netdev - Re: [PATCH] libbpf: Replace zero-length array with flexible-array

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Date:   Mon, 11 May 2020 17:26:27 +0200
From:   Daniel Borkmann <daniel@...earbox.net>
To:     Yonghong Song <yhs@...com>,
        "Gustavo A. R. Silva" <gustavoars@...nel.org>,
        Alexei Starovoitov <ast@...nel.org>
Cc:     Martin KaFai Lau <kafai@...com>, Song Liu <songliubraving@...com>,
        Andrii Nakryiko <andriin@...com>,
        John Fastabend <john.fastabend@...il.com>,
        KP Singh <kpsingh@...omium.org>, netdev@...r.kernel.org,
        bpf@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] libbpf: Replace zero-length array with flexible-array

On 5/9/20 9:16 PM, Yonghong Song wrote:
> On 5/7/20 11:50 AM, 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]
>>
>> sizeof(flexible-array-member) triggers a warning because flexible array
>> members have incomplete type[1]. There are some instances of code in
>> which the sizeof operator is being incorrectly/erroneously applied to
>> zero-length arrays and the result is zero. Such instances may be hiding
>> some bugs. So, this work (flexible-array member conversions) will also
>> help to get completely rid of those sorts of issues.
>>
>> 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 <gustavoars@...nel.org>
> 
> I think this is probably for bpf-next.
> 
> Acked-by: Yonghong Song <yhs@...com>

Applied, thanks!