We now have a cleaner way to keep compatibility with user-space
(a.k.a. not breaking it) when we need to keep in place a one-element
array (for its use in user-space) together with a flexible-array
member (for its use in kernel-space) without making it hard to read
at the source level. This is through the use of the new
__DECLARE_FLEX_ARRAY() helper macro.
The size and memory layout of the structure is preserved after the
changes. See below.
Before changes:
$ pahole -C ip_msfilter net/ipv4/igmp.o
struct ip_msfilter {
union {
struct {
__be32 imsf_multiaddr_aux; /* 0 4 */
__be32 imsf_interface_aux; /* 4 4 */
__u32 imsf_fmode_aux; /* 8 4 */
__u32 imsf_numsrc_aux; /* 12 4 */
__be32 imsf_slist[1]; /* 16 4 */
}; /* 0 20 */
struct {
__be32 imsf_multiaddr; /* 0 4 */
__be32 imsf_interface; /* 4 4 */
__u32 imsf_fmode; /* 8 4 */
__u32 imsf_numsrc; /* 12 4 */
__be32 imsf_slist_flex[0]; /* 16 0 */
}; /* 0 16 */
}; /* 0 20 */
/* size: 20, cachelines: 1, members: 1 */
/* last cacheline: 20 bytes */
};
After changes:
$ pahole -C ip_msfilter net/ipv4/igmp.o
struct ip_msfilter {
__be32 imsf_multiaddr; /* 0 4 */
__be32 imsf_interface; /* 4 4 */
__u32 imsf_fmode; /* 8 4 */
__u32 imsf_numsrc; /* 12 4 */
union {
__be32 imsf_slist[1]; /* 16 4 */
struct {
struct {
} __empty_imsf_slist_flex; /* 16 0 */
__be32 imsf_slist_flex[0]; /* 16 0 */
}; /* 16 0 */
}; /* 16 4 */
/* size: 20, cachelines: 1, members: 5 */
/* last cacheline: 20 bytes */
};
In the past, we had to duplicate the whole original structure within
a union, and update the names of all the members. Now, we just need to
declare the flexible-array member to be used in kernel-space through
the __DECLARE_FLEX_ARRAY() helper together with the one-element array,
within a union. This makes the source code more clean and easier to read.
Link: https://github.com/KSPP/linux/issues/193
Signed-off-by: Gustavo A. R. Silva <gustavoars@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>