Bug 71101 – Stylebot should not complain about a RefPtr argument passed by pointer (RefPtr<...>*)

• Status: RESOLVED
• Resolution: WONTFIX
• Component: Tools / Tests

[Alexander Pavlov (apavlov)]

A legitimate use of RefPtr's in arguments passed as pointers (since this does not involve reference counter changes or something of the kind) is reported as a stylebot error.

[Vsevolod Vlasov]

Apparently this use is not actually legitimate.

https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=69366

[Alexander Pavlov (apavlov)]

(In reply to comment #1)
> Apparently this use is not actually legitimate.
> 
> https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=69366

Yes, that makes sense, since the pointer-vs-reference decision was changed recently. In my case, a change added a parameter to a method signature, and this method already had a RefPtr<..>* output parameter. Fixing this particular stylebot failure implied touching A LOT of this method call sites (I was adding a parameter with a default value) and fixing the method body instead of just modifying a dozen of lines for my original change. I agree, however, that this is a challenge to balance the stylebot output against the obsolete-styled code.

[Sam Weinig]

Where is this style used?  It seems quite odd so I would like to understand what its utility is.

[Alexander Pavlov (apavlov)]

(In reply to comment #3)
> Where is this style used?  It seems quite odd so I would like to understand what its utility is.

It is used in the InspectorBackendDispatcher generator which invokes methods on Inspector*Agent instances (as such, their method signatures use this style, too). It has been there for quite a while, since the times when the "output argument should be a reference, not a pointer" was proper style.

That said, I'm told that we are going to correct this shortly (this week), so that this will no longer be an issue, and I believe this bug can be closed as wontfix.