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List:       linux-wireless
Subject:    Re: [PATCH][next] prism54: Replace zero-length array with flexible-array member
From:       Luis Chamberlain <mcgrof () kernel ! org>
Date:       2020-02-25 18:32:48
Message-ID: 20200225183247.GW11244 () 42 ! do-not-panic ! com
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On Mon, Feb 24, 2020 at 07:20:08PM -0600, Gustavo A. R. Silva wrote:
> The current codebase makes use of the zero-length array language
> extension to the C90 standard, but the preferred mechanism to declare
> variable-length types such as these ones is a flexible array member[1][2],
> introduced in C99:
> 
> struct foo {
>         int stuff;
>         struct boo array[];
> };
> 
> By making use of the mechanism above, we will get a compiler warning
> in case the flexible array does not occur last in the structure, which
> will help us prevent some kind of undefined behavior bugs from being
> inadvertently introduced[3] to the codebase from now on.
> 
> Also, notice that, dynamic memory allocations won't be affected by
> this change:
> 
> "Flexible array members have incomplete type, and so the sizeof operator
> may not be applied. As a quirk of the original implementation of
> zero-length arrays, sizeof evaluates to zero."[1]
> 
> This issue was found with the help of Coccinelle.
> 
> [1] https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Zero-Length.html
> [2] https://github.com/KSPP/linux/issues/21
> [3] commit 76497732932f ("cxgb3/l2t: Fix undefined behaviour")
> 
> Signed-off-by: Gustavo A. R. Silva <gustavo@embeddedor.com>

I'd rather we just remove this driver completely, as it has a
replacement upstream p54, and remained upstream just for a theoretical
period of time someone was not able to use p54 anymore. I'll follow up
with a removal of the driver.

  Luis
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