[PATCH][next] l2tp: Replace zero-length array with flexible-array member

[PATCH][next] l2tp: 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]

Lastly, fix the following checkpatch warning:
CHECK: Prefer kernel type 'u8' over 'uint8_t'
#50: FILE: net/l2tp/l2tp_core.h:119:
+	uint8_t			priv[];	/* private data */

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>
---
 net/l2tp/l2tp_core.h | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/net/l2tp/l2tp_core.h b/net/l2tp/l2tp_core.h
index 2db3d50d10a4..10cf7c3dcbb3 100644
--- a/net/l2tp/l2tp_core.h
+++ b/net/l2tp/l2tp_core.h
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ struct l2tp_session {
 	void (*recv_skb)(struct l2tp_session *session, struct sk_buff *skb, int data_len);
 	void (*session_close)(struct l2tp_session *session);
 	void (*show)(struct seq_file *m, void *priv);
-	uint8_t			priv[0];	/* private data */
+	u8			priv[];	/* private data */
 };
 
 /* Describes the tunnel. It contains info to track all the associated
-- 
2.25.0

Re: [PATCH][next] l2tp: Replace zero-length array with flexible-array member

[David Miller]

From: "Gustavo A. R. Silva" <gustavo@embeddedor.com>
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2020 07:30:45 -0600

> 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]
> 
> Lastly, fix the following checkpatch warning:
> CHECK: Prefer kernel type 'u8' over 'uint8_t'
> #50: FILE: net/l2tp/l2tp_core.h:119:
> +	uint8_t			priv[];	/* private data */
> 
> 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.