Re: [PATCH v6] kernel.h: Retain constant expression output for max()/min()

From: Ingo Molnar
Date: Tue Mar 27 2018 - 01:48:00 EST



* Kees Cook <keescook@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> In the effort to remove all VLAs from the kernel[1], it is desirable to
> build with -Wvla. However, this warning is overly pessimistic, in that
> it is only happy with stack array sizes that are declared as constant
> expressions, and not constant values. One case of this is the evaluation
> of the max() macro which, due to its construction, ends up converting
> constant expression arguments into a constant value result.
>
> All attempts to rewrite this macro with __builtin_constant_p() failed with
> older compilers (e.g. gcc 4.4)[2]. However, Martin Uecker constructed[3] a
> mind-shattering solution that works everywhere. Cthulhu fhtagn!
>
> This patch updates the min()/max() macros to evaluate to a constant
> expression when called on constant expression arguments. This removes
> several false-positive stack VLA warnings from an x86 allmodconfig
> build when -Wvla is added:

Cool!

Acked-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@xxxxxxxxxx>

How many warnings are left in an allmodconfig build?

Thanks,

Ingo