SLUB: return ZERO_SIZE_PTR for kmalloc(0)
Instead of returning the smallest available object return ZERO_SIZE_PTR.
A ZERO_SIZE_PTR can be legitimately used as an object pointer as long as it
is not deferenced. The dereference of ZERO_SIZE_PTR causes a distinctive
fault. kfree can handle a ZERO_SIZE_PTR in the same way as NULL.
This enables functions to use zero sized object. e.g. n = number of objects.
objects = kmalloc(n * sizeof(object));
for (i = 0; i < n; i++)
objects[i].x = y;
kfree(objects);
Signed-off-by: Christoph Lameter <clameter@sgi.com>
Acked-by: Pekka Enberg <penberg@cs.helsinki.fi>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
diff --git a/include/linux/slub_def.h b/include/linux/slub_def.h
index 0764c82..a0ad374 100644
--- a/include/linux/slub_def.h
+++ b/include/linux/slub_def.h
@@ -70,11 +70,8 @@
*/
static inline int kmalloc_index(size_t size)
{
- /*
- * We should return 0 if size == 0 but we use the smallest object
- * here for SLAB legacy reasons.
- */
- WARN_ON_ONCE(size == 0);
+ if (!size)
+ return 0;
if (size > KMALLOC_MAX_SIZE)
return -1;
@@ -153,13 +150,25 @@
#define SLUB_DMA 0
#endif
+
+/*
+ * ZERO_SIZE_PTR will be returned for zero sized kmalloc requests.
+ *
+ * Dereferencing ZERO_SIZE_PTR will lead to a distinct access fault.
+ *
+ * ZERO_SIZE_PTR can be passed to kfree though in the same way that NULL can.
+ * Both make kfree a no-op.
+ */
+#define ZERO_SIZE_PTR ((void *)16)
+
+
static inline void *kmalloc(size_t size, gfp_t flags)
{
if (__builtin_constant_p(size) && !(flags & SLUB_DMA)) {
struct kmem_cache *s = kmalloc_slab(size);
if (!s)
- return NULL;
+ return ZERO_SIZE_PTR;
return kmem_cache_alloc(s, flags);
} else
@@ -172,7 +181,7 @@
struct kmem_cache *s = kmalloc_slab(size);
if (!s)
- return NULL;
+ return ZERO_SIZE_PTR;
return kmem_cache_zalloc(s, flags);
} else
@@ -188,7 +197,7 @@
struct kmem_cache *s = kmalloc_slab(size);
if (!s)
- return NULL;
+ return ZERO_SIZE_PTR;
return kmem_cache_alloc_node(s, flags, node);
} else