if the | 
 | 434 | function is so complex that you need to separately comment parts of it, | 
| Randy Dunlap | b3fc994 | 2006-12-10 02:18:56 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 435 | you should probably go back to chapter 6 for a while.  You can make | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 436 | small comments to note or warn about something particularly clever (or | 
 | 437 | ugly), but try to avoid excess.  Instead, put the comments at the head | 
 | 438 | of the function, telling people what it does, and possibly WHY it does | 
 | 439 | it. | 
 | 440 |  | 
| Randy Dunlap | b3fc994 | 2006-12-10 02:18:56 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 441 | When commenting the kernel API functions, please use the kernel-doc format. | 
| Pekka J Enberg | e776eba | 2005-09-10 00:26:44 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 442 | See the files Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt and scripts/kernel-doc | 
 | 443 | for details. | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 444 |  | 
| Randy Dunlap | b3fc994 | 2006-12-10 02:18:56 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 445 | Linux style for comments is the C89 "/* ... */" style. | 
 | 446 | Don't use C99-style "// ..." comments. | 
 | 447 |  | 
 | 448 | The preferred style for long (multi-line) comments is: | 
 | 449 |  | 
 | 450 | 	/* | 
 | 451 | 	 * This is the preferred style for multi-line | 
 | 452 | 	 * comments in the Linux kernel source code. | 
 | 453 | 	 * Please use it consistently. | 
 | 454 | 	 * | 
 | 455 | 	 * Description:  A column of asterisks on the left side, | 
 | 456 | 	 * with beginning and ending almost-blank lines. | 
 | 457 | 	 */ | 
 | 458 |  | 
 | 459 | It's also important to comment data, whether they are basic types or derived | 
 | 460 | types.  To this end, use just one data declaration per line (no commas for | 
 | 461 | multiple data declarations).  This leaves you room for a small comment on each | 
 | 462 | item, explaining its use. | 
 | 463 |  | 
 | 464 |  | 
| Randy Dunlap | 226a6b8 | 2006-06-23 02:05:58 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 465 | 		Chapter 9: You've made a mess of it | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 466 |  | 
 | 467 | That's OK, we all do.  You've probably been told by your long-time Unix | 
 | 468 | user helper that "GNU emacs" automatically formats the C sources for | 
 | 469 | you, and you've noticed that yes, it does do that, but the defaults it | 
 | 470 | uses are less than desirable (in fact, they are worse than random | 
 | 471 | typing - an infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never | 
 | 472 | make a good program). | 
 | 473 |  | 
 | 474 | So, you can either get rid of GNU emacs, or change it to use saner | 
 | 475 | values.  To do the latter, you can stick the following in your .emacs file: | 
 | 476 |  | 
| Johannes Weiner | a7f371e | 2008-07-25 01:45:51 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 477 | (defun c-lineup-arglist-tabs-only (ignored) | 
 | 478 |   "Line up argument lists by tabs, not spaces" | 
 | 479 |   (let* ((anchor (c-langelem-pos c-syntactic-element)) | 
 | 480 | 	 (column (c-langelem-2nd-pos c-syntactic-element)) | 
 | 481 | 	 (offset (- (1+ column) anchor)) | 
 | 482 | 	 (steps (floor offset c-basic-offset))) | 
 | 483 |     (* (max steps 1) | 
 | 484 |        c-basic-offset))) | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 485 |  | 
| Teemu Likonen | 0acbc6c | 2009-01-29 16:28:16 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 486 | (add-hook 'c-mode-common-hook | 
 | 487 |           (lambda () | 
 | 488 |             ;; Add kernel style | 
 | 489 |             (c-add-style | 
 | 490 |              "linux-tabs-only" | 
 | 491 |              '("linux" (c-offsets-alist | 
 | 492 |                         (arglist-cont-nonempty | 
 | 493 |                          c-lineup-gcc-asm-reg | 
 | 494 |                          c-lineup-arglist-tabs-only)))))) | 
 | 495 |  | 
| Johannes Weiner | a7f371e | 2008-07-25 01:45:51 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 496 | (add-hook 'c-mode-hook | 
 | 497 |           (lambda () | 
 | 498 |             (let ((filename (buffer-file-name))) | 
 | 499 |               ;; Enable kernel mode for the appropriate files | 
 | 500 |               (when (and filename | 
| Dan Carpenter | 7022139 | 2009-01-29 16:28:28 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 501 |                          (string-match (expand-file-name "~/src/linux-trees") | 
 | 502 |                                        filename)) | 
| Johannes Weiner | a7f371e | 2008-07-25 01:45:51 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 503 |                 (setq indent-tabs-mode t) | 
| Teemu Likonen | 0acbc6c | 2009-01-29 16:28:16 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 504 |                 (c-set-style "linux-tabs-only"))))) | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 505 |  | 
| Johannes Weiner | a7f371e | 2008-07-25 01:45:51 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 506 | This will make emacs go better with the kernel coding style for C | 
 | 507 | files below ~/src/linux-trees. | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 508 |  | 
 | 509 | But even if you fail in getting emacs to do sane formatting, not | 
 | 510 | everything is lost: use "indent". | 
 | 511 |  | 
 | 512 | Now, again, GNU indent has the same brain-dead settings that GNU emacs | 
 | 513 | has, which is why you need to give it a few command line options. | 
 | 514 | However, that's not too bad, because even the makers of GNU indent | 
 | 515 | recognize the authority of K&R (the GNU people aren't evil, they are | 
 | 516 | just severely misguided in this matter), so you just give indent the | 
 | 517 | options "-kr -i8" (stands for "K&R, 8 character indents"), or use | 
 | 518 | "scripts/Lindent", which indents in the latest style. | 
 | 519 |  | 
 | 520 | "indent" has a lot of options, and especially when it comes to comment | 
 | 521 | re-formatting you may want to take a look at the man page.  But | 
 | 522 | remember: "indent" is not a fix for bad programming. | 
 | 523 |  | 
 | 524 |  | 
| Robert P. J. Day | 6754bb4 | 2007-05-23 13:57:42 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 525 | 		Chapter 10: Kconfig configuration files | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 526 |  | 
| Robert P. J. Day | 6754bb4 | 2007-05-23 13:57:42 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 527 | For all of the Kconfig* configuration files throughout the source tree, | 
 | 528 | the indentation is somewhat different.  Lines under a "config" definition | 
 | 529 | are indented with one tab, while help text is indented an additional two | 
 | 530 | spaces.  Example: | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 531 |  | 
| Robert P. J. Day | 6754bb4 | 2007-05-23 13:57:42 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 532 | config AUDIT | 
 | 533 | 	bool "Auditing support" | 
 | 534 | 	depends on NET | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 535 | 	help | 
| Robert P. J. Day | 6754bb4 | 2007-05-23 13:57:42 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 536 | 	  Enable auditing infrastructure that can be used with another | 
 | 537 | 	  kernel subsystem, such as SELinux (which requires this for | 
 | 538 | 	  logging of avc messages output).  Does not do system-call | 
 | 539 | 	  auditing without CONFIG_AUDITSYSCALL. | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 540 |  | 
| Robert P. J. Day | 6754bb4 | 2007-05-23 13:57:42 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 541 | Features that might still be considered unstable should be defined as | 
 | 542 | dependent on "EXPERIMENTAL": | 
 | 543 |  | 
 | 544 | config SLUB | 
 | 545 | 	depends on EXPERIMENTAL && !ARCH_USES_SLAB_PAGE_STRUCT | 
 | 546 | 	bool "SLUB (Unqueued Allocator)" | 
 | 547 | 	... | 
 | 548 |  | 
 | 549 | while seriously dangerous features (such as write support for certain | 
 | 550 | filesystems) should advertise this prominently in their prompt string: | 
 | 551 |  | 
 | 552 | config ADFS_FS_RW | 
 | 553 | 	bool "ADFS write support (DANGEROUS)" | 
 | 554 | 	depends on ADFS_FS | 
 | 555 | 	... | 
 | 556 |  | 
 | 557 | For full documentation on the configuration files, see the file | 
 | 558 | Documentation/kbuild/kconfig-language.txt. | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 559 |  | 
 | 560 |  | 
| Randy Dunlap | 226a6b8 | 2006-06-23 02:05:58 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 561 | 		Chapter 11: Data structures | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 562 |  | 
 | 563 | Data structures that have visibility outside the single-threaded | 
 | 564 | environment they are created and destroyed in should always have | 
 | 565 | reference counts.  In the kernel, garbage collection doesn't exist (and | 
 | 566 | outside the kernel garbage collection is slow and inefficient), which | 
 | 567 | means that you absolutely _have_ to reference count all your uses. | 
 | 568 |  | 
 | 569 | Reference counting means that you can avoid locking, and allows multiple | 
 | 570 | users to have access to the data structure in parallel - and not having | 
 | 571 | to worry about the structure suddenly going away from under them just | 
 | 572 | because they slept or did something else for a while. | 
 | 573 |  | 
 | 574 | Note that locking is _not_ a replacement for reference counting. | 
 | 575 | Locking is used to keep data structures coherent, while reference | 
 | 576 | counting is a memory management technique.  Usually both are needed, and | 
 | 577 | they are not to be confused with each other. | 
 | 578 |  | 
 | 579 | Many data structures can indeed have two levels of reference counting, | 
 | 580 | when there are users of different "classes".  The subclass count counts | 
 | 581 | the number of subclass users, and decrements the global count just once | 
 | 582 | when the subclass count goes to zero. | 
 | 583 |  | 
 | 584 | Examples of this kind of "multi-level-reference-counting" can be found in | 
 | 585 | memory management ("struct mm_struct": mm_users and mm_count), and in | 
 | 586 | filesystem code ("struct super_block": s_count and s_active). | 
 | 587 |  | 
 | 588 | Remember: if another thread can find your data structure, and you don't | 
 | 589 | have a reference count on it, you almost certainly have a bug. | 
 | 590 |  | 
 | 591 |  | 
| Randy Dunlap | 226a6b8 | 2006-06-23 02:05:58 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 592 | 		Chapter 12: Macros, Enums and RTL | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 593 |  | 
 | 594 | Names of macros defining constants and labels in enums are capitalized. | 
 | 595 |  | 
 | 596 | #define CONSTANT 0x12345 | 
 | 597 |  | 
 | 598 | Enums are preferred when defining several related constants. | 
 | 599 |  | 
 | 600 | CAPITALIZED macro names are appreciated but macros resembling functions | 
 | 601 | may be named in lower case. | 
 | 602 |  | 
 | 603 | Generally, inline functions are preferable to macros resembling functions. | 
 | 604 |  | 
 | 605 | Macros with multiple statements should be enclosed in a do - while block: | 
 | 606 |  | 
 | 607 | #define macrofun(a, b, c) 			\ | 
 | 608 | 	do {					\ | 
 | 609 | 		if (a == 5)			\ | 
 | 610 | 			do_this(b, c);		\ | 
 | 611 | 	} while (0) | 
 | 612 |  | 
 | 613 | Things to avoid when using macros: | 
 | 614 |  | 
 | 615 | 1) macros that affect control flow: | 
 | 616 |  | 
 | 617 | #define FOO(x)					\ | 
 | 618 | 	do {					\ | 
 | 619 | 		if (blah(x) < 0)		\ | 
 | 620 | 			return -EBUGGERED;	\ | 
 | 621 | 	} while(0) | 
 | 622 |  | 
 | 623 | is a _very_ bad idea.  It looks like a function call but exits the "calling" | 
 | 624 | function; don't break the internal parsers of those who will read the code. | 
 | 625 |  | 
 | 626 | 2) macros that depend on having a local variable with a magic name: | 
 | 627 |  | 
 | 628 | #define FOO(val) bar(index, val) | 
 | 629 |  | 
 | 630 | might look like a good thing, but it's confusing as hell when one reads the | 
 | 631 | code and it's prone to breakage from seemingly innocent changes. | 
 | 632 |  | 
 | 633 | 3) macros with arguments that are used as l-values: FOO(x) = y; will | 
 | 634 | bite you if somebody e.g. turns FOO into an inline function. | 
 | 635 |  | 
 | 636 | 4) forgetting about precedence: macros defining constants using expressions | 
 | 637 | must enclose the expression in parentheses. Beware of similar issues with | 
 | 638 | macros using parameters. | 
 | 639 |  | 
 | 640 | #define CONSTANT 0x4000 | 
 | 641 | #define CONSTEXP (CONSTANT | 3) | 
 | 642 |  | 
 | 643 | The cpp manual deals with macros exhaustively. The gcc internals manual also | 
 | 644 | covers RTL which is used frequently with assembly language in the kernel. | 
 | 645 |  | 
 | 646 |  | 
| Randy Dunlap | 226a6b8 | 2006-06-23 02:05:58 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 647 | 		Chapter 13: Printing kernel messages | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 648 |  | 
 | 649 | Kernel developers like to be seen as literate. Do mind the spelling | 
 | 650 | of kernel messages to make a good impression. Do not use crippled | 
| David Brownell | 6b09448 | 2007-07-13 16:32:09 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 651 | words like "dont"; use "do not" or "don't" instead.  Make the messages | 
 | 652 | concise, clear, and unambiguous. | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 653 |  | 
 | 654 | Kernel messages do not have to be terminated with a period. | 
 | 655 |  | 
 | 656 | Printing numbers in parentheses (%d) adds no value and should be avoided. | 
 | 657 |  | 
| David Brownell | 6b09448 | 2007-07-13 16:32:09 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 658 | There are a number of driver model diagnostic macros in <linux/device.h> | 
 | 659 | which you should use to make sure messages are matched to the right device | 
 | 660 | and driver, and are tagged with the right level:  dev_err(), dev_warn(), | 
 | 661 | dev_info(), and so forth.  For messages that aren't associated with a | 
 | 662 | particular device, <linux/kernel.h> defines pr_debug() and pr_info(). | 
 | 663 |  | 
 | 664 | Coming up with good debugging messages can be quite a challenge; and once | 
 | 665 | you have them, they can be a huge help for remote troubleshooting.  Such | 
 | 666 | messages should be compiled out when the DEBUG symbol is not defined (that | 
 | 667 | is, by default they are not included).  When you use dev_dbg() or pr_debug(), | 
 | 668 | that's automatic.  Many subsystems have Kconfig options to turn on -DDEBUG. | 
 | 669 | A related convention uses VERBOSE_DEBUG to add dev_vdbg() messages to the | 
 | 670 | ones already enabled by DEBUG. | 
 | 671 |  | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 672 |  | 
| Randy Dunlap | 226a6b8 | 2006-06-23 02:05:58 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 673 | 		Chapter 14: Allocating memory | 
| Pekka J Enberg | af4e5a2 | 2005-09-16 19:28:11 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 674 |  | 
 | 675 | The kernel provides the following general purpose memory allocators: | 
 | 676 | kmalloc(), kzalloc(), kcalloc(), and vmalloc().  Please refer to the API | 
 | 677 | documentation for further information about them. | 
 | 678 |  | 
 | 679 | The preferred form for passing a size of a struct is the following: | 
 | 680 |  | 
 | 681 | 	p = kmalloc(sizeof(*p), ...); | 
 | 682 |  | 
 | 683 | The alternative form where struct name is spelled out hurts readability and | 
 | 684 | introduces an opportunity for a bug when the pointer variable type is changed | 
 | 685 | but the corresponding sizeof that is passed to a memory allocator is not. | 
 | 686 |  | 
 | 687 | Casting the return value which is a void pointer is redundant. The conversion | 
 | 688 | from void pointer to any other pointer type is guaranteed by the C programming | 
 | 689 | language. | 
 | 690 |  | 
 | 691 |  | 
| Randy Dunlap | 226a6b8 | 2006-06-23 02:05:58 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 692 | 		Chapter 15: The inline disease | 
| Arjan van de Ven | a771f2b | 2006-01-08 01:05:04 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 693 |  | 
 | 694 | There appears to be a common misperception that gcc has a magic "make me | 
 | 695 | faster" speedup option called "inline". While the use of inlines can be | 
| Jesper Juhl | 53ab97a | 2007-05-08 00:31:06 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 696 | appropriate (for example as a means of replacing macros, see Chapter 12), it | 
| Arjan van de Ven | a771f2b | 2006-01-08 01:05:04 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 697 | very often is not. Abundant use of the inline keyword leads to a much bigger | 
 | 698 | kernel, which in turn slows the system as a whole down, due to a bigger | 
 | 699 | icache footprint for the CPU and simply because there is less memory | 
 | 700 | available for the pagecache. Just think about it; a pagecache miss causes a | 
| Martin Olsson | 19af5cd | 2009-04-23 11:37:37 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 701 | disk seek, which easily takes 5 milliseconds. There are a LOT of cpu cycles | 
 | 702 | that can go into these 5 milliseconds. | 
| Arjan van de Ven | a771f2b | 2006-01-08 01:05:04 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 703 |  | 
 | 704 | A reasonable rule of thumb is to not put inline at functions that have more | 
 | 705 | than 3 lines of code in them. An exception to this rule are the cases where | 
 | 706 | a parameter is known to be a compiletime constant, and as a result of this | 
 | 707 | constantness you *know* the compiler will be able to optimize most of your | 
 | 708 | function away at compile time. For a good example of this later case, see | 
 | 709 | the kmalloc() inline function. | 
 | 710 |  | 
 | 711 | Often people argue that adding inline to functions that are static and used | 
 | 712 | only once is always a win since there is no space tradeoff. While this is | 
 | 713 | technically correct, gcc is capable of inlining these automatically without | 
 | 714 | help, and the maintenance issue of removing the inline when a second user | 
 | 715 | appears outweighs the potential value of the hint that tells gcc to do | 
 | 716 | something it would have done anyway. | 
 | 717 |  | 
 | 718 |  | 
| Alan Stern | c16a02d | 2006-09-29 02:01:21 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 719 | 		Chapter 16: Function return values and names | 
 | 720 |  | 
 | 721 | Functions can return values of many different kinds, and one of the | 
 | 722 | most common is a value indicating whether the function succeeded or | 
 | 723 | failed.  Such a value can be represented as an error-code integer | 
 | 724 | (-Exxx = failure, 0 = success) or a "succeeded" boolean (0 = failure, | 
 | 725 | non-zero = success). | 
 | 726 |  | 
 | 727 | Mixing up these two sorts of representations is a fertile source of | 
 | 728 | difficult-to-find bugs.  If the C language included a strong distinction | 
 | 729 | between integers and booleans then the compiler would find these mistakes | 
 | 730 | for us... but it doesn't.  To help prevent such bugs, always follow this | 
 | 731 | convention: | 
 | 732 |  | 
 | 733 | 	If the name of a function is an action or an imperative command, | 
 | 734 | 	the function should return an error-code integer.  If the name | 
 | 735 | 	is a predicate, the function should return a "succeeded" boolean. | 
 | 736 |  | 
 | 737 | For example, "add work" is a command, and the add_work() function returns 0 | 
 | 738 | for success or -EBUSY for failure.  In the same way, "PCI device present" is | 
 | 739 | a predicate, and the pci_dev_present() function returns 1 if it succeeds in | 
 | 740 | finding a matching device or 0 if it doesn't. | 
 | 741 |  | 
 | 742 | All EXPORTed functions must respect this convention, and so should all | 
 | 743 | public functions.  Private (static) functions need not, but it is | 
 | 744 | recommended that they do. | 
 | 745 |  | 
 | 746 | Functions whose return value is the actual result of a computation, rather | 
 | 747 | than an indication of whether the computation succeeded, are not subject to | 
 | 748 | this rule.  Generally they indicate failure by returning some out-of-range | 
 | 749 | result.  Typical examples would be functions that return pointers; they use | 
 | 750 | NULL or the ERR_PTR mechanism to report failure. | 
 | 751 |  | 
 | 752 |  | 
| Robert P. J. Day | 58637ec | 2006-12-22 01:09:11 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 753 | 		Chapter 17:  Don't re-invent the kernel macros | 
 | 754 |  | 
 | 755 | The header file include/linux/kernel.h contains a number of macros that | 
 | 756 | you should use, rather than explicitly coding some variant of them yourself. | 
 | 757 | For example, if you need to calculate the length of an array, take advantage | 
 | 758 | of the macro | 
 | 759 |  | 
 | 760 |   #define ARRAY_SIZE(x) (sizeof(x) / sizeof((x)[0])) | 
 | 761 |  | 
 | 762 | Similarly, if you need to calculate the size of some structure member, use | 
 | 763 |  | 
 | 764 |   #define FIELD_SIZEOF(t, f) (sizeof(((t*)0)->f)) | 
 | 765 |  | 
 | 766 | There are also min() and max() macros that do strict type checking if you | 
 | 767 | need them.  Feel free to peruse that header file to see what else is already | 
 | 768 | defined that you shouldn't reproduce in your code. | 
 | 769 |  | 
 | 770 |  | 
| Josh Triplett | 4e7bd66 | 2007-07-15 23:41:37 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 771 | 		Chapter 18:  Editor modelines and other cruft | 
 | 772 |  | 
 | 773 | Some editors can interpret configuration information embedded in source files, | 
 | 774 | indicated with special markers.  For example, emacs interprets lines marked | 
 | 775 | like this: | 
 | 776 |  | 
 | 777 | -*- mode: c -*- | 
 | 778 |  | 
 | 779 | Or like this: | 
 | 780 |  | 
 | 781 | /* | 
 | 782 | Local Variables: | 
 | 783 | compile-command: "gcc -DMAGIC_DEBUG_FLAG foo.c" | 
 | 784 | End: | 
 | 785 | */ | 
 | 786 |  | 
 | 787 | Vim interprets markers that look like this: | 
 | 788 |  | 
 | 789 | /* vim:set sw=8 noet */ | 
 | 790 |  | 
 | 791 | Do not include any of these in source files.  People have their own personal | 
 | 792 | editor configurations, and your source files should not override them.  This | 
 | 793 | includes markers for indentation and mode configuration.  People may use their | 
 | 794 | own custom mode, or may have some other magic method for making indentation | 
 | 795 | work correctly. | 
 | 796 |  | 
 | 797 |  | 
| Arjan van de Ven | a771f2b | 2006-01-08 01:05:04 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 798 |  | 
| Randy Dunlap | 226a6b8 | 2006-06-23 02:05:58 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 799 | 		Appendix I: References | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 800 |  | 
 | 801 | The C Programming Language, Second Edition | 
 | 802 | by Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie. | 
 | 803 | Prentice Hall, Inc., 1988. | 
 | 804 | ISBN 0-13-110362-8 (paperback), 0-13-110370-9 (hardback). | 
 | 805 | URL: http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/cbook/ | 
 | 806 |  | 
 | 807 | The Practice of Programming | 
 | 808 | by Brian W. Kernighan and Rob Pike. | 
 | 809 | Addison-Wesley, Inc., 1999. | 
 | 810 | ISBN 0-201-61586-X. | 
 | 811 | URL: http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/tpop/ | 
 | 812 |  | 
 | 813 | GNU manuals - where in compliance with K&R and this text - for cpp, gcc, | 
| Xose Vazquez Perez | 5b0ed2c | 2006-01-08 01:02:49 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 814 | gcc internals and indent, all available from http://www.gnu.org/manual/ | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 815 |  | 
 | 816 | WG14 is the international standardization working group for the programming | 
| Xose Vazquez Perez | 5b0ed2c | 2006-01-08 01:02:49 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 817 | language C, URL: http://www.open-std.org/JTC1/SC22/WG14/ | 
 | 818 |  | 
 | 819 | Kernel CodingStyle, by greg@kroah.com at OLS 2002: | 
 | 820 | http://www.kroah.com/linux/talks/ols_2002_kernel_codingstyle_talk/html/ | 
| Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 821 |  | 
 | 822 | -- | 
| David Brownell | 6b09448 | 2007-07-13 16:32:09 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 823 | Last updated on 2007-July-13. | 
 | 824 |  |