[PATCH] dmaengine: sprd: Replace zero-length array with flexible-array member

[PATCH] dmaengine: sprd: 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/dma/sprd-dma.c | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/drivers/dma/sprd-dma.c b/drivers/dma/sprd-dma.c
index 9a31a315dbef..954eff32cc05 100644
--- a/drivers/dma/sprd-dma.c
+++ b/drivers/dma/sprd-dma.c
@@ -212,7 +212,7 @@ struct sprd_dma_dev {
 	struct clk		*ashb_clk;
 	int			irq;
 	u32			total_chns;
-	struct sprd_dma_chn	channels[0];
+	struct sprd_dma_chn	channels[];
 };
 
 static void sprd_dma_free_desc(struct virt_dma_desc *vd);
-- 
2.25.0

Re: [PATCH] dmaengine: sprd: Replace zero-length array with flexible-array member

[Baolin Wang]

Hi,

On Sat, Feb 15, 2020 at 2:04 AM 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")

Looks good to me. Thanks.
Reviewed-by: Baolin Wang <baolin.wang7@gmail.com>

> Signed-off-by: Gustavo A. R. Silva <gustavo@embeddedor.com>
> ---
>  drivers/dma/sprd-dma.c | 2 +-
>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
>
> diff --git a/drivers/dma/sprd-dma.c b/drivers/dma/sprd-dma.c
> index 9a31a315dbef..954eff32cc05 100644
> --- a/drivers/dma/sprd-dma.c
> +++ b/drivers/dma/sprd-dma.c
> @@ -212,7 +212,7 @@ struct sprd_dma_dev {
>         struct clk              *ashb_clk;
>         int                     irq;
>         u32                     total_chns;
> -       struct sprd_dma_chn     channels[0];
> +       struct sprd_dma_chn     channels[];
>  };
>
>  static void sprd_dma_free_desc(struct virt_dma_desc *vd);
> --
> 2.25.0
>

Re: [PATCH] dmaengine: sprd: Replace zero-length array with flexible-array member

[Vinod Koul]

On 14-02-20, 11:15, Gustavo A. R. Silva 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]

Applied, thanks

-- 
~Vinod