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

net: core: 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
d2afb41a b0c9a2d9

+3 -3
+1 -1
net/core/bpf_sk_storage.c
··· 60 60 * the number of cachelines access during the cache hit case. 61 61 */ 62 62 struct bpf_sk_storage_map __rcu *smap; 63 - u8 data[0] __aligned(8); 63 + u8 data[] __aligned(8); 64 64 }; 65 65 66 66 /* Linked to bpf_sk_storage and bpf_sk_storage_map */
+1 -1
net/core/devlink.c
··· 4232 4232 int attrtype; 4233 4233 u8 nla_type; 4234 4234 u16 len; 4235 - int value[0]; 4235 + int value[]; 4236 4236 }; 4237 4237 4238 4238 struct devlink_fmsg {
+1 -1
net/core/drop_monitor.c
··· 68 68 69 69 struct net_dm_hw_entries { 70 70 u32 num_entries; 71 - struct net_dm_hw_entry entries[0]; 71 + struct net_dm_hw_entry entries[]; 72 72 }; 73 73 74 74 struct per_cpu_dm_data {