[PATCH] Input: tca6416-keypad - replace zero-length array with flexible-array member

[PATCH] Input: tca6416-keypad - 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/input/keyboard/tca6416-keypad.c | 4 ++--
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/input/keyboard/tca6416-keypad.c b/drivers/input/keyboard/tca6416-keypad.c
index 2a14769de637..21758767ccf0 100644
--- a/drivers/input/keyboard/tca6416-keypad.c
+++ b/drivers/input/keyboard/tca6416-keypad.c
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ MODULE_DEVICE_TABLE(i2c, tca6416_id);
 
 struct tca6416_drv_data {
 	struct input_dev *input;
-	struct tca6416_button data[0];
+	struct tca6416_button data[];
 };
 
 struct tca6416_keypad_chip {
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ struct tca6416_keypad_chip {
 	int irqnum;
 	u16 pinmask;
 	bool use_polling;
-	struct tca6416_button buttons[0];
+	struct tca6416_button buttons[];
 };
 
 static int tca6416_write_reg(struct tca6416_keypad_chip *chip, int reg, u16 val)
-- 
2.25.0

Re: [PATCH] Input: tca6416-keypad - replace zero-length array with flexible-array member

[Dmitry Torokhov]

On Fri, Feb 14, 2020 at 11:20:22AM -0600, 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]
> 
> 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>

Applied, thank you.

> ---
>  drivers/input/keyboard/tca6416-keypad.c | 4 ++--
>  1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/drivers/input/keyboard/tca6416-keypad.c b/drivers/input/keyboard/tca6416-keypad.c
> index 2a14769de637..21758767ccf0 100644
> --- a/drivers/input/keyboard/tca6416-keypad.c
> +++ b/drivers/input/keyboard/tca6416-keypad.c
> @@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ MODULE_DEVICE_TABLE(i2c, tca6416_id);
>  
>  struct tca6416_drv_data {
>  	struct input_dev *input;
> -	struct tca6416_button data[0];
> +	struct tca6416_button data[];
>  };
>  
>  struct tca6416_keypad_chip {
> @@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ struct tca6416_keypad_chip {
>  	int irqnum;
>  	u16 pinmask;
>  	bool use_polling;
> -	struct tca6416_button buttons[0];
> +	struct tca6416_button buttons[];
>  };
>  
>  static int tca6416_write_reg(struct tca6416_keypad_chip *chip, int reg, u16 val)
> -- 
> 2.25.0
> 

-- 
Dmitry