2020-03-19 21:39:39

by Gustavo A. R. Silva

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: [PATCH][next] hwspinlock: hwspinlock_internal.h: Replace zero-length array with flexible-array member

The current codebase makes use of the zero-length array language
extension to the C90 standard, but the preferred mechanism to declare
variable-length types such as these ones is a flexible array member[1][2],
introduced in C99:

struct foo {
int stuff;
struct boo array[];
};

By making use of the mechanism above, we will get a compiler warning
in case the flexible array does not occur last in the structure, which
will help us prevent some kind of undefined behavior bugs from being
inadvertently introduced[3] to the codebase from now on.

Also, notice that, dynamic memory allocations won't be affected by
this change:

"Flexible array members have incomplete type, and so the sizeof operator
may not be applied. As a quirk of the original implementation of
zero-length arrays, sizeof evaluates to zero."[1]

This issue was found with the help of Coccinelle.

[1] https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Zero-Length.html
[2] https://github.com/KSPP/linux/issues/21
[3] commit 76497732932f ("cxgb3/l2t: Fix undefined behaviour")

Signed-off-by: Gustavo A. R. Silva <[email protected]>
---
drivers/hwspinlock/hwspinlock_internal.h | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/drivers/hwspinlock/hwspinlock_internal.h b/drivers/hwspinlock/hwspinlock_internal.h
index 9eb6bd020dc7..29892767bb7a 100644
--- a/drivers/hwspinlock/hwspinlock_internal.h
+++ b/drivers/hwspinlock/hwspinlock_internal.h
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ struct hwspinlock_device {
const struct hwspinlock_ops *ops;
int base_id;
int num_locks;
- struct hwspinlock lock[0];
+ struct hwspinlock lock[];
};

static inline int hwlock_to_id(struct hwspinlock *hwlock)
--
2.23.0


2020-03-20 01:18:45

by Baolin Wang

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [PATCH][next] hwspinlock: hwspinlock_internal.h: Replace zero-length array with flexible-array member

On Fri, Mar 20, 2020 at 5:38 AM Gustavo A. R. Silva
<[email protected]> wrote:
>
> The current codebase makes use of the zero-length array language
> extension to the C90 standard, but the preferred mechanism to declare
> variable-length types such as these ones is a flexible array member[1][2],
> introduced in C99:
>
> struct foo {
> int stuff;
> struct boo array[];
> };
>
> By making use of the mechanism above, we will get a compiler warning
> in case the flexible array does not occur last in the structure, which
> will help us prevent some kind of undefined behavior bugs from being
> inadvertently introduced[3] to the codebase from now on.
>
> Also, notice that, dynamic memory allocations won't be affected by
> this change:
>
> "Flexible array members have incomplete type, and so the sizeof operator
> may not be applied. As a quirk of the original implementation of
> zero-length arrays, sizeof evaluates to zero."[1]
>
> This issue was found with the help of Coccinelle.
>
> [1] https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Zero-Length.html
> [2] https://github.com/KSPP/linux/issues/21
> [3] commit 76497732932f ("cxgb3/l2t: Fix undefined behaviour")
>
> Signed-off-by: Gustavo A. R. Silva <[email protected]>

Looks good to me. Thanks.
Reviewed-by: Baolin Wang <[email protected]>

> ---
> drivers/hwspinlock/hwspinlock_internal.h | 2 +-
> 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
>
> diff --git a/drivers/hwspinlock/hwspinlock_internal.h b/drivers/hwspinlock/hwspinlock_internal.h
> index 9eb6bd020dc7..29892767bb7a 100644
> --- a/drivers/hwspinlock/hwspinlock_internal.h
> +++ b/drivers/hwspinlock/hwspinlock_internal.h
> @@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ struct hwspinlock_device {
> const struct hwspinlock_ops *ops;
> int base_id;
> int num_locks;
> - struct hwspinlock lock[0];
> + struct hwspinlock lock[];
> };
>
> static inline int hwlock_to_id(struct hwspinlock *hwlock)
> --
> 2.23.0
>


--
Baolin Wang