char/tpm: Improve a size determination in nine functions

SF Markus Elfring elfring at users.sourceforge.net
Wed Oct 18 05:41:04 AEDT 2017


>> 	p = kmalloc(sizeof(*p), ...);
>>
>> The alternative form where struct name is spelled out hurts readability and
>> introduces an opportunity for a bug when the pointer variable type is changed
>> but the corresponding sizeof that is passed to a memory allocator is not.
> 
> True, thanks for the reminder.

Will it trigger further software development considerations (besides my contributions)?


> Is this common in new code?

Do you start an official survey here?


> Is there a script/ or some other automated way of catching this usage

Yes. - I am using an approach for the semantic patch language.   ;-)


> before patches are upstreamed?

I imagine that a corresponding source code analysis variant could be applied
in more cases if sufficient acceptance could be achieved.


> Just as you're doing here, the patch description should reference this
> in the patch description.

Do you find my wording “This issue was detected by using the Coccinelle software.” insufficient?

Regards,
Markus


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