[PATCH 2/2] include/linux/typecheck.h: Zero initialize dummy variables

From: Nathan Chancellor
Date: Thu May 01 2025 - 19:02:01 EST


A new on by default warning in clang [1] aims to flags instances where
const variables without static or thread local storage are not
initialized because it can lead to an indeterminate value. The __dummy
variables in the typecheck() macro are the only places within the kernel
where this warning currently occurs.

drivers/gpu/drm/i915/gt/intel_ring.h:62:2: error: default initialization of an object of type 'typeof (ring->size)' (aka 'const unsigned int') leaves the object uninitialized and is incompatible with C++ [-Werror,-Wdefault-const-init-var-unsafe]
62 | typecheck(typeof(ring->size), next);
| ^
include/linux/typecheck.h:10:9: note: expanded from macro 'typecheck'
10 | ({ type __dummy; \
| ^

include/net/ip.h:478:14: error: default initialization of an object of type 'typeof (rt->dst.expires)' (aka 'const unsigned long') leaves the object uninitialized and is incompatible with C++ [-Werror,-Wdefault-const-init-var-unsafe]
478 | if (mtu && time_before(jiffies, rt->dst.expires))
| ^
include/linux/jiffies.h:138:26: note: expanded from macro 'time_before'
138 | #define time_before(a,b) time_after(b,a)
| ^
include/linux/jiffies.h:128:3: note: expanded from macro 'time_after'
128 | (typecheck(unsigned long, a) && \
| ^
include/linux/typecheck.h:11:12: note: expanded from macro 'typecheck'
11 | typeof(x) __dummy2; \
| ^

Zero initialize the variables to silence the warning while not impacting
the final code generation because the comparison only matters at compile
time, as suggested on the PR of [1] by the clang maintainer.

Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Link: https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/commit/576161cb6069e2c7656a8ef530727a0f4aefff30 [1]
Reported-by: Linux Kernel Functional Testing <lkft@xxxxxxxxxx>
Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/CA+G9fYuNjKcxFKS_MKPRuga32XbndkLGcY-PVuoSwzv6VWbY=w@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx/
Reported-by: Marcus Seyfarth <m.seyfarth@xxxxxxxxx>
Closes: https://github.com/ClangBuiltLinux/linux/issues/2088
Signed-off-by: Nathan Chancellor <nathan@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
include/linux/typecheck.h | 4 ++--
1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/linux/typecheck.h b/include/linux/typecheck.h
index 46b15e2aaefb4e7a4d21c8797ec4d1578998981c..5b473c9905ae7fce58b7226b57b668f9ddaccaca 100644
--- a/include/linux/typecheck.h
+++ b/include/linux/typecheck.h
@@ -7,8 +7,8 @@
* Always evaluates to 1 so you may use it easily in comparisons.
*/
#define typecheck(type,x) \
-({ type __dummy; \
- typeof(x) __dummy2; \
+({ type __dummy = {}; \
+ typeof(x) __dummy2 = {}; \
(void)(&__dummy == &__dummy2); \
1; \
})

--
2.49.0