Re: [PATCH 0/4] grep: retire `init_grep_defaults()`

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
Date: Nov 23, 2020, 11:03 UTC
Message-ID: <nycvar.QRO.7.76.6.2011231159340.56@tvgsbejvaqbjf.bet>
In-Reply-To: <cover.1605972564.git.martin.agren@gmail.com>

Hi Martin,

On Sat, 21 Nov 2020, Martin Ågren wrote:

Show 6 quoted lines

> Users of the grep machinery need to call `init_grep_defaults()` to
> populate some defaults. There's a comment: "We could let the compiler do
> this, but without C99 initializers the code gets unwieldy and
> unreadable, so...".
>
> We have such initializers now, so we can simplify accordingly.

When I read this at first, I feared that you would change a `pthread_init_mutex()` to using `PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER` instead. On the face of it, that would look good on paper, but it unfortunately falls flat for us because there is no Win32 equivalent for the static initializer: we emulate mutexes via `CRITICAL_SECTION`s, and those need to be initialized by running a function.

To my surprise and relief, your patches do not do that; The only mutex in `grep.c` (`grep_attr_mutex`) is not touched.

I just wanted to mention this here, in case anybody else had the same idea.

Thanks, Dscho