Re: [PATCH][next] pnpbios: pnpbios.h: Replace zero-length array with flexible-array member

From: Rafael J. Wysocki
Date: Tue Mar 24 2020 - 12:13:55 EST


On 3/21/2020 12:18 AM, Gustavo A. R. Silva wrote:
The current codebase makes use of the zero-length array language
extension to the C90 standard, 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.

Also, notice that, dynamic memory allocations won't be affected by
this change:

"Flexible array members have incomplete type, and so the sizeof operator
may not be applied. As a quirk of the original implementation of
zero-length arrays, sizeof evaluates to zero."[1]

This issue was found with the help of Coccinelle.

[1] https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Zero-Length.html
[2] https://github.com/KSPP/linux/issues/21
[3] commit 76497732932f ("cxgb3/l2t: Fix undefined behaviour")

Signed-off-by: Gustavo A. R. Silva <gustavo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
drivers/pnp/pnpbios/pnpbios.h | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/drivers/pnp/pnpbios/pnpbios.h b/drivers/pnp/pnpbios/pnpbios.h
index 37acb8378f39..2ce739ff9c1a 100644
--- a/drivers/pnp/pnpbios/pnpbios.h
+++ b/drivers/pnp/pnpbios/pnpbios.h
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ struct pnp_bios_node {
__u32 eisa_id;
__u8 type_code[3];
__u16 flags;
- __u8 data[0];
+ __u8 data[];
};
#pragma pack()

Please resend this with a CC to linux-acpi, thanks!