Re: [PATCH v2 1/4] container_of: add container_of_const() that preserves const-ness of the pointer

[Matthew Wilcox]

On Tue, Dec 06, 2022 at 04:54:45PM +0100, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 06, 2022 at 03:13:29PM +0000, Matthew Wilcox wrote:
> > On Mon, Dec 05, 2022 at 01:12:03PM +0100, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> > > +/**
> > > + * container_of_const - cast a member of a structure out to the containing
> > > + *			structure and preserve the const-ness of the pointer
> > > + * @ptr:		the pointer to the member
> > > + * @type:		the type of the container struct this is embedded in.
> > > + * @member:		the name of the member within the struct.
> > > + */
> > > +#define container_of_const(ptr, type, member)				\
> > > +	_Generic(ptr,							\
> > > +		const typeof(*(ptr)) *: ((const type *)container_of(ptr, type, member)),\
> > > +		default: ((type *)container_of(ptr, type, member))	\
> > > +	)
> > > +
> > 
> > Reviewed-by: Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) <willy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > 
> > I tried doing this:
> > 
> > +++ b/include/linux/container_of.h
> > @@ -15,11 +15,17 @@
> >   *
> >   * WARNING: any const qualifier of @ptr is lost.
> >   */
> > -#define container_of(ptr, type, member) ({                             \
> > +#define _c_of(ptr, type, member) ({                                    \
> >         void *__mptr = (void *)(ptr);                                   \
> >         static_assert(__same_type(*(ptr), ((type *)0)->member) ||       \
> >                       __same_type(*(ptr), void),                        \
> >                       "pointer type mismatch in container_of()");       \
> >         ((type *)(__mptr - offsetof(type, member))); })
> > 
> > +#define container_of(ptr, type, m)                                     \
> > +       _Generic(ptr,                                                   \
> > +               const typeof(*(ptr)) *: (const type *)_c_of(ptr, type, m),\
> > +               default: ((type *)_c_of(ptr, type, m))                  \
> > +       )
> > +
> >  #endif /* _LINUX_CONTAINER_OF_H */
> > 
> > (whitespace damaged, yes the kernel-doc is now in the wrong place, etc)
> > 
> > It found a few problems; just building the mlx5 driver (I happened to be
> > doing some work on it in that tree).  We're definitely not ready to do
> > that yet, but I'll send a few patches to prepare for it.
> 
> Yeah, that's a good long-term goal to have here.  Once everything is
> moved over, switching all container_of_const() to just container_of()
> should be simple.

I found a problem in fs/dcache.c:

struct qstr {
        union {
                struct {
                        HASH_LEN_DECLARE;
                };
                u64 hash_len;
        };
        const unsigned char *name;
};

(note the const on "name")

static inline struct external_name *external_name(struct dentry *dentry)
{
        return container_of(dentry->d_name.name, struct external_name, name[0]);
}

dentry isn't const, but dentry->d_name.name is, so we match the const
case and the compiler emits a warning.  I don't think there's a way to
key off the constness of dentry instead of dentry->d_name.name, so
I've gone with the following for now.  Anybody prefer a different
approach?

diff --git a/fs/dcache.c b/fs/dcache.c
index 52e6d5fdab6b..b51a86f3cec6 100644
--- a/fs/dcache.c
+++ b/fs/dcache.c
@@ -288,7 +288,8 @@ struct external_name {
 
 static inline struct external_name *external_name(struct dentry *dentry)
 {
-	return container_of(dentry->d_name.name, struct external_name, name[0]);
+	return container_of_not_const(dentry->d_name.name,
+				      struct external_name, name[0]);
 }
 
 static void __d_free(struct rcu_head *head)
@@ -329,7 +330,8 @@ void release_dentry_name_snapshot(struct name_snapshot *name)
 {
 	if (unlikely(name->name.name != name->inline_name)) {
 		struct external_name *p;
-		p = container_of(name->name.name, struct external_name, name[0]);
+		p = container_of_not_const(name->name.name,
+					   struct external_name, name[0]);
 		if (unlikely(atomic_dec_and_test(&p->u.count)))
 			kfree_rcu(p, u.head);
 	}
diff --git a/include/linux/container_of.h b/include/linux/container_of.h
index 23389af3af94..bf609a072754 100644
--- a/include/linux/container_of.h
+++ b/include/linux/container_of.h
@@ -25,4 +25,7 @@
 		const typeof(*(ptr)) *: (const type *)__mptr,		\
 		default: ((type *)__mptr)); })
 
+#define container_of_not_const(ptr, type, member) 			\
+	(type *)container_of(ptr, type, member)
+
 #endif	/* _LINUX_CONTAINER_OF_H */