[PATCH][next] net: wireless: wl3501.h: Replace zero-length array with flexible-array member

[PATCH][next] net: wireless: wl3501.h: Replace zero-length array with flexible-array member

[Gustavo A. R. Silva]

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>
---
 drivers/net/wireless/wl3501.h | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/drivers/net/wireless/wl3501.h b/drivers/net/wireless/wl3501.h
index efdce9ae36ea..b446cb369557 100644
--- a/drivers/net/wireless/wl3501.h
+++ b/drivers/net/wireless/wl3501.h
@@ -231,7 +231,7 @@ struct iw_mgmt_info_element {
 	u8 id; /* one of enum iw_mgmt_info_element_ids,
 		  but sizeof(enum) > sizeof(u8) :-( */
 	u8 len;
-	u8 data[0];
+	u8 data[];
 } __packed;
 
 struct iw_mgmt_essid_pset {
-- 
2.23.0

Re: [PATCH][next] wl3501_cs: Replace zero-length array with flexible-array member

[Kalle Valo]

"Gustavo A. R. Silva" <gustavo@embeddedor.com> wrote:

> 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>

Patch applied to wireless-drivers-next.git, thanks.

53efdc9cb9e6 wl3501_cs: Replace zero-length array with flexible-array member

-- 
https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/11448183/

https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/developers/documentation/submittingpatches