Re: [PATCH v3] string.h: Add str_has_prefix() helper

[Joe Perches]

On Fri, 2018-12-21 at 18:13 -0500, Steven Rostedt wrote:
> From: "Steven Rostedt (VMware)" <rostedt@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> A discussion came up in the trace triggers thread about converting a
> bunch of:
> 
>  strncmp(str, "const", sizeof("const") - 1)
> 
> use cases into a helper macro. It started with:
> 
> 	strncmp(str, const, sizeof(const) - 1)
> 
> But then Joe Perches mentioned that if a const is not used, the
> sizeof() will be the size of a pointer, which can be bad. And that
> gcc will optimize strlen("const") into "sizeof("const") - 1".
> 
> Thinking about this more, a quick grep in the kernel tree found several
> (thousands!) of cases that use this construct. A quick grep also
> revealed that there's probably several bugs in that use case. Some are
> that people forgot the "- 1" (which I found) and others could be that
> the constant for the sizeof is different than the constant (although, I
> haven't found any of those, but I also didn't look hard).
> 
> I figured the best thing to do is to create a helper macro and place it
> into include/linux/string.h. And go around and fix all the open coded
> versions of it later.
> 
> Note, gcc appears to optimize this when we make it into an always_inline
> static function, which removes a lot of issues that a macro produces.
> 
> Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/e3e754f2bd18e56eaa8baf79bee619316ebf4cfc.1545161087.git.tom.zanussi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20181219211615.2298e781@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/CAHk-=wg_sR-UEC1ggmkZpypOUYanL5CMX4R7ceuaV4QMf5jBtg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 
> Cc: Tom Zanussi <zanussi@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Suggestions-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Suggestions-by: Joe Perches <joe@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Suggestions-by: Andreas Schwab <schwab@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt (VMware) <rostedt@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> 
> Changes since v2:
> 
>  - Rename the helper function to str_has_prefix()
>     (Linus Torvalds and Joe Perches)
> 
>  - Use a static inline, as that appears to still optimize correctly
>     (Andreas Schwab)
> 
>  include/linux/string.h | 20 ++++++++++++++++++++
>  1 file changed, 20 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/include/linux/string.h b/include/linux/string.h
> index 27d0482e5e05..a37859d91b57 100644
> --- a/include/linux/string.h
> +++ b/include/linux/string.h
> @@ -456,4 +456,24 @@ static inline void memcpy_and_pad(void *dest, size_t dest_len,
>  		memcpy(dest, src, dest_len);
>  }
>  
> +/**
> + * str_has_prefix - Test if a string has a given prefix
> + * @str: The string to test
> + * @prefix: The string to see if @str starts with
> + *
> + * A common way to test a prefix of a string is to do:
> + *  strncmp(str, prefix, sizeof(prefix) - 1)
> + *
> + * But this can lead to bugs due to typos, or if prefix is a pointer
> + * and not a constant. Instead use str_has_prefix().
> + *
> + * Returns: 0 if @str does not start with @prefix
> +         strlen(@prefix) if @str does start with @prefix
> + */
> +static __always_inline int str_has_prefix(const char *str, const char *prefix)
> +{
> +	int len = strlen(prefix);
> +	return strncmp(str, prefix, len) == 0 ? len : 0;
> +}

I believe this should be bool.

I don't find a use for non-zero assigned len value in the kernel
for strncmp and I believe the function should simply be:

static inline bool str_has_prefix(const char *str, const char prefix[])
{
	return !strncmp(str, prefix, strlen(prefix));
}

It's hard to believe __always_inline vs inline matters
for any single line function.