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authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2018-11-01 18:34:46 -0700
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2018-11-01 18:34:46 -0700
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treebe59927a66ffdf5dec86154a2ccb4ea51602450e /Documentation/process
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parent1ff2fea5e30ca15752777441ecb64a169fe22e9e (diff)
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Merge tag 'compiler-attributes-for-linus-4.20-rc1' of https://github.com/ojeda/linux
Pull compiler attribute updates from Miguel Ojeda: "This is an effort to disentangle the include/linux/compiler*.h headers and bring them up to date. The main idea behind the series is to use feature checking macros (i.e. __has_attribute) instead of compiler version checks (e.g. GCC_VERSION), which are compiler-agnostic (so they can be shared, reducing the size of compiler-specific headers) and version-agnostic. Other related improvements have been performed in the headers as well, which on top of the use of __has_attribute it has amounted to a significant simplification of these headers (e.g. GCC_VERSION is now only guarding a few non-attribute macros). This series should also help the efforts to support compiling the kernel with clang and icc. A fair amount of documentation and comments have also been added, clarified or removed; and the headers are now more readable, which should help kernel developers in general. The series was triggered due to the move to gcc >= 4.6. In turn, this series has also triggered Sparse to gain the ability to recognize __has_attribute on its own. Finally, the __nonstring variable attribute series has been also applied on top; plus two related patches from Nick Desaulniers for unreachable() that came a bit afterwards" * tag 'compiler-attributes-for-linus-4.20-rc1' of https://github.com/ojeda/linux: compiler-gcc: remove comment about gcc 4.5 from unreachable() compiler.h: update definition of unreachable() Compiler Attributes: ext4: remove local __nonstring definition Compiler Attributes: auxdisplay: panel: use __nonstring Compiler Attributes: enable -Wstringop-truncation on W=1 (gcc >= 8) Compiler Attributes: add support for __nonstring (gcc >= 8) Compiler Attributes: add MAINTAINERS entry Compiler Attributes: add Doc/process/programming-language.rst Compiler Attributes: remove uses of __attribute__ from compiler.h Compiler Attributes: KENTRY used twice the "used" attribute Compiler Attributes: use feature checks instead of version checks Compiler Attributes: add missing SPDX ID in compiler_types.h Compiler Attributes: remove unneeded sparse (__CHECKER__) tests Compiler Attributes: homogenize __must_be_array Compiler Attributes: remove unneeded tests Compiler Attributes: always use the extra-underscores syntax Compiler Attributes: remove unused attributes
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/process')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/process/index.rst1
-rw-r--r--Documentation/process/programming-language.rst45
2 files changed, 46 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/process/index.rst b/Documentation/process/index.rst
index 757808526d9a..878ebfda7eef 100644
--- a/Documentation/process/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/process/index.rst
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ Below are the essential guides that every developer should read.
code-of-conduct-interpretation
development-process
submitting-patches
+ programming-language
coding-style
maintainer-pgp-guide
email-clients
diff --git a/Documentation/process/programming-language.rst b/Documentation/process/programming-language.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..e5f5f065dc24
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/process/programming-language.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+.. _programming_language:
+
+Programming Language
+====================
+
+The kernel is written in the C programming language [c-language]_.
+More precisely, the kernel is typically compiled with ``gcc`` [gcc]_
+under ``-std=gnu89`` [gcc-c-dialect-options]_: the GNU dialect of ISO C90
+(including some C99 features).
+
+This dialect contains many extensions to the language [gnu-extensions]_,
+and many of them are used within the kernel as a matter of course.
+
+There is some support for compiling the kernel with ``clang`` [clang]_
+and ``icc`` [icc]_ for several of the architectures, although at the time
+of writing it is not completed, requiring third-party patches.
+
+Attributes
+----------
+
+One of the common extensions used throughout the kernel are attributes
+[gcc-attribute-syntax]_. Attributes allow to introduce
+implementation-defined semantics to language entities (like variables,
+functions or types) without having to make significant syntactic changes
+to the language (e.g. adding a new keyword) [n2049]_.
+
+In some cases, attributes are optional (i.e. a compiler not supporting them
+should still produce proper code, even if it is slower or does not perform
+as many compile-time checks/diagnostics).
+
+The kernel defines pseudo-keywords (e.g. ``__pure``) instead of using
+directly the GNU attribute syntax (e.g. ``__attribute__((__pure__))``)
+in order to feature detect which ones can be used and/or to shorten the code.
+
+Please refer to ``include/linux/compiler_attributes.h`` for more information.
+
+.. [c-language] http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/standards
+.. [gcc] https://gcc.gnu.org
+.. [clang] https://clang.llvm.org
+.. [icc] https://software.intel.com/en-us/c-compilers
+.. [gcc-c-dialect-options] https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/C-Dialect-Options.html
+.. [gnu-extensions] https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/C-Extensions.html
+.. [gcc-attribute-syntax] https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Attribute-Syntax.html
+.. [n2049] http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n2049.pdf
+