Re: [PATCH v2 06/27] update_refs(): Fix constness

From: Michael Haggerty <mhagger@alum.mit.edu>
Date: Mar 31, 2014, 22:16 UTC
Message-ID: <5339E948.4090109@alum.mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqha6e3v44.fsf@gitster.dls.corp.google.com>

On 03/31/2014 11:40 PM, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Show 14 quoted lines

> Michael Haggerty <mhagger@alum.mit.edu> writes:
> 
>> Since full const correctness is beyond the ability of C's type system,
>> just put the const where it doesn't do any harm.  A (struct ref_update
>> **) can be passed to a (struct ref_update * const *) argument, but not
>> to a (const struct ref_update **) argument.
> 
> Sounds good, but next time please try not to break lines inside a
> single typename, which is somewhat unreadable ;-)
> 
> I'd suggest rewording "s/Fix/tighten/".  Because a patch that
> changes constness can loosen constness to make things more correct,
> "git shortlog" output that says if it is tightening or loosening
> would be more informative than the one that says that it is "fixing".

It is not a strict tightening, because I add a "const" in one place but remove it from another:

    const struct ref_update **

becomes

    struct ref_update * const *

in the update_refs() signature. In fact, the old declaration was too strict for some changes later in the patch series, which is why I needed to loosen (one aspect) of it.

Michael

-- 
Michael Haggerty
mhagger@alum.mit.edu
http://softwareswirl.blogspot.com/