Using assertion in the Linux kernel

Question

I have a question about assert() in Linux: can I use it in the kernel?

If no, what techniques do you usually use if, for example I don\'t want to enter NULL

Answer 1

Well, dereferencing null pointer will produce an oops, which you can use to find the offending code. Now, if you want to assert() a given condition, you can use

BUG_ON(condition)

A less lethal mechanism is WARN_ON, which will produce a backtrace without crashing the kernel.