On Mon, 2014-03-10 at 19:02 -0700, Linus Torvalds wrote: > On Mon, Mar 10, 2014 at 6:51 PM, David Miller <da...@davemloft.net> wrote: > > From: Alexei Starovoitov <a...@plumgrid.com> > > Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2014 23:04:02 -0700 > > > >> + unsigned int jited:1; > > > > The C language has a proper type for boolean states, please therefore > > use 'bool', true, and false. > > No, the C standard actually has no such thing. > > In a structure, a bitfield is actually better than bool, because it > takes only one bit. A "bool" takes at least a byte.
Bitfields can also be _Bool and at least for gcc _Bool bitfields are required to be :1. > Now, in this case it may not be an issue (looks like there are no > other uses that can use the better packing, so bit/byte/word is all > the same), but I really really want to make it clear that it is not at > all true that "bool" is somehow better than a single-bit bitfield. The > bitfield can pack *much* better, and I would actually say that it's > generally a *better* idea to use a bitfield, because you can much more > easily expand on it later by adding other bitfields. bitfields generate relatively poor code and are frequently disadvantageous due to read-modify-write requirements. > There are very few actual real advantages to "bool". The magic casting > behavior is arguably an advantage (the implicit cast in assigning to a > bitfield truncates to the low bits, the implicit cast on assignment to > "bool" does a test against zero), but is also quite arguably a > possible source of confusion Umm. Types are good. > and can cause problems down the line when > converting from bool to a bitfield (for the afore-mentioned packing > reasons). I don't see how. > I would generally suggest that people only use "bool" for function > return types, and absolutely nothing else. Seriously. I think using bool for function arguments, structure members and variables is good and frequently to mostly is an overall improvement. -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majord...@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/