Re: [PATCH 1/2] [GSOC] Convert signed flags to unsigned

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Apr 1, 2017, 19:12 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqy3vkt008.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <20170401153049.21400-1-robert.stanca7@gmail.com>

Robert Stanca <robert.stanca7@gmail.com> writes:

> Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/2] [GSOC] Convert signed flags to unsigned

Try

    git shortlog --no-merges -40

to learn how commits are typically titled. And then imagine this patch makes into our codebase and appear in the output.

Can you tell what this commit is about from that single line title? No. You wouldn't even know that it is only touching bisect.h and nothing else.

What do your readers want "shortlog" output to tell them about your commit? What are the most important thing (other than giving you an excuse to say "I have completed a microproject and now I am eligible to apply to GSoC" ;-)? Your proposed commit log message, especially its title, must be written to help future readers of the project history.

Perhaps

    bisect.h: make flags field in rev_list_info unsigned

would help them better.

>  Unsigned int is a closer representation of bitflags rather than signed int that uses 1 special bit for sign.This shouldn't make much difference because rev_list_info.flags uses only 2 bits(BISECT_SHOW_ALL and REV_LIST_QUIET)

Overlong lines, without space after full-stop before the second sentence, without full-stop at the end of the sentence.

Show 16 quoted lines

>
> Signed-off-by: Robert Stanca <robert.stanca7@gmail.com>
> ---
>  bisect.h | 2 +-
>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
>
> diff --git a/bisect.h b/bisect.h
> index acd12ef80..a979a7f11 100644
> --- a/bisect.h
> +++ b/bisect.h
> @@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ extern struct commit_list *filter_skipped(struct commit_list *list,
>  
>  struct rev_list_info {
>  	struct rev_info *revs;
> -	int flags;
> +	unsigned int flags;

Have you checked how this field is used? For example, there is this line somewhere in rev-list.c

	int cnt, flags = info->flags;

and the reason why the code copies the value to a local variable "flags" must be because it is going to use it, just like it and other codepaths use info->flags, no? It makes the code inconsistent by leaving the local variable a signed int, I suspect.