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

From: J. Bruce Fields
Date: Tue Mar 03 2020 - 11:45:42 EST


Applying for 5.7, thanks.--b.

On Mon, Feb 17, 2020 at 02:05:00PM -0600, Gustavo A. R. Silva 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 <gustavo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> net/sunrpc/xprtrdma/svc_rdma_rw.c | 2 +-
> 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
>
> diff --git a/net/sunrpc/xprtrdma/svc_rdma_rw.c b/net/sunrpc/xprtrdma/svc_rdma_rw.c
> index 48fe3b16b0d9..003610ce00bc 100644
> --- a/net/sunrpc/xprtrdma/svc_rdma_rw.c
> +++ b/net/sunrpc/xprtrdma/svc_rdma_rw.c
> @@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ struct svc_rdma_rw_ctxt {
> struct rdma_rw_ctx rw_ctx;
> int rw_nents;
> struct sg_table rw_sg_table;
> - struct scatterlist rw_first_sgl[0];
> + struct scatterlist rw_first_sgl[];
> };
>
> static inline struct svc_rdma_rw_ctxt *
> --
> 2.25.0