From: Torsten Bögershausen Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 03:15:05 GMT Subject: Re: [PATCH 4/8] add functions for memory-efficient bitmaps Message-ID: <53AB9039.8040809@web.de> In-Reply-To: <20140625234000.GD23146@sigill.intra.peff.net> On 2014-06-26 01.40, Jeff King wrote: [] > + */ > +static inline int bitset_sizeof(int num_bits) > +{ > + return (num_bits + CHAR_BIT - 1) / CHAR_BIT; > +} Just a general question about the usage of "int" here (and at other places): Is there a special reason for new code to allow num_bits to be negative ? To my knowledge all the size_t definitions these days are positive, because a size can not be negative. As a reader of the code I always wonder if there is a special meaning with negative values, (as the result of read() to indicate an error) but there isn't. Should we use "unsigned" here ? or "unsigned int" ? or "size_t" (Which may use 64 bits, which feels like a overkill)