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

misc: 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>
Acked-by: Dimitri Sivanich <sivanich@hpe.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20200226222240.GA14474@embeddedor
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>

authored by

Gustavo A. R. Silva and committed by
Greg Kroah-Hartman
f490e8ae d108b132

+4 -4
+1 -1
drivers/misc/mei/hw.h
··· 216 216 217 217 struct mei_bus_message { 218 218 u8 hbm_cmd; 219 - u8 data[0]; 219 + u8 data[]; 220 220 } __packed; 221 221 222 222 /**
+1 -1
drivers/misc/mei/mei_dev.h
··· 533 533 #endif /* CONFIG_DEBUG_FS */ 534 534 535 535 const struct mei_hw_ops *ops; 536 - char hw[0] __aligned(sizeof(void *)); 536 + char hw[] __aligned(sizeof(void *)); 537 537 }; 538 538 539 539 static inline unsigned long mei_secs_to_jiffies(unsigned long sec)
+1 -1
drivers/misc/sgi-gru/grulib.h
··· 136 136 pid_t pid; 137 137 unsigned long vaddr; 138 138 int cch_locked; 139 - unsigned long data[0]; 139 + unsigned long data[]; 140 140 }; 141 141 142 142 /*
+1 -1
drivers/misc/sgi-gru/grutables.h
··· 372 372 int ts_data_valid; /* Indicates if ts_gdata has 373 373 valid data */ 374 374 struct gru_gseg_statistics ustats; /* User statistics */ 375 - unsigned long ts_gdata[0]; /* save area for GRU data (CB, 375 + unsigned long ts_gdata[]; /* save area for GRU data (CB, 376 376 DS, CBE) */ 377 377 }; 378 378