[dpdk-dev] [PATCH] common/mlx5: fix bogus assert

[Stephen Hemminger]

On Tue, 31 Mar 2020 07:31:48 +0000
Slava Ovsiienko <viacheslavo at mellanox.com> wrote:

> Hi, Stephen
> 
> Thank you for the fix.
> 
> The exposed API to set MAC addresses:
> - mlx5_mac_addr_set (invoked by rte_mac_addr_set ())
> - mlx5_set_mc_addr_list (invoked by rte_eth_dev_set_mc_addr_list())
> 
> Both routines call mlx5_internal_mac_addr_add(), it in its turn calls
> mlx5_nl_mac_addr_add() (that is subject of the patch).
> 
> mlx5_nl_mac_addr_add is internal function, not exposed external API,
> the wrong parameter means the critical internal bug, so assert looks to be relevant here.
> I would not remove MLX5_ASSERT at all but fix just it. 
> Adding the parameter check and return an error is nice.
> What do you think?
> 
> With best regards, Slava

The real root cause is that sizeof(mac_own) is the wrong thing
to do. The error handling is up to you.

Since ASSERT's are compiled out they are never tested and are actually
making code less safe.