Hello, NULL init is not needed Alternative option would be to use 'pe' above and to move the RCU_INIT_POINTER and pe = NULL with their comment here. It is up to you to decide which option is better..
Use rcu_dereference_protected to resolve sparse warning: net/netfilter/ipvs/ip_vs_ctl.c:1471:27: warning: dereference of noderef expression Fixes: 39b972231536 ("ipvs: handle connections started by r