On Mon, May 18 2020 at 14:01, Gustavo A. R. Silva wrote: > The current codebase makes use of one-element arrays in the following > form: > > struct something { > int length; > u8 data[1]; > }; > > struct something *instance; > > instance = kmalloc(sizeof(*instance) + size, GFP_KERNEL); > instance->length = size; > memcpy(instance->data, source, size); > > 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. So, replace > the one-element array with a flexible-array member. > > Also, make use of the new struct_size() helper to properly calculate the > total size needed to allocate dynamic memory for struct uv_rtc_timer_head. > Notice that, due to the use of a one-element array, space for an extra > struct cpu: > > struct { > int lcpu; /* systemwide logical cpu number */ > u64 expires; /* next timer expiration for this cpu */ > } cpu[1] > > was being allocated at the moment of applying the sizeof operator to > struct uv_rtc_timer_head in the call to kmalloc_node() at line 159: > > 159 head = kmalloc_node(sizeof(struct uv_rtc_timer_head) + > 160 (uv_blade_nr_possible_cpus(bid) * > 161 2 * sizeof(u64)), > 162 GFP_KERNEL, nid); > > but that extra cpu[] was never actually being accessed due to the > following piece of code at line 168: > > 168 head->ncpus = uv_blade_nr_possible_cpus(bid); > > and the piece of code at line 187: > > 187 for (c = 0; c < head->ncpus; c++) { > 188 u64 exp = head->cpu[c].expires; > 189 if (exp < lowest) { > 190 bcpu = c; > 191 lowest = exp; > 192 } > 193 } > > so heap space was being wasted. > > Another thing important to notice is that through the use of the > struct_size() helper, code at line 161: > > 161 2 * sizeof(u64)), > > is changed to now be the actual size of struct cpu; see > sizeof(*(p)->member) at include/linux/overflow.h:314: > > 314 #define struct_size(p, member, n) \ > 315 __ab_c_size(n, \ > 316 sizeof(*(p)->member) + __must_be_array((p)->member),\ > 317 sizeof(*(p))) > > As a side note, the original developer could have implemented code at line > 161: 2 * sizeof(64) as follows: > > sizeof(*head->cpu) This changelog is an unparseable pile of word salad wasting brain heap space. The gist is: Variable sized arrays at the end of a struct should be defined as unsized array foo[] not as foo[1]. struct uv_rtc_timer_head contains a sized array cpu[1]. Switch it to an unsized array and use the struct_size() helper to calculate the allocation size. Thanks, tglx