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

libceph, rbd: replace zero-length array with flexible-array

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]

sizeof(flexible-array-member) triggers a warning because flexible array
members have incomplete type[1]. There are some instances of code in
which the sizeof operator is being incorrectly/erroneously applied to
zero-length arrays and the result is zero. Such instances may be hiding
some bugs. So, this work (flexible-array member conversions) will also
help to get completely rid of those sorts of issues.

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 <gustavoars@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Ilya Dryomov <idryomov@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Ilya Dryomov <idryomov@gmail.com>

authored by

Gustavo A. R. Silva and committed by
Ilya Dryomov
53ab8e7c dffdcd71

+3 -3
+1 -1
drivers/block/rbd_types.h
··· 93 93 __le32 snap_count; 94 94 __le32 reserved; 95 95 __le64 snap_names_len; 96 - struct rbd_image_snap_ondisk snaps[0]; 96 + struct rbd_image_snap_ondisk snaps[]; 97 97 } __attribute__((packed)); 98 98 99 99
+1 -1
include/linux/ceph/mon_client.h
··· 19 19 struct ceph_fsid fsid; 20 20 u32 epoch; 21 21 u32 num_mon; 22 - struct ceph_entity_inst mon_inst[0]; 22 + struct ceph_entity_inst mon_inst[]; 23 23 }; 24 24 25 25 struct ceph_mon_client;
+1 -1
include/linux/crush/crush.h
··· 87 87 struct crush_rule { 88 88 __u32 len; 89 89 struct crush_rule_mask mask; 90 - struct crush_rule_step steps[0]; 90 + struct crush_rule_step steps[]; 91 91 }; 92 92 93 93 #define crush_rule_size(len) (sizeof(struct crush_rule) + \