[PATCH][next] sfc: Replace zero-length array with flexible-array member

From: Gustavo A. R. Silva
Date: Mon Feb 24 2020 - 19:04:04 EST


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 <gustavo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
drivers/net/ethernet/sfc/falcon/net_driver.h | 2 +-
drivers/net/ethernet/sfc/net_driver.h | 2 +-
2 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/sfc/falcon/net_driver.h b/drivers/net/ethernet/sfc/falcon/net_driver.h
index a49ea2e719b6..a529ff395ead 100644
--- a/drivers/net/ethernet/sfc/falcon/net_driver.h
+++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/sfc/falcon/net_driver.h
@@ -288,7 +288,7 @@ struct ef4_rx_buffer {
struct ef4_rx_page_state {
dma_addr_t dma_addr;

- unsigned int __pad[0] ____cacheline_aligned;
+ unsigned int __pad[] ____cacheline_aligned;
};

/**
diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/sfc/net_driver.h b/drivers/net/ethernet/sfc/net_driver.h
index 9f9886f222c8..392bd5b7017e 100644
--- a/drivers/net/ethernet/sfc/net_driver.h
+++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/sfc/net_driver.h
@@ -336,7 +336,7 @@ struct efx_rx_buffer {
struct efx_rx_page_state {
dma_addr_t dma_addr;

- unsigned int __pad[0] ____cacheline_aligned;
+ unsigned int __pad[] ____cacheline_aligned;
};

/**
--
2.25.0