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

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
+