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

[Burakov, Anatoly]

On 2/16/2026 6:37 PM, Bruce Richardson wrote:
> 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?
> 

It should, and in fact further rework is also about fixing quirks like 
these. With this patch though, I tried to minimize the changes and not 
touch logic, because untangling these allocations is not trivial.

-- 
Thanks,
Anatoly