2 Linux kernel coding style
4 This is a short document describing the preferred coding style for the
5 linux kernel. Coding style is very personal, and I won't _force_ my
6 views on anybody, but this is what goes for anything that I have to be
7 able to maintain, and I'd prefer it for most other things too. Please
8 at least consider the points made here.
10 First off, I'd suggest printing out a copy of the GNU coding standards,
11 and NOT read it. Burn them, it's a great symbolic gesture.
16 Chapter 1: Indentation
18 Tabs are 8 characters, and thus indentations are also 8 characters.
19 There are heretic movements that try to make indentations 4 (or even 2!)
20 characters deep, and that is akin to trying to define the value of PI to
23 Rationale: The whole idea behind indentation is to clearly define where
24 a block of control starts and ends. Especially when you've been looking
25 at your screen for 20 straight hours, you'll find it a lot easier to see
26 how the indentation works if you have large indentations.
28 Now, some people will claim that having 8-character indentations makes
29 the code move too far to the right, and makes it hard to read on a
30 80-character terminal screen. The answer to that is that if you need
31 more than 3 levels of indentation, you're screwed anyway, and should fix
34 In short, 8-char indents make things easier to read, and have the added
35 benefit of warning you when you're nesting your functions too deep.
38 The preferred way to ease multiple indentation levels in a switch statement is
39 to align the "switch" and its subordinate "case" labels in the same column
40 instead of "double-indenting" the "case" labels. E.g.:
60 Don't put multiple statements on a single line unless you have
63 if (condition) do_this;
64 do_something_everytime;
66 Don't put multiple assignments on a single line either. Kernel coding style
67 is super simple. Avoid tricky expressions.
69 Outside of comments, documentation and except in Kconfig, spaces are never
70 used for indentation, and the above example is deliberately broken.
72 Get a decent editor and don't leave whitespace at the end of lines.
75 Chapter 2: Breaking long lines and strings
77 Coding style is all about readability and maintainability using commonly
80 The limit on the length of lines is 80 columns and this is a strongly
83 Statements longer than 80 columns will be broken into sensible chunks.
84 Descendants are always substantially shorter than the parent and are placed
85 substantially to the right. The same applies to function headers with a long
86 argument list. Long strings are as well broken into shorter strings. The
87 only exception to this is where exceeding 80 columns significantly increases
88 readability and does not hide information.
90 void fun(int a, int b, int c)
93 printk(KERN_WARNING "Warning this is a long printk with "
94 "3 parameters a: %u b: %u "
100 Chapter 3: Placing Braces and Spaces
102 The other issue that always comes up in C styling is the placement of
103 braces. Unlike the indent size, there are few technical reasons to
104 choose one placement strategy over the other, but the preferred way, as
105 shown to us by the prophets Kernighan and Ritchie, is to put the opening
106 brace last on the line, and put the closing brace first, thusly:
112 This applies to all non-function statement blocks (if, switch, for,
126 However, there is one special case, namely functions: they have the
127 opening brace at the beginning of the next line, thus:
134 Heretic people all over the world have claimed that this inconsistency
135 is ... well ... inconsistent, but all right-thinking people know that
136 (a) K&R are _right_ and (b) K&R are right. Besides, functions are
137 special anyway (you can't nest them in C).
139 Note that the closing brace is empty on a line of its own, _except_ in
140 the cases where it is followed by a continuation of the same statement,
141 ie a "while" in a do-statement or an "else" in an if-statement, like
160 Also, note that this brace-placement also minimizes the number of empty
161 (or almost empty) lines, without any loss of readability. Thus, as the
162 supply of new-lines on your screen is not a renewable resource (think
163 25-line terminal screens here), you have more empty lines to put
166 Do not unnecessarily use braces where a single statement will do.
178 This does not apply if one branch of a conditional statement is a single
179 statement. Use braces in both branches.
190 Linux kernel style for use of spaces depends (mostly) on
191 function-versus-keyword usage. Use a space after (most) keywords. The
192 notable exceptions are sizeof, typeof, alignof, and __attribute__, which look
193 somewhat like functions (and are usually used with parentheses in Linux,
194 although they are not required in the language, as in: "sizeof info" after
195 "struct fileinfo info;" is declared).
197 So use a space after these keywords:
198 if, switch, case, for, do, while
199 but not with sizeof, typeof, alignof, or __attribute__. E.g.,
200 s = sizeof(struct file);
202 Do not add spaces around (inside) parenthesized expressions. This example is
205 s = sizeof( struct file );
207 When declaring pointer data or a function that returns a pointer type, the
208 preferred use of '*' is adjacent to the data name or function name and not
209 adjacent to the type name. Examples:
212 unsigned long long memparse(char *ptr, char **retptr);
213 char *match_strdup(substring_t *s);
215 Use one space around (on each side of) most binary and ternary operators,
216 such as any of these:
218 = + - < > * / % | & ^ <= >= == != ? :
220 but no space after unary operators:
221 & * + - ~ ! sizeof typeof alignof __attribute__ defined
223 no space before the postfix increment & decrement unary operators:
226 no space after the prefix increment & decrement unary operators:
229 and no space around the '.' and "->" structure member operators.
231 Do not leave trailing whitespace at the ends of lines. Some editors with
232 "smart" indentation will insert whitespace at the beginning of new lines as
233 appropriate, so you can start typing the next line of code right away.
234 However, some such editors do not remove the whitespace if you end up not
235 putting a line of code there, such as if you leave a blank line. As a result,
236 you end up with lines containing trailing whitespace.
238 Git will warn you about patches that introduce trailing whitespace, and can
239 optionally strip the trailing whitespace for you; however, if applying a series
240 of patches, this may make later patches in the series fail by changing their
246 C is a Spartan language, and so should your naming be. Unlike Modula-2
247 and Pascal programmers, C programmers do not use cute names like
248 ThisVariableIsATemporaryCounter. A C programmer would call that
249 variable "tmp", which is much easier to write, and not the least more
250 difficult to understand.
252 HOWEVER, while mixed-case names are frowned upon, descriptive names for
253 global variables are a must. To call a global function "foo" is a
256 GLOBAL variables (to be used only if you _really_ need them) need to
257 have descriptive names, as do global functions. If you have a function
258 that counts the number of active users, you should call that
259 "count_active_users()" or similar, you should _not_ call it "cntusr()".
261 Encoding the type of a function into the name (so-called Hungarian
262 notation) is brain damaged - the compiler knows the types anyway and can
263 check those, and it only confuses the programmer. No wonder MicroSoft
264 makes buggy programs.
266 LOCAL variable names should be short, and to the point. If you have
267 some random integer loop counter, it should probably be called "i".
268 Calling it "loop_counter" is non-productive, if there is no chance of it
269 being mis-understood. Similarly, "tmp" can be just about any type of
270 variable that is used to hold a temporary value.
272 If you are afraid to mix up your local variable names, you have another
273 problem, which is called the function-growth-hormone-imbalance syndrome.
274 See chapter 6 (Functions).
279 Please don't use things like "vps_t".
281 It's a _mistake_ to use typedef for structures and pointers. When you see a
285 in the source, what does it mean?
287 In contrast, if it says
289 struct virtual_container *a;
291 you can actually tell what "a" is.
293 Lots of people think that typedefs "help readability". Not so. They are
296 (a) totally opaque objects (where the typedef is actively used to _hide_
299 Example: "pte_t" etc. opaque objects that you can only access using
300 the proper accessor functions.
302 NOTE! Opaqueness and "accessor functions" are not good in themselves.
303 The reason we have them for things like pte_t etc. is that there
304 really is absolutely _zero_ portably accessible information there.
306 (b) Clear integer types, where the abstraction _helps_ avoid confusion
307 whether it is "int" or "long".
309 u8/u16/u32 are perfectly fine typedefs, although they fit into
310 category (d) better than here.
312 NOTE! Again - there needs to be a _reason_ for this. If something is
313 "unsigned long", then there's no reason to do
315 typedef unsigned long myflags_t;
317 but if there is a clear reason for why it under certain circumstances
318 might be an "unsigned int" and under other configurations might be
319 "unsigned long", then by all means go ahead and use a typedef.
321 (c) when you use sparse to literally create a _new_ type for
324 (d) New types which are identical to standard C99 types, in certain
325 exceptional circumstances.
327 Although it would only take a short amount of time for the eyes and
328 brain to become accustomed to the standard types like 'uint32_t',
329 some people object to their use anyway.
331 Therefore, the Linux-specific 'u8/u16/u32/u64' types and their
332 signed equivalents which are identical to standard types are
333 permitted -- although they are not mandatory in new code of your
336 When editing existing code which already uses one or the other set
337 of types, you should conform to the existing choices in that code.
339 (e) Types safe for use in userspace.
341 In certain structures which are visible to userspace, we cannot
342 require C99 types and cannot use the 'u32' form above. Thus, we
343 use __u32 and similar types in all structures which are shared
346 Maybe there are other cases too, but the rule should basically be to NEVER
347 EVER use a typedef unless you can clearly match one of those rules.
349 In general, a pointer, or a struct that has elements that can reasonably
350 be directly accessed should _never_ be a typedef.
355 Functions should be short and sweet, and do just one thing. They should
356 fit on one or two screenfuls of text (the ISO/ANSI screen size is 80x24,
357 as we all know), and do one thing and do that well.
359 The maximum length of a function is inversely proportional to the
360 complexity and indentation level of that function. So, if you have a
361 conceptually simple function that is just one long (but simple)
362 case-statement, where you have to do lots of small things for a lot of
363 different cases, it's OK to have a longer function.
365 However, if you have a complex function, and you suspect that a
366 less-than-gifted first-year high-school student might not even
367 understand what the function is all about, you should adhere to the
368 maximum limits all the more closely. Use helper functions with
369 descriptive names (you can ask the compiler to in-line them if you think
370 it's performance-critical, and it will probably do a better job of it
371 than you would have done).
373 Another measure of the function is the number of local variables. They
374 shouldn't exceed 5-10, or you're doing something wrong. Re-think the
375 function, and split it into smaller pieces. A human brain can
376 generally easily keep track of about 7 different things, anything more
377 and it gets confused. You know you're brilliant, but maybe you'd like
378 to understand what you did 2 weeks from now.
380 In source files, separate functions with one blank line. If the function is
381 exported, the EXPORT* macro for it should follow immediately after the closing
382 function brace line. E.g.:
384 int system_is_up(void)
386 return system_state == SYSTEM_RUNNING;
388 EXPORT_SYMBOL(system_is_up);
390 In function prototypes, include parameter names with their data types.
391 Although this is not required by the C language, it is preferred in Linux
392 because it is a simple way to add valuable information for the reader.
395 Chapter 7: Centralized exiting of functions
397 Albeit deprecated by some people, the equivalent of the goto statement is
398 used frequently by compilers in form of the unconditional jump instruction.
400 The goto statement comes in handy when a function exits from multiple
401 locations and some common work such as cleanup has to be done.
405 - unconditional statements are easier to understand and follow
407 - errors by not updating individual exit points when making
408 modifications are prevented
409 - saves the compiler work to optimize redundant code away ;)
414 char *buffer = kmalloc(SIZE);
432 Chapter 8: Commenting
434 Comments are good, but there is also a danger of over-commenting. NEVER
435 try to explain HOW your code works in a comment: it's much better to
436 write the code so that the _working_ is obvious, and it's a waste of
437 time to explain badly written code.
439 Generally, you want your comments to tell WHAT your code does, not HOW.
440 Also, try to avoid putting comments inside a function body: if the
441 function is so complex that you need to separately comment parts of it,
442 you should probably go back to chapter 6 for a while. You can make
443 small comments to note or warn about something particularly clever (or
444 ugly), but try to avoid excess. Instead, put the comments at the head
445 of the function, telling people what it does, and possibly WHY it does
448 When commenting the kernel API functions, please use the kernel-doc format.
449 See the files Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt and scripts/kernel-doc
452 Linux style for comments is the C89 "/* ... */" style.
453 Don't use C99-style "// ..." comments.
455 The preferred style for long (multi-line) comments is:
458 * This is the preferred style for multi-line
459 * comments in the Linux kernel source code.
460 * Please use it consistently.
462 * Description: A column of asterisks on the left side,
463 * with beginning and ending almost-blank lines.
466 It's also important to comment data, whether they are basic types or derived
467 types. To this end, use just one data declaration per line (no commas for
468 multiple data declarations). This leaves you room for a small comment on each
469 item, explaining its use.
472 Chapter 9: You've made a mess of it
474 That's OK, we all do. You've probably been told by your long-time Unix
475 user helper that "GNU emacs" automatically formats the C sources for
476 you, and you've noticed that yes, it does do that, but the defaults it
477 uses are less than desirable (in fact, they are worse than random
478 typing - an infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never
479 make a good program).
481 So, you can either get rid of GNU emacs, or change it to use saner
482 values. To do the latter, you can stick the following in your .emacs file:
484 (defun c-lineup-arglist-tabs-only (ignored)
485 "Line up argument lists by tabs, not spaces"
486 (let* ((anchor (c-langelem-pos c-syntactic-element))
487 (column (c-langelem-2nd-pos c-syntactic-element))
488 (offset (- (1+ column) anchor))
489 (steps (floor offset c-basic-offset)))
493 (add-hook 'c-mode-common-hook
498 '("linux" (c-offsets-alist
499 (arglist-cont-nonempty
501 c-lineup-arglist-tabs-only))))))
503 (add-hook 'c-mode-hook
505 (let ((filename (buffer-file-name)))
506 ;; Enable kernel mode for the appropriate files
508 (string-match (expand-file-name "~/src/linux-trees")
510 (setq indent-tabs-mode t)
511 (c-set-style "linux-tabs-only")))))
513 This will make emacs go better with the kernel coding style for C
514 files below ~/src/linux-trees.
516 But even if you fail in getting emacs to do sane formatting, not
517 everything is lost: use "indent".
519 Now, again, GNU indent has the same brain-dead settings that GNU emacs
520 has, which is why you need to give it a few command line options.
521 However, that's not too bad, because even the makers of GNU indent
522 recognize the authority of K&R (the GNU people aren't evil, they are
523 just severely misguided in this matter), so you just give indent the
524 options "-kr -i8" (stands for "K&R, 8 character indents"), or use
525 "scripts/Lindent", which indents in the latest style.
527 "indent" has a lot of options, and especially when it comes to comment
528 re-formatting you may want to take a look at the man page. But
529 remember: "indent" is not a fix for bad programming.
532 Chapter 10: Kconfig configuration files
534 For all of the Kconfig* configuration files throughout the source tree,
535 the indentation is somewhat different. Lines under a "config" definition
536 are indented with one tab, while help text is indented an additional two
540 bool "Auditing support"
543 Enable auditing infrastructure that can be used with another
544 kernel subsystem, such as SELinux (which requires this for
545 logging of avc messages output). Does not do system-call
546 auditing without CONFIG_AUDITSYSCALL.
548 Features that might still be considered unstable should be defined as
549 dependent on "EXPERIMENTAL":
552 depends on EXPERIMENTAL && !ARCH_USES_SLAB_PAGE_STRUCT
553 bool "SLUB (Unqueued Allocator)"
556 while seriously dangerous features (such as write support for certain
557 filesystems) should advertise this prominently in their prompt string:
560 bool "ADFS write support (DANGEROUS)"
564 For full documentation on the configuration files, see the file
565 Documentation/kbuild/kconfig-language.txt.
568 Chapter 11: Data structures
570 Data structures that have visibility outside the single-threaded
571 environment they are created and destroyed in should always have
572 reference counts. In the kernel, garbage collection doesn't exist (and
573 outside the kernel garbage collection is slow and inefficient), which
574 means that you absolutely _have_ to reference count all your uses.
576 Reference counting means that you can avoid locking, and allows multiple
577 users to have access to the data structure in parallel - and not having
578 to worry about the structure suddenly going away from under them just
579 because they slept or did something else for a while.
581 Note that locking is _not_ a replacement for reference counting.
582 Locking is used to keep data structures coherent, while reference
583 counting is a memory management technique. Usually both are needed, and
584 they are not to be confused with each other.
586 Many data structures can indeed have two levels of reference counting,
587 when there are users of different "classes". The subclass count counts
588 the number of subclass users, and decrements the global count just once
589 when the subclass count goes to zero.
591 Examples of this kind of "multi-level-reference-counting" can be found in
592 memory management ("struct mm_struct": mm_users and mm_count), and in
593 filesystem code ("struct super_block": s_count and s_active).
595 Remember: if another thread can find your data structure, and you don't
596 have a reference count on it, you almost certainly have a bug.
599 Chapter 12: Macros, Enums and RTL
601 Names of macros defining constants and labels in enums are capitalized.
603 #define CONSTANT 0x12345
605 Enums are preferred when defining several related constants.
607 CAPITALIZED macro names are appreciated but macros resembling functions
608 may be named in lower case.
610 Generally, inline functions are preferable to macros resembling functions.
612 Macros with multiple statements should be enclosed in a do - while block:
614 #define macrofun(a, b, c) \
620 Things to avoid when using macros:
622 1) macros that affect control flow:
630 is a _very_ bad idea. It looks like a function call but exits the "calling"
631 function; don't break the internal parsers of those who will read the code.
633 2) macros that depend on having a local variable with a magic name:
635 #define FOO(val) bar(index, val)
637 might look like a good thing, but it's confusing as hell when one reads the
638 code and it's prone to breakage from seemingly innocent changes.
640 3) macros with arguments that are used as l-values: FOO(x) = y; will
641 bite you if somebody e.g. turns FOO into an inline function.
643 4) forgetting about precedence: macros defining constants using expressions
644 must enclose the expression in parentheses. Beware of similar issues with
645 macros using parameters.
647 #define CONSTANT 0x4000
648 #define CONSTEXP (CONSTANT | 3)
650 The cpp manual deals with macros exhaustively. The gcc internals manual also
651 covers RTL which is used frequently with assembly language in the kernel.
654 Chapter 13: Printing kernel messages
656 Kernel developers like to be seen as literate. Do mind the spelling
657 of kernel messages to make a good impression. Do not use crippled
658 words like "dont"; use "do not" or "don't" instead. Make the messages
659 concise, clear, and unambiguous.
661 Kernel messages do not have to be terminated with a period.
663 Printing numbers in parentheses (%d) adds no value and should be avoided.
665 There are a number of driver model diagnostic macros in <linux/device.h>
666 which you should use to make sure messages are matched to the right device
667 and driver, and are tagged with the right level: dev_err(), dev_warn(),
668 dev_info(), and so forth. For messages that aren't associated with a
669 particular device, <linux/printk.h> defines pr_debug() and pr_info().
671 Coming up with good debugging messages can be quite a challenge; and once
672 you have them, they can be a huge help for remote troubleshooting. Such
673 messages should be compiled out when the DEBUG symbol is not defined (that
674 is, by default they are not included). When you use dev_dbg() or pr_debug(),
675 that's automatic. Many subsystems have Kconfig options to turn on -DDEBUG.
676 A related convention uses VERBOSE_DEBUG to add dev_vdbg() messages to the
677 ones already enabled by DEBUG.
680 Chapter 14: Allocating memory
682 The kernel provides the following general purpose memory allocators:
683 kmalloc(), kzalloc(), kcalloc(), vmalloc(), and vzalloc(). Please refer to
684 the API documentation for further information about them.
686 The preferred form for passing a size of a struct is the following:
688 p = kmalloc(sizeof(*p), ...);
690 The alternative form where struct name is spelled out hurts readability and
691 introduces an opportunity for a bug when the pointer variable type is changed
692 but the corresponding sizeof that is passed to a memory allocator is not.
694 Casting the return value which is a void pointer is redundant. The conversion
695 from void pointer to any other pointer type is guaranteed by the C programming
699 Chapter 15: The inline disease
701 There appears to be a common misperception that gcc has a magic "make me
702 faster" speedup option called "inline". While the use of inlines can be
703 appropriate (for example as a means of replacing macros, see Chapter 12), it
704 very often is not. Abundant use of the inline keyword leads to a much bigger
705 kernel, which in turn slows the system as a whole down, due to a bigger
706 icache footprint for the CPU and simply because there is less memory
707 available for the pagecache. Just think about it; a pagecache miss causes a
708 disk seek, which easily takes 5 milliseconds. There are a LOT of cpu cycles
709 that can go into these 5 milliseconds.
711 A reasonable rule of thumb is to not put inline at functions that have more
712 than 3 lines of code in them. An exception to this rule are the cases where
713 a parameter is known to be a compiletime constant, and as a result of this
714 constantness you *know* the compiler will be able to optimize most of your
715 function away at compile time. For a good example of this later case, see
716 the kmalloc() inline function.
718 Often people argue that adding inline to functions that are static and used
719 only once is always a win since there is no space tradeoff. While this is
720 technically correct, gcc is capable of inlining these automatically without
721 help, and the maintenance issue of removing the inline when a second user
722 appears outweighs the potential value of the hint that tells gcc to do
723 something it would have done anyway.
726 Chapter 16: Function return values and names
728 Functions can return values of many different kinds, and one of the
729 most common is a value indicating whether the function succeeded or
730 failed. Such a value can be represented as an error-code integer
731 (-Exxx = failure, 0 = success) or a "succeeded" boolean (0 = failure,
734 Mixing up these two sorts of representations is a fertile source of
735 difficult-to-find bugs. If the C language included a strong distinction
736 between integers and booleans then the compiler would find these mistakes
737 for us... but it doesn't. To help prevent such bugs, always follow this
740 If the name of a function is an action or an imperative command,
741 the function should return an error-code integer. If the name
742 is a predicate, the function should return a "succeeded" boolean.
744 For example, "add work" is a command, and the add_work() function returns 0
745 for success or -EBUSY for failure. In the same way, "PCI device present" is
746 a predicate, and the pci_dev_present() function returns 1 if it succeeds in
747 finding a matching device or 0 if it doesn't.
749 All EXPORTed functions must respect this convention, and so should all
750 public functions. Private (static) functions need not, but it is
751 recommended that they do.
753 Functions whose return value is the actual result of a computation, rather
754 than an indication of whether the computation succeeded, are not subject to
755 this rule. Generally they indicate failure by returning some out-of-range
756 result. Typical examples would be functions that return pointers; they use
757 NULL or the ERR_PTR mechanism to report failure.
760 Chapter 17: Don't re-invent the kernel macros
762 The header file include/linux/kernel.h contains a number of macros that
763 you should use, rather than explicitly coding some variant of them yourself.
764 For example, if you need to calculate the length of an array, take advantage
767 #define ARRAY_SIZE(x) (sizeof(x) / sizeof((x)[0]))
769 Similarly, if you need to calculate the size of some structure member, use
771 #define FIELD_SIZEOF(t, f) (sizeof(((t*)0)->f))
773 There are also min() and max() macros that do strict type checking if you
774 need them. Feel free to peruse that header file to see what else is already
775 defined that you shouldn't reproduce in your code.
778 Chapter 18: Editor modelines and other cruft
780 Some editors can interpret configuration information embedded in source files,
781 indicated with special markers. For example, emacs interprets lines marked
790 compile-command: "gcc -DMAGIC_DEBUG_FLAG foo.c"
794 Vim interprets markers that look like this:
796 /* vim:set sw=8 noet */
798 Do not include any of these in source files. People have their own personal
799 editor configurations, and your source files should not override them. This
800 includes markers for indentation and mode configuration. People may use their
801 own custom mode, or may have some other magic method for making indentation
806 Appendix I: References
808 The C Programming Language, Second Edition
809 by Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie.
810 Prentice Hall, Inc., 1988.
811 ISBN 0-13-110362-8 (paperback), 0-13-110370-9 (hardback).
812 URL: http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/cbook/
814 The Practice of Programming
815 by Brian W. Kernighan and Rob Pike.
816 Addison-Wesley, Inc., 1999.
818 URL: http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/tpop/
820 GNU manuals - where in compliance with K&R and this text - for cpp, gcc,
821 gcc internals and indent, all available from http://www.gnu.org/manual/
823 WG14 is the international standardization working group for the programming
824 language C, URL: http://www.open-std.org/JTC1/SC22/WG14/
826 Kernel CodingStyle, by greg@kroah.com at OLS 2002:
827 http://www.kroah.com/linux/talks/ols_2002_kernel_codingstyle_talk/html/