[PATCH v4 07/10] watchdog: wdt-uclass.c: handle all DM watchdogs in watchdog_reset()

Wolfgang Denk wd at denx.de
Thu Aug 12 08:40:21 CEST 2021


Dear Tom,

In message <20210811124318.GT858 at bill-the-cat> you wrote:
> 
> > This argument fits on all types or effors: they are supposed to
> > never ever happen - at least in theory; in reality they do, and more
> > often than we like.
> > 
> > And a proper error message is mandatory for correct error handling.
> 
> Error messages are a fine line to walk.  We've got to have been very
> badly corrupted to go down this error path.  There's going to be lots of
> other error messages popping out.  Saving a bit of .text is good.  It
> makes it easier to justify spending a little .text later.

Letting errors slip through unnoticed when there is a trival way to
at least inform the user of the problem is simply unacceptable.

Please do not let U-Boot degrade into such a crappy piece of code.

There are tons of other places where we don't even mention code
size, so if you want to save on that, there are many bette4r places
to save than error handling.

> And here I agree, catch an error code, pass the error code back to the
> caller.  That's far more important than making sure that every error
> code we catch logs a message by default every time.

It does not matter where the error is reported - in the called
function, or in some caller firther up the call tree.  But it _must_
be reportet at least once.

So if we don't issue an error message here, we need to check and fix
the callers, too.

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,      Managing Director: Wolfgang Denk
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: wd at denx.de
If programming was easy, they wouldn't need something as  complicated
as a human being to do it, now would they?
                       - L. Wall & R. L. Schwartz, _Programming Perl_


More information about the U-Boot mailing list