[dpdk-dev] [PATCH] eal: fix strdup usages in internal config

[Burakov, Anatoly]

On 31-Jan-19 11:21 AM, Kevin Traynor wrote:
> On 01/10/2019 01:38 PM, Anatoly Burakov wrote:
>> Currently, we use strdup in a few places to store command-line
>> parameter values for certain internal config values. There are
>> several issues with that.
>>
>> First of all, they're never freed, so memory ends up leaking
>> either after EAL exit, or when these command-line options are
>> supplied multiple times.
>>
>> Second of all, they're defined as `const char *`, so they
>> *cannot* be freed even if we wanted to.
>>
>> Finally, strdup may return NULL, which will be stored in the
>> config. For most fields, NULL is a valid value, but for the
>> default prefix, the value is always expected to be valid.
>>
>> To fix all of this, three things are done. First, we change
>> the definitions of these values to `char *` as opposed to
>> `const char *`. This does not break the ABI, and previous
>> code assumes constness (which is more restrictive), so it's
>> safe to do so.
>>
>> Then, fix all usages of strdup to check return value, and add
>> a cleanup function that will free the memory occupied by
>> these strings, as well as freeing them before assigning a new
>> value to prevent leaks when parameter is specified multiple
>> times.
>>
>> And finally, add an internal API to query hugefile prefix, so
>> that, absent of a valid value, a default value will be
>> returned, and also fix up all usages of hugefile prefix to
>> use this API instead of accessing hugefile prefix directly.
>>
>> Bugzilla ID: 108
>>
> 
> Hi Anatoly - this doesn't have stable or Fixes tags, but the bugzilla
> was reported on 17.11. Is it for backport to stable branches?
> 

It can be. Whether it's worth the effort of backporting is not my call :)

-- 
Thanks,
Anatoly