From affada726cad2402804ec29fc000276c7dc23b95 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Borislav Petkov Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2019 19:41:56 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] driver core: Clarify which counterparts to use to device_add() It is not absolutely clear from the docs how the cleanup path after device_add() should look like so spell it out explicitly. No functional changes, just documentation. Signed-off-by: Borislav Petkov Reviewed-by: Rafael J. Wysocki Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman --- drivers/base/core.c | 5 +++++ 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+) diff --git a/drivers/base/core.c b/drivers/base/core.c index 4aeaa0c..fd7511e 100644 --- a/drivers/base/core.c +++ b/drivers/base/core.c @@ -1999,6 +1999,11 @@ static int device_private_init(struct device *dev) * NOTE: _Never_ directly free @dev after calling this function, even * if it returned an error! Always use put_device() to give up your * reference instead. + * + * Rule of thumb is: if device_add() succeeds, you should call + * device_del() when you want to get rid of it. If device_add() has + * *not* succeeded, use *only* put_device() to drop the reference + * count. */ int device_add(struct device *dev) { -- 2.7.4