Hi Thomas, On Thu, Mar 9, 2023 at 5:02 PM Thomas Zimmermann <tzimmermann@xxxxxxx> wrote: > Introduce struct option_iter and helpers to parse command-line > options with comma-separated key-value pairs. Then convert fbdev > drivers to the new interface. Fixes a memory leak in the parsing of > the video= option. > > Before commit 73ce73c30ba9 ("fbdev: Transfer video= option strings to > caller; clarify ownership"), a call to fb_get_options() either > returned an internal string or a duplicated string; hence ownership of > the string's memory buffer was not well defined, but depended on how > users specified the video= option on the kernel command line. For > global settings, the caller owned the returned memory and for per-driver > settings, fb_get_options() owned the memory. As calling drivers were > unable to detect the case, they had no option but to leak the the memory. > > Commit 73ce73c30ba9 ("fbdev: Transfer video= option strings to caller; > clarify ownership") changed semantics to caller-owned strings. Drivers > still leaked the memory, but at least ownership was clear. While I can find the actual patch[1], I cannot find this commit? Where was it applied? [1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/20230209135509.7786-3-tzimmermann@xxxxxxx > This patchset fixes the memory leak and changes string ownership back > to fb_get_options(). Patch 1 introduces struct option_iter and a few > helpers. The interface takes an option string, such as video=, in the > common form value1,key2:value2,value3 etc and returns the individual > comma-separated pairs. Various modules use this pattern, so the code > is located under lib/. > > Patches 2 to 100 go through fbdev drivers and convert them to the new > interface. This often requires a number of cleanups. A driver would > typically refer to the option string's video mode. Such strings are now > copied to driver-allocated memory so that drivers don't refer directly > to the option string's memory. The option iterator then replaces manual > parsing loops based on strsep(","). All driver-allocated memory is > released by removing the device or unloading the module. > > Patch 101 finally changes the ownership of the option string to be > internal to fb_get_option(); thereby fixing the memory leak. The option > iterator holds its own copy of the string and is not affected by the > change. > > Most fbdev drivers only support to parse option strings if they are > built-in. I assume that's because of the original fuzzy semantics of > fb_get_options(). A later patchset could change the driver to respect > video= settings in any configuration. > > v2: > * use kstrdup()/kfree() for video strings (Geert, Timur) > * fix iterator docs (Randy) > * update iterator interface Thanks for the update, this looks much better! Gr{oetje,eeting}s, Geert -- Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that. -- Linus Torvalds