Linux kernel mirror (for testing) git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git
kernel os linux

WAN: 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 <gustavo@embeddedor.com>
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>

authored by

Gustavo A. R. Silva and committed by
David S. Miller
37e1244a da60fbe7

+2 -2
+1 -1
drivers/net/wan/farsync.h
··· 65 65 struct fstioc_write { 66 66 unsigned int size; 67 67 unsigned int offset; 68 - unsigned char data[0]; 68 + unsigned char data[]; 69 69 }; 70 70 71 71
+1 -1
drivers/net/wan/wanxl.c
··· 78 78 struct sk_buff *rx_skbs[RX_QUEUE_LENGTH]; 79 79 struct card_status *status; /* shared between host and card */ 80 80 dma_addr_t status_address; 81 - struct port ports[0]; /* 1 - 4 port structures follow */ 81 + struct port ports[]; /* 1 - 4 port structures follow */ 82 82 }; 83 83 84 84