Add a macro for allocating and populating a shallow copy of an array. It is intended to replace a sequence like this: ALLOC_ARRAY(dst, n); COPY_ARRAY(dst, src, n); With the less repetitve: DUP_ARRAY(dst, src, n); It checks whether the types of source and destination are compatible to ensure the copy can be used safely. An easier alternative would be to only consider the source and return a void pointer, that could be used like this: dst = ARRAY_DUP(src, n); That would be more versatile, as it could be used in declarations as well. Making it type-safe would require the use of typeof_unqual from C23, though. So use the safe and compatible variant for now. Signed-off-by: René Scharfe <l.s.r@xxxxxx> --- Why typeof_unqual and not just typeof? To remove const when duplicating a const array. git-compat-util.h | 5 +++++ 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+) diff --git a/git-compat-util.h b/git-compat-util.h index e81bb14fc9..44abb240ae 100644 --- a/git-compat-util.h +++ b/git-compat-util.h @@ -1115,6 +1115,11 @@ static inline void move_array(void *dst, const void *src, size_t n, size_t size) memmove(dst, src, st_mult(size, n)); } +#define DUP_ARRAY(dst, src, n) do { \ + size_t dup_array_n_ = (n); \ + COPY_ARRAY(ALLOC_ARRAY((dst), dup_array_n_), (src), dup_array_n_); \ +} while (0) + /* * These functions help you allocate structs with flex arrays, and copy * the data directly into the array. For example, if you had: -- 2.39.0