[PATCH v16 1/2] eal: remove alloc_size from rte_lcore_var_alloc

[Stephen Hemminger]

On Mon, 26 Jan 2026 21:28:59 -0800
scott.k.mitch1 at gmail.com wrote:

> From: Scott Mitchell <scott.k.mitch1 at gmail.com>
> 
> The __rte_alloc_size(1) attribute on rte_lcore_var_alloc() is
> semantically incorrect and causes false positives with FORTIFY_SOURCE
> runtime checks.
> 
> The attribute tells the compiler that the function returns a pointer
> to 'size' bytes of usable memory. However, rte_lcore_var_alloc()
> actually returns a handle to a per-lcore variable scheme. The
> allocator internally allocates 'size' bytes per lcore
> (size * RTE_MAX_LCORE total), partitioned into per-lcore sections.
> The handle points to lcore 0's copy, and accessed via
> RTE_LCORE_VAR_LCORE(lcore_id, handle) which computes:
> handle + (lcore_id * RTE_MAX_LCORE_VAR). Access is expected
> beyond 'size' bytes beyond the returned pointer when 'lcore_id != 0'
> but FORTIFY_SOURCE may terminate the program due to out of bounds
> access.
> 
> This can be observed on CI with gcc 13.3.0 in lcore_var_autotest with
> '*** buffer overflow detected ***: terminated' if pointer provenance
> is preserved (e.g. if offsets avoid casting to uintptr_t).
> 
> Fixes: 5bce9bed67ad ("eal: add static per-lcore memory allocation facility")
> Cc: mattias.ronnblom at ericsson.com
> Cc: stable at dpdk.org
> 
> Signed-off-by: Scott Mitchell <scott.k.mitch1 at gmail.com>

Acked-by: Stephen Hemminger <stephen at networkplumber.org>