Re: [PATCH] fpga: dfl: Replace zero-length array with flexible-array

From: matthew . gerlach
Date: Fri May 08 2020 - 14:19:06 EST




This looks like a a good change to me.

Tested-by: Matthew Gerlach <matthew.gerlach@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

On Thu, 7 May 2020, 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]

sizeof(flexible-array-member) triggers a warning because flexible array
members have incomplete type[1]. There are some instances of code in
which the sizeof operator is being incorrectly/erroneously applied to
zero-length arrays and the result is zero. Such instances may be hiding
some bugs. So, this work (flexible-array member conversions) will also
help to get completely rid of those sorts of issues.

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 <gustavoars@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
drivers/fpga/dfl.h | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/drivers/fpga/dfl.h b/drivers/fpga/dfl.h
index 9f0e656de720..1cd51ea52ce1 100644
--- a/drivers/fpga/dfl.h
+++ b/drivers/fpga/dfl.h
@@ -235,7 +235,7 @@ struct dfl_feature_platform_data {
unsigned long dev_status;
void *private;
int num;
- struct dfl_feature features[0];
+ struct dfl_feature features[];
};

static inline