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net: marvell: Replace zero-length array with flexible-array member

PATCH Applied Gustavo A. R. Silva 2 participants 2 messages Feb 25, 2020 – Feb 27, 2020

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PATCH 1/1 net: marvell: 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")

---
 drivers/net/ethernet/marvell/skge.h | 2 +-
 drivers/net/ethernet/marvell/sky2.h | 2 +-
 2 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
drivers/net/ethernet/marvell/skge.h +1 -1
index 6fa7b6a34c08..a1313d57e283 100644
@@ -2426,7 +2426,7 @@ struct skge_hw {
 	spinlock_t	     phy_lock;
 	struct tasklet_struct phy_task;
 
-	char		     irq_name[0]; /* skge@pci:000:04:00.0 */
+	char		     irq_name[]; /* skge@pci:000:04:00.0 */
 };
 
 enum pause_control {
drivers/net/ethernet/marvell/sky2.h +1 -1
index b02b6523083c..ada1ca60f088 100644
@@ -2309,7 +2309,7 @@ struct sky2_hw {
 	struct work_struct   restart_work;
 	wait_queue_head_t    msi_wait;
 
-	char		     irq_name[0];
+	char		     irq_name[];
 };
 
 static inline int sky2_is_copper(const struct sky2_hw *hw)
Signature · 1 line
2.25.0
maintainer Applied
#1 lore raw

From: "Gustavo A. R. Silva" <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2020 18:12:13 -0600

Quoted 22 lines

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]

Quoted 7 lines

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")

Applied.