Re: [PATCH 02/10] intel: Remove extern from function prototypes

[David Miller <davem@davemloft.net>]

From: Ben Hutchings <bhutchings@solarflare.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2013 23:16:52 +0100

> On Tue, 2013-09-24 at 15:07 -0700, Jeff Kirsher wrote:
>> On Tue, 2013-09-24 at 14:09 -0700, Joe Perches wrote:
>> > There are a mix of function prototypes with and without extern
>> > in the kernel sources.  Standardize on not using extern for
>> > function prototypes.
>> > 
>> > Function prototypes don't need to be written with extern.
>> > extern is assumed by the compiler.  Its use is as unnecessary as
>> > using auto to declare automatic/local variables in a block.
>> 
>> So you are able to confirm that all compilers make this assumption
>> correctly?  The initial reason for using extern was because not all
>> compilers made the assumption or made it correctly.
> 
> You are probably thinking of global variables, where declarations
> without either 'extern' or an initialiser might or might not be treated
> as 'common'.  On function declarations, 'extern' really is redundant.

Furthermore, these networking headers include existing generic kernel
headers which already have removed the 'extern' from function
declarations in certain cases.

So I don't think there isn't an issue, and if there is it has existed
already for some time. :-)