Commit 3454cd56 authored by Utkarsh Verma's avatar Utkarsh Verma Committed by Jonathan Corbet
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Documentation: checkpatch: Add SYMBOLIC_PERMS message 



Add a new message type SYMBOLIC_PERMS under the 'Permissions'
subsection. Octal permission bits are easier to read and understand
instead of their symbolic macro names.

Suggested-by: default avatarLukas Bulwahn <lukas.bulwahn@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: default avatarUtkarsh Verma <utkarshverma294@gmail.com>
Reviewed-by: default avatarLukas Bulwahn <lukas.bulwahn@gmail.com>
Acked-by: default avatarDwaipayan Ray <dwaipayanray1@gmail.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20210904082330.14864-1-utkarshverma294@gmail.com


[jc: Tweaked wording as suggested by Dwaipayan Ray]
Signed-off-by: default avatarJonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
parent 29bd0cac

Documentation/dev-tools/checkpatch.rst

+11 −0
Original line number Diff line number Diff line
@@ -984,6 +984,17 @@ Permissions 
    Permission bits should use 4 digit octal permissions (like 0700 or 0444).

    Avoid using any other base like decimal.



  **SYMBOLIC_PERMS**

    Permission bits in the octal form are more readable and easier to

    understand than their symbolic counterparts because many command-line

    tools use this notation. Experienced kernel developers have been using

    these traditional Unix permission bits for decades and so they find it

    easier to understand the octal notation than the symbolic macros.

    For example, it is harder to read S_IWUSR|S_IRUGO than 0644, which

    obscures the developer's intent rather than clarifying it.



    See: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CA+55aFw5v23T-zvDZp-MmD_EYxF8WbafwwB59934FV7g21uMGQ@mail.gmail.com/





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