Re: [PATCH] util: convert char pointers to use g_autofree

On 11/20/20 11:43 AM, Barrett J Schonefeld wrote: > I appreciate the feedback on this patch! > > I will work on splitting this into multiple patches. I believe this will > involve redoing much of the work because I will need to split this patch > (a single commit) into many commits. One suggestion on how to more easily split one patch into multiple patches (keeping in mind there's probably a much cleaner way of doing the same thing; this is just how I've evolved to do it): 1) make a new branch "X-v2" based off the branch "X" that has this current patch 2) "git reset HEAD^" on the new branch - this will remove the last commit from git, but leave the working copies of the file unchanged. 3) use a tool like "git meld" to interactively go through all the changes (hunks) you've made in this single commit, *un*doing the ones that aren't related to basic g_autofree conversion. 4) git add / git commit -m"convert to g_autofree" 5) "git meld X" to compare the original commit on the *old* branch to the tip of the new branch, interactively re-applying all the hunks that you had just removed. 5) git add / git commit -m"remove unnecessary cleanup labels and return variables" > Hence, I'd like to get some > confirmation on how I should approach the patch. > > I plan to: > > 1. Address the feedback on returning `-errno`, `0`, `-1`, etc. directly > instead of setting the local variable, `ret`, and returning `ret`. > 2. Submit a patch per file with only the g_autofree changes. > 3. Submit a patch per file that removes the cleanup sections. A couple of qualifiers: a) changing the return values to constants will of course happen as a part of the "cleanup label removal" patch (item (3)), not on its own. b) a recent patch from jtomko reminded me of two occasions when you *would* want a separate patch for the g_autofree changed in a single function all by itself: ii) if that change fixes a bug (which would usually be a memory leak), and/or iii) if it requires any change in the logic of the function beyond simply adding "g_autofree virBlahPtr blah = NULL;" and removing the VIR_FREE(blah); at the end of the scope. Both of these would warrant extra explanation in the commit log, and that's easier to follow if it's isolated.