netdev - Re: [PATCH net-next v7 1/5] rust: core abstractions for network PHY drivers

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Message-ID: <ba9614cf-bff6-4617-99cb-311fe40288c1@proton.me>
Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2023 21:19:38 +0000
From: Benno Lossin <benno.lossin@...ton.me>
To: Boqun Feng <boqun.feng@...il.com>, FUJITA Tomonori <fujita.tomonori@...il.com>
Cc: netdev@...r.kernel.org, rust-for-linux@...r.kernel.org, andrew@...n.ch, tmgross@...ch.edu, miguel.ojeda.sandonis@...il.com, wedsonaf@...il.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH net-next v7 1/5] rust: core abstractions for network PHY drivers

On 10/27/23 21:59, Boqun Feng wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 26, 2023 at 09:10:46AM +0900, FUJITA Tomonori wrote:
> [...]
>> +    /// Gets the current link state.
>> +    ///
>> +    /// It returns true if the link is up.
>> +    pub fn is_link_up(&self) -> bool {
>> +        const LINK_IS_UP: u32 = 1;
>> +        // SAFETY: `phydev` is pointing to a valid object by the type invariant of `Self`.
>> +        let phydev = unsafe { *self.0.get() };
> 
> Tomo, FWIW, the above line means *copying* the content pointed by
> `self.0.get()` into `phydev`, i.e. `phydev` is the semantically a copy
> of the `phy_device` instead of an alias. In C code, it means you did:

Good catch. `phy_device` is rather large (did not look at the exact
size) and this will not be optimized on debug builds, so it could lead
to stackoverflows.

> 	struct phy_device phydev = *ptr;
> 
> Sure, both compilers can figure this out, therefore no extra copy is
> done, but still it's better to avoid this copy semantics by doing:
> 
> 	let phydev = unsafe { &*self.0.get() };

We need to be careful here, since doing this creates a reference
`&bindings::phy_device` which asserts that it is immutable. That is not
the case, since the C side might change it at any point (this is the
reason we wrap things in `Opaque`, since that allows mutatation even
through sharde references).

I did not notice this before, but this means we cannot use the `link`
function from bindgen, since that takes `&self`. We would need a
function that takes `*const Self` instead.

-- 
Cheers,
Benno