Why do a lot of #defines in the kernel use do { ... } while(0)?
There are a couple of reasons:
(from Dave Miller) Empty statements give a warning from the compiler so this is why you see #define FOO do { } while(0).
(from Dave Miller) It gives you a basic block in which to declare local variables.
(from Ben Collins) It allows you to use more complex macros in conditional code. Imagine a macro of several lines of code like:
- #define FOO(x) /
- printf("arg is %s/n", x); /
- do_something_useful(x);
- if (blah == 2)
- FOO(blah);
- if (blah == 2)
- printf("arg is %s/n", blah);
- do_something_useful(blah);;
As you can see, the if then only encompasses the printf(), and the do_something_useful() call is unconditional (not within the scope of the if), like you wanted it. So, by using a block like do { ... } while(0), you would get this:
- if (blah == 2)
- do {
- printf("arg is %s/n", blah);
- do_something_useful(blah);
- } while (0);
(from Per Persson) As both Miller and Collins point out, you want a block statement so you can have several lines of code and declare local variables. But then the natural thing would be to just use for example:
- #define exch(x,y) { int tmp; tmp=x; x=y; y=tmp; }
However that wouldn't work in some cases. The following code is meant to be an if-statement with two branches:
- if (x > y)
- exch(x,y); // Branch 1
- else
- do_something(); // Branch 2
But it would be interpreted as an if-statement with only one branch:
- if (x > y) { // Single-branch if-statement!!!
- int tmp; // The one and only branch consists
- tmp = x; // of the block.
- x = y;
- y = tmp;
- }
- ; // empty statement
- else // ERROR!!! "parse error before else"
- do_something();
The problem is the semi-colon (;) coming directly after the block. The solution for this is to sandwich the block between do and while (0). Then we have a single statement with the capabilities of a block, but not considered as being a block statement by the compiler. Our if-statement now becomes:
- if (x > y)
- do {
- int tmp;
- tmp = x;
- x = y;
- y = tmp;
- } while(0);
- else
- do_something();
(from Bart Trojanowski) gcc adds Statement-Expressions which provide an alternative to the do-while-0 block. They provide the above mentioned benefits and are slightly more legible.
- #define FOO(arg) ({ /
- typeof(arg) lcl; /
- lcl = bar(arg); /
- lcl; /
- })