[as I just wrote to lvm-devel:
http://www.redhat.com/archives/lvm-devel/2008-February/msg00017.html ]
Jim Meyering <jim@meyering.net> wrote:
> Since "free (NULL);" is universally safe these days, I propose
> to remove all of lvm's redundant "if-before-free" tests.
> If no one objects, I'll commit it tonight.
>
> In case you need more justification than "POSIX requires it",
> (understandable, that :-), the following was enough for Wine
> development a year and a half ago:
>
> http://www.winehq.org/pipermail/wine-patches/2006-October/031544.html
>
> Sure, the extra test is not a big deal, but removing it does make the
> code slightly smaller, and maybe even more readable (people won't wonder
> about the test of such a pointer, when they know that free can handle
> a NULL pointer).