Re: [PATCH] virtio: Change typecasts in vring_init()

From: Michael S. Tsirkin
Date: Sat Aug 31 2019 - 13:43:46 EST


On Fri, Aug 30, 2019 at 05:58:23PM +0000, Matej Genci wrote:
> On 8/30/2019 3:02 PM, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
> > On Tue, Aug 27, 2019 at 03:20:57PM +0000, Matej Genci wrote:
> >> Compilers such as g++ 7.3 complain about assigning void* variable to
> >> a non-void* variable (like struct pointers) and pointer arithmetics
> >> on void*.
> >>
> >> Signed-off-by: Matej Genci <matej.genci@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> >> ---
> >> include/uapi/linux/virtio_ring.h | 9 +++++----
> >> 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
> >>
> >> diff --git a/include/uapi/linux/virtio_ring.h b/include/uapi/linux/virtio_ring.h
> >> index 4c4e24c291a5..2c339b9e2923 100644
> >> --- a/include/uapi/linux/virtio_ring.h
> >> +++ b/include/uapi/linux/virtio_ring.h
> >> @@ -168,10 +168,11 @@ static inline void vring_init(struct vring *vr, unsigned int num, void *p,
> >> unsigned long align)
> >> {
> >> vr->num = num;
> >> - vr->desc = p;
> >> - vr->avail = p + num*sizeof(struct vring_desc);
> >> - vr->used = (void *)(((uintptr_t)&vr->avail->ring[num] + sizeof(__virtio16)
> >> - + align-1) & ~(align - 1));
> >> + vr->desc = (struct vring_desc *)p;
> >> + vr->avail = (struct vring_avail *)((uintptr_t)p
> >> + + num*sizeof(struct vring_desc));
> >> + vr->used = (struct vring_used *)(((uintptr_t)&vr->avail->ring[num]
> >> + + sizeof(__virtio16) + align-1) & ~(align - 1));
> >> }
> >>
> >> static inline unsigned vring_size(unsigned int num, unsigned long align)
> >
> > I'm not really interested in building with g++, sorry.
> > Centainly not if it makes code less robust by forcing
> > casts where they weren't previously necessary.
>
> Can you elaborate on how these casts make the code less robust?

If we ever change the variable types build will still pass
because of the cast.

> They aren't necessary in C but I think being explicit can improve
> readability as argued in
> https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/a/275714
>
> >
> > However, vring_init and vring_size are legacy APIs anyway,
> > so I'd be happy to add ifndefs that will allow userspace
> > simply hide these functions if it does not need them.
> >
>
> I feel like my patch is a harmless way of allowing this header
> to be used in C++ projects, but I'm happy to drop it in lieu of
> the guards if you feel strongly about it.
>
> Thanks.
> Matej

Yea let's not even start.

> >
> >> --
> >> 2.22.0
> >>
>