Re: [PATCH] ecryptfs: avoid heap allocation for inode size write

From: Tyler Hicks

Date: Wed Jul 01 2026 - 00:35:44 EST


On 2026-06-30 11:08:00, Yichong Chen wrote:
> ecryptfs_write_inode_size_to_header() allocates an 8-byte buffer only
> to write the encoded inode size to the lower file header.
>
> Use a stack __be64 value instead. This avoids an unnecessary allocation
> and removes a failure path without changing the data written to disk.
>
> Signed-off-by: Yichong Chen <chenyichong@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

This is much better. Thanks for the improvement!

I'll put your patches through some testing and then respond when they've
been applied. Thanks!

Tyler

> ---
> fs/ecryptfs/mmap.c | 15 ++++-----------
> 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/fs/ecryptfs/mmap.c b/fs/ecryptfs/mmap.c
> index 2c2b12fedeae..0222f98143ab 100644
> --- a/fs/ecryptfs/mmap.c
> +++ b/fs/ecryptfs/mmap.c
> @@ -355,24 +355,17 @@ static int ecryptfs_write_begin(const struct kiocb *iocb,
> */
> static int ecryptfs_write_inode_size_to_header(struct inode *ecryptfs_inode)
> {
> - char *file_size_virt;
> + __be64 file_size;
> int rc;
>
> - file_size_virt = kmalloc(sizeof(u64), GFP_KERNEL);
> - if (!file_size_virt) {
> - rc = -ENOMEM;
> - goto out;
> - }
> - put_unaligned_be64(i_size_read(ecryptfs_inode), file_size_virt);
> - rc = ecryptfs_write_lower(ecryptfs_inode, file_size_virt, 0,
> - sizeof(u64));
> - kfree(file_size_virt);
> + file_size = cpu_to_be64(i_size_read(ecryptfs_inode));
> + rc = ecryptfs_write_lower(ecryptfs_inode, (char *)&file_size, 0,
> + sizeof(file_size));
> if (rc < 0)
> printk(KERN_ERR "%s: Error writing file size to header; "
> "rc = [%d]\n", __func__, rc);
> else
> rc = 0;
> -out:
> return rc;
> }
>
> --
> 2.51.0
>