linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 00/12] Clang -Wformat warning fixes

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Date:   Thu, 9 Jun 2022 15:49:21 -0700
From:   Bill Wendling <morbo@...gle.com>
To:     Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>
Cc:     Bill Wendling <isanbard@...il.com>,
        Tony Luck <tony.luck@...el.com>,
        Borislav Petkov <bp@...en8.de>,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
        Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>,
        Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@...ux.intel.com>,
        "maintainer:X86 ARCHITECTURE (32-BIT AND 64-BIT)" <x86@...nel.org>,
        "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>,
        Phillip Potter <phil@...lpotter.co.uk>,
        Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...db.de>,
        Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>,
        "Rafael J. Wysocki" <rafael.j.wysocki@...el.com>,
        Jan Kara <jack@...e.com>,
        Pablo Neira Ayuso <pablo@...filter.org>,
        Jozsef Kadlecsik <kadlec@...filter.org>,
        Florian Westphal <fw@...len.de>,
        "David S. Miller" <davem@...emloft.net>,
        Eric Dumazet <edumazet@...gle.com>,
        Jakub Kicinski <kuba@...nel.org>,
        Paolo Abeni <pabeni@...hat.com>,
        Jaroslav Kysela <perex@...ex.cz>,
        Takashi Iwai <tiwai@...e.com>,
        Nathan Chancellor <nathan@...nel.org>,
        Nick Desaulniers <ndesaulniers@...gle.com>,
        Tom Rix <trix@...hat.com>,
        Ross Philipson <ross.philipson@...cle.com>,
        Daniel Kiper <daniel.kiper@...cle.com>,
        linux-edac@...r.kernel.org, LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        ACPI Devel Maling List <linux-acpi@...r.kernel.org>,
        linux-mm@...ck.org, netfilter-devel@...r.kernel.org,
        coreteam@...filter.org, Networking <netdev@...r.kernel.org>,
        alsa-devel@...a-project.org,
        clang-built-linux <llvm@...ts.linux.dev>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 00/12] Clang -Wformat warning fixes

On Thu, Jun 9, 2022 at 3:25 PM Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org> wrote:
>
> On Thu,  9 Jun 2022 22:16:19 +0000 Bill Wendling <morbo@...gle.com> wrote:
>
> > This patch set fixes some clang warnings when -Wformat is enabled.
> >
>
> tldr:
>
> -       printk(msg);
> +       printk("%s", msg);
>
> the only reason to make this change is where `msg' could contain a `%'.
> Generally, it came from userspace.

It helps kernel developers not accidentally to insert an unescaped '%'
in their messages, potentially exposing their code to an attack
vector.

> Otherwise these changes are a
> useless consumer of runtime resources.

Calling a "printf" style function is already insanely expensive. :-) I
understand that it's not okay blithely to increase runtime resources
simply because it's already slow, but in this case it's worthwhile.

> I think it would be better to quieten clang in some fashion.

The "printk" and similar functions all have the "__printf" attribute.
I don't know of a modification to that attribute which can turn off
this type of check.

-bw