[PATCH] selftests/vfio: avoid VLAs

From: Alex Mastro

Date: Fri Jun 12 2026 - 17:58:43 EST


Allocate VFIO ioctl requests dynamically instead of using VLAs. GCC 11.5.0
rejects initialized VLAs with:

error: variable-sized object may not be initialized

The replaced stack u8 arrays also do not guarantee native struct alignment
for the aliased pointers.

Fixes: 19faf6fd969c ("vfio: selftests: Add a helper library for VFIO selftests")
Fixes: 20face8c75ff ("vfio: selftests: Add helper to set/override a vf_token")
Signed-off-by: Alex Mastro <amastro@xxxxxx>
Assisted-by: Codex:gpt-5.5-high
---
tools/testing/selftests/vfio/lib/vfio_pci_device.c | 28 +++++++++++++---------
1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)

diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/vfio/lib/vfio_pci_device.c b/tools/testing/selftests/vfio/lib/vfio_pci_device.c
index 94dc5fcecbeb..0b437435cce1 100644
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/vfio/lib/vfio_pci_device.c
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/vfio/lib/vfio_pci_device.c
@@ -30,13 +30,12 @@
static void vfio_pci_irq_set(struct vfio_pci_device *device,
u32 index, u32 vector, u32 count, int *fds)
{
- u8 buf[sizeof(struct vfio_irq_set) + sizeof(int) * count];
- struct vfio_irq_set *irq = (void *)&buf;
- int *irq_fds = (void *)&irq->data;
+ struct vfio_irq_set *irq;
+ size_t irq_size = sizeof(*irq) + sizeof(int) * count;

- memset(buf, 0, sizeof(buf));
-
- irq->argsz = sizeof(buf);
+ irq = calloc(1, irq_size);
+ VFIO_ASSERT_NOT_NULL(irq);
+ irq->argsz = irq_size;
irq->flags = VFIO_IRQ_SET_ACTION_TRIGGER;
irq->index = index;
irq->start = vector;
@@ -44,12 +43,13 @@ static void vfio_pci_irq_set(struct vfio_pci_device *device,

if (count) {
irq->flags |= VFIO_IRQ_SET_DATA_EVENTFD;
- memcpy(irq_fds, fds, sizeof(int) * count);
+ memcpy(irq->data, fds, sizeof(int) * count);
} else {
irq->flags |= VFIO_IRQ_SET_DATA_NONE;
}

ioctl_assert(device->fd, VFIO_DEVICE_SET_IRQS, irq);
+ free(irq);
}

void vfio_pci_irq_trigger(struct vfio_pci_device *device, u32 index, u32 vector)
@@ -118,15 +118,21 @@ static void vfio_pci_irq_get(struct vfio_pci_device *device, u32 index,
static int vfio_device_feature_ioctl(int fd, u32 flags, void *data,
size_t data_size)
{
- u8 buffer[sizeof(struct vfio_device_feature) + data_size] = {};
- struct vfio_device_feature *feature = (void *)buffer;
+ struct vfio_device_feature *feature;
+ size_t feature_size = sizeof(*feature) + data_size;
+ int ret;

+ feature = calloc(1, feature_size);
+ VFIO_ASSERT_NOT_NULL(feature);
memcpy(feature->data, data, data_size);

- feature->argsz = sizeof(buffer);
+ feature->argsz = feature_size;
feature->flags = flags;

- return ioctl(fd, VFIO_DEVICE_FEATURE, feature);
+ ret = ioctl(fd, VFIO_DEVICE_FEATURE, feature);
+ free(feature);
+
+ return ret;
}

static void vfio_device_feature_set(int fd, u16 feature, void *data, size_t data_size)

---
base-commit: a26b499b757cfc8bbff1088bb1b844639e250893
change-id: 20260612-scratch-amastro-vfio-selftests-avoid-vlas-395eb3dcb3ab

Best regards,
--
Alex Mastro <amastro@xxxxxx>