From: Junio C Hamano Date: Tue, 02 Aug 2016 17:38:23 GMT Subject: Re: [RFC/PATCH v11 03/13] bisect--helper: `write_terms` shell function in C Message-ID: In-Reply-To: <0102015640423cd0-ae286008-08b7-4ca4-9b2b-f4226aa80a97-000000@eu-west-1.amazonses.com> Pranit Bauva writes: > +static int write_terms(const char *bad, const char *good) > +{ > + FILE *fp; > + int res; > + > + if (!strcmp(bad, good)) > + return error(_("please use two different terms")); > + > + if (check_term_format(bad, "bad") || check_term_format(good, "good")) > + return -1; > + > + fp = fopen(git_path_bisect_terms(), "w"); > + if (!fp) > + return error_errno(_("could not open the file BISECT_TERMS")); > + > + res = fprintf(fp, "%s\n%s\n", bad, good); > + res |= fclose(fp); > + return (res < 0) ? -1 : 0; > +} If fprintf(3) were a function that returns 0 on success and negative on error (like fclose(3) is), the pattern to cascade the error return with "res |= another_call()" is appropriate, but the made me hiccup a bit while reading it. It is not wrong per-se and it would certainly be making it worse if we did something silly like res = fprintf(...) < 0 ? -1 : 0; res |= fclose(fp); so I guess what you have is the most succinct way to do this.