Re: [PATCH net v3 3/3] net: liquidio: Initialize netdev pointer before queue setup

From: Kory Maincent

Date: Tue Jan 27 2026 - 12:06:54 EST


On Tue, 27 Jan 2026 15:12:41 +0000
Zilin Guan <zilin@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> In setup_nic_devices(), the netdev is allocated using alloc_etherdev_mq().
> However, the pointer to this structure is stored in oct->props[i].netdev
> only after the calls to netif_set_real_num_rx_queues() and
> netif_set_real_num_tx_queues().
>
> If either of these functions fails, setup_nic_devices() returns an error
> without freeing the allocated netdev. Since oct->props[i].netdev is still
> NULL at this point, the cleanup function liquidio_destroy_nic_device()
> will fail to find and free the netdev, resulting in a memory leak.
>
> Fix this by initializing oct->props[i].netdev before calling the queue
> setup functions. This ensures that the netdev is properly accessible for
> cleanup in case of errors.
>
> Compile tested only. Issue found using a prototype static analysis tool
> and code review.

I think this patch should be moved before patch 1.
Thanks to Patch 1 we are now cleaning the failing index, but we could face
dereference NULL pointer if we are failing in one of those
netif_set_real_num_rx_queues() and netif_set_real_num_tx_queues() functions.

With this patch moved:
Reviewed-by: Kory Maincent <kory.maincent@xxxxxxxxxxx>

Thank you!
--
Köry Maincent, Bootlin
Embedded Linux and kernel engineering
https://bootlin.com