Re: [PATCH v3 3/5] rtc: Fix the RTC time comparison issues adding cast

From: Alexandre Mergnat
Date: Mon Apr 14 2025 - 06:46:22 EST




On 11/04/2025 15:38, Alexandre Belloni wrote:
On 11/04/2025 14:35:56+0200, Alexandre Mergnat wrote:
The RTC subsystem was experiencing comparison issues between signed and
unsigned time values. When comparing time64_t variables (signed) with
potentially unsigned range values, incorrect results could occur leading
to runtime errors.

Adds explicit type casts to time64_t for critical RTC time comparisons
in both class.c and interface.c files. The changes ensure proper
handling of negative time values during range validation and offset
calculations, particularly when dealing with timestamps before 1970.

The previous implementation might incorrectly interpret negative values
as extremely large positive values, causing unexpected behavior in the
RTC hardware abstraction logic.

range_max is explicitly unsigned, casting it to a signed value will
break drivers.

Ok, It should be fine for all drivers using range_max =
U32_MAX
RTC_TIMESTAMP_END_2099
RTC_TIMESTAMP_END_9999
(1 << 14) * 86400ULL - 1

Whereas drivers using range_max = U64_MAX going in trouble:
rtc-goldfish.c
rtc-ps3.c
rtc-st-lpc.c
rtc-sun4v.c

Is it ok for you if I fix the drivers to avoid issue with signed range_max ? Because, at the end, you can't keep comparison operations between signed and unsigned variable, it lead to future issues.

Otherwise, I've another working implementation which remove all comparison operation and drivers doesn't require to be modify.


--
Regards,
Alexandre