Re: [PATCH] cocci: remove 'unused.cocci'

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: May 1, 2023, 15:55 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqlei86o7s.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <230501.864jowjh15.gmgdl@evledraar.gmail.com>

Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com> writes:

Show 5 quoted lines

> It wasn't something I intended at the time, but arguably the main use of
> this rule since it was added was that it served as a canary for the tree
> becoming completely broken with coccinelle, due to adding C syntax it
> didn't understand:
> https://lore.kernel.org/git/220825.86ilmg4mil.gmgdl@evledraar.gmail.com/

If it weren't Coccinelle, we could have used the much nicer looking UNUSED(var) notation, and the compilers were all fine.

Only because Coccinelle did not understand the "cute" syntax trick, we couldn't. Yes, it caught us when we used a syntax it couldn't understand, but is that a good thing in the first place?