linux-kernel - [PATCH] slab: document kzfree() zeroing behavior

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Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0905311349160.17837@melkki.cs.Helsinki.FI>
Date:	Sun, 31 May 2009 13:50:38 +0300 (EEST)
From:	Pekka J Enberg <penberg@...helsinki.fi>
To:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
cc:	alan@...rguk.ukuu.org.uk, cl@...ux-foundation.org, mpm@...enic.com,
	npiggin@...e.de
Subject: [PATCH] slab: document kzfree() zeroing behavior

From: Pekka Enberg <penberg@...helsinki.fi>

As suggested by Alan Cox, document the fact that kzfree() can zero out a great
deal more memory than the what the user requested from kmalloc().

Cc: Alan Cox <alan@...rguk.ukuu.org.uk>
Signed-off-by: Pekka Enberg <penberg@...helsinki.fi>
---
 mm/util.c |    4 ++++
 1 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

diff --git a/mm/util.c b/mm/util.c
index 55bef16..e79572b 100644
--- a/mm/util.c
+++ b/mm/util.c
@@ -166,6 +166,10 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL(krealloc);
  *
  * The memory of the object @p points to is zeroed before freed.
  * If @p is %NULL, kzfree() does nothing.
+ *
+ * Note: this function zeroes the whole allocated buffer which can be a good
+ * deal bigger than the requested buffer size passed to kmalloc(). So be
+ * careful when using this function in performance sensitive code.
  */
 void kzfree(const void *p)
 {
-- 
1.6.0.6

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