[PATCH] commit-slab: clarify slabname##_peek()'s return value

From: SZEDER Gábor <szeder.dev@gmail.com>
Date: Mar 10, 2020, 15:30 UTC
Message-ID: <20200310153049.3482-1-szeder.dev@gmail.com>

Ever since 862e730ec1 (commit-slab: introduce slabname##_peek() function, 2015-05-14) the slabname##_peek() function is documented as:

  This function is similar to indegree_at(), but it will return NULL
  until a call to indegree_at() was made for the commit.

This, however, is usually not the case. If indegree_at() allocates memory, then it will do so not only for the single commit it got as parameter, but it will allocate a whole new, ~512kB slab. Later on, if any other commit's 'index' field happens to point into an already allocated slab, then indegree_peek() for such a commit will return a valid non-NULL pointer, pointing to a zero-initialized location in the slab, even if no indegree_at() call has been made for that commit yet.

Update slabname##_peek()'s documentation to clarify this.

Signed-off-by: SZEDER Gábor <szeder.dev@gmail.com>
---
 commit-slab.h | 7 ++++++-
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/commit-slab.h b/commit-slab.h
index 69bf0c807c..05b3f2804e 100644
--- a/commit-slab.h
+++ b/commit-slab.h
@@ -24,7 +24,12 @@
  * - int *indegree_peek(struct indegree *, struct commit *);
  *
  *   This function is similar to indegree_at(), but it will return NULL
- *   until a call to indegree_at() was made for the commit.
+ *   if the location to store the data associated with the given commit
+ *   has not been allocated yet.
+ *   Note that the location to store the data might have already been
+ *   allocated even if no indegree_at() call has been made for that commit
+ *   yet; in this case this function returns a pointer to a
+ *   zero-initialized location.
  *
  * - void init_indegree(struct indegree *);
  *   void init_indegree_with_stride(struct indegree *, int);

-- 
2.26.0.rc0.366.gb2d359bb99