[Sahhaese]

This would achieve the same but is far more readable:

   while(status != SUCCESS) {
      status = syscall(...);
      // do something with status
   }

[taneq]

Only if status is initialised to something other than SUCCESS.

[blktiger]

So use a do-while instead.

[Izkata]

And this introduces another bug: it'll run the loop body even if syscall fails the first time it's run.

[dpzmick]

I've been going with this style for things like reading files (with retries) or any sort of loop that feels awkward.

  while (1) {
    int ret = ...;
    if (ret == ...) break;
    if (ret == some_other_condition) break;
    // additional termination conditions....
    // do exactly one thing
  }

[Izkata]

Your transformation has introduced a bug: the loop body will run once after success turns false.