[PATCH v4 27/27] net/ice: avoid rte malloc in flow pattern match

[Bruce Richardson]

On Fri, Feb 13, 2026 at 10:26:38AM +0000, Anatoly Burakov wrote:
> Currently, when allocating buffers for pattern match items and flow item
> storage, we are using rte_zmalloc followed by immediate rte_free. This is
> not needed as these buffers are only used temporarily within the function
> scope, so replace it with regular calloc/free.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Anatoly Burakov <anatoly.burakov at intel.com>
> ---
>  drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_acl_filter.c    |  3 ++-
>  drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_fdir_filter.c   |  5 +++--
>  drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_generic_flow.c  | 15 +++++++--------
>  drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_hash.c          |  3 ++-
>  drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_switch_filter.c |  5 +++--
>  5 files changed, 17 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_acl_filter.c b/drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_acl_filter.c
> index 38e30a4f62..6754a40044 100644
> --- a/drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_acl_filter.c
> +++ b/drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_acl_filter.c
> @@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
>  #include <string.h>
>  #include <unistd.h>
>  #include <stdarg.h>
> +#include <stdlib.h>
>  #include <rte_debug.h>
>  #include <rte_ether.h>
>  #include <ethdev_driver.h>
> @@ -1009,7 +1010,7 @@ ice_acl_parse(struct ice_adapter *ad,
>  		*meta = filter;
>  
>  error:
> -	rte_free(item);
> +	free(item);
>  	return ret;
>  }

Should this code be reworked so that the error is propagated back to caller
and the item freed there so as allocation and freeing occur together in the
one function - or even in the same file?

>  
> diff --git a/drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_fdir_filter.c b/drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_fdir_filter.c
> index 5f44b5c818..8cca831fa9 100644
> --- a/drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_fdir_filter.c
> +++ b/drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_fdir_filter.c
> @@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
>   */
>  
>  #include <stdio.h>
> +#include <stdlib.h>
>  #include <rte_flow.h>
>  #include <rte_hash.h>
>  #include <rte_hash_crc.h>
> @@ -2504,11 +2505,11 @@ ice_fdir_parse(struct ice_adapter *ad,
>  		rte_free(filter->pkt_buf);
>  	}
>  
> -	rte_free(item);
> +	free(item);
>  	return ret;
>  error:
>  	rte_free(filter->pkt_buf);
> -	rte_free(item);
> +	free(item);
>  	return ret;
>  }
>  
> diff --git a/drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_generic_flow.c b/drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_generic_flow.c
> index 4049157eab..3f7a9f4714 100644
> --- a/drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_generic_flow.c
> +++ b/drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_generic_flow.c
> @@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
>  #include <string.h>
>  #include <unistd.h>
>  #include <stdarg.h>
> +#include <stdlib.h>
>  
>  #include <rte_ether.h>
>  #include <ethdev_driver.h>
> @@ -2136,19 +2137,17 @@ ice_search_pattern_match_item(struct ice_adapter *ad,
>  	}
>  	item_num++;
>  
> -	items = rte_zmalloc("ice_pattern",
> -			    item_num * sizeof(struct rte_flow_item), 0);
> +	items = calloc(item_num, sizeof(struct rte_flow_item));
>  	if (!items) {

<snip for brevity>