[PATCH v3 0/4] cleanup: Remove NULL check from unconditional guards

From: Dmitry Ilvokhin

Date: Mon May 18 2026 - 11:22:06 EST


Unconditional guard destructors have dead NULL checks. The lock operation in
the constructor would crash before the destructor ever runs with NULL.

- Patches 1-2 prepare guards that legitimately handle NULL.
- Patch 3 adds __nonnull() to guard constructors for compile-time enforcement.
- Patch 4 removes the dead checks.

As compiled by GCC-11 with defconfig on top of the locking/core:

Total: Before=23889980, After=23834334, chg -0.23%

Changes in v3:

- Audited usages of DEFINE_GUARD(), __DEFINE_UNLOCK_GUARD() and
DEFINE_LOCK_GUARD_1() to make sure NULL check removal will work correctly
(Peter Zijlstra).
- Moved NULL check into irqdesc_lock unlock expression (Peter Zijlstra).
- Added compiler-enforced nonnull() check for guard constructors.
- Converted nvdimm_bus guard to class.

Changes in v2:

- Expand commit message with detailed reasoning, why the proposed
change is correct.
- Rebase on top of locking/core.

v2: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260512071510.92451-1-d@xxxxxxxxxxxx/
v1: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260427165037.205337-1-d@xxxxxxxxxxxx/

See also [1] for relevant discussion.

[1]: https://lore.kernel.org/all/afCS4d4YccQFtvpi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/

Dmitry Ilvokhin (4):
nvdimm: Convert nvdimm_bus guard to class
genirq: Move NULL check into irqdesc_lock guard unlock expression
cleanup: Annotate guard constructors with __nonnull()
cleanup: Remove NULL check from unconditional guards

drivers/nvdimm/nd.h | 7 +++++--
include/linux/cleanup.h | 8 +++++---
include/linux/compiler_attributes.h | 6 ++++++
kernel/irq/internals.h | 2 +-
4 files changed, 17 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

--
2.53.0-Meta