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[PATCH 2/2] format-patch: free elements of rev.ref_message_ids list

From
Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date
May 19, 2023, 00:05 UTC
Message-ID
<20230519000543.GB1975194@coredump.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To
<20230519000239.GA1975039@coredump.intra.peff.net>

When we are showing multiple patches with format-patch, we have to repeatedly overwrite the rev.message_id field. We take care to avoid leaking the old value by either freeing it, or adding it to ref_message_ids, a string list of ids to reference in subsequent messages.

But unfortunately we do leak the value via that string list. We try to clear the string list, courtesy of 89f45cf4eb (format-patch: don't leak "extra_headers" or "ref_message_ids", 2022-04-13). But since it was initialized as "nodup", the string list doesn't realize it owns the strings, and it leaks them.

We have two options here:
  1. Continue to init with "nodup", but then tweak the value of
     ref_message_ids.strdup_strings just before clearing.
  2. Init with "dup", but use "append_nodup" when transferring ownership
     of strings to the list. Clearing just works.

I picked the second here, as I think it calls attention to the tricky part (transferring ownership via the nodup call).

There's one other related fix we have to do, though. We also insert the result of clean_message_id() into the list. This _sometimes_ allocates and sometimes does not, depending on whether we have to remove cruft from the end of the string. Let's teach it to consistently return an allocated string, so that the caller knows it must be freed.

There's no new test here, as the leak can already be see in t4014.44 (as well as others in that script). We can't mark all of t4014 as leak-free, though, as there are other unrelated leaks that it triggers.

Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
---
 builtin/log.c | 14 +++++++-------
 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)
diff --git a/builtin/log.c b/builtin/log.c
index ab74760386..fee5834c0f 100644
--- a/builtin/log.c
+++ b/builtin/log.c
@@ -1401,7 +1401,7 @@ static void make_cover_letter(struct rev_info *rev, int use_separate_file,
 	}
 }
 
-static const char *clean_message_id(const char *msg_id)
+static char *clean_message_id(const char *msg_id)
 {
 	char ch;
 	const char *a, *z, *m;
@@ -1419,7 +1419,7 @@ static const char *clean_message_id(const char *msg_id)
 	if (!z)
 		die(_("insane in-reply-to: %s"), msg_id);
 	if (++z == m)
-		return a;
+		return xstrdup(a);
 	return xmemdupz(a, z - a);
 }
 
@@ -2305,11 +2305,11 @@ int cmd_format_patch(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 
 	if (in_reply_to || thread || cover_letter) {
 		rev.ref_message_ids = xmalloc(sizeof(*rev.ref_message_ids));
-		string_list_init_nodup(rev.ref_message_ids);
+		string_list_init_dup(rev.ref_message_ids);
 	}
 	if (in_reply_to) {
-		const char *msgid = clean_message_id(in_reply_to);
-		string_list_append(rev.ref_message_ids, msgid);
+		char *msgid = clean_message_id(in_reply_to);
+		string_list_append_nodup(rev.ref_message_ids, msgid);
 	}
 	rev.numbered_files = just_numbers;
 	rev.patch_suffix = fmt_patch_suffix;
@@ -2365,8 +2365,8 @@ int cmd_format_patch(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 				    && (!cover_letter || rev.nr > 1))
 					free(rev.message_id);
 				else
-					string_list_append(rev.ref_message_ids,
-							   rev.message_id);
+					string_list_append_nodup(rev.ref_message_ids,
+								 rev.message_id);
 			}
 			gen_message_id(&rev, oid_to_hex(&commit->object.oid));
 		}
-- 
2.41.0.rc0.359.g22664e20e7
Previous: Jeff KingNext: Junio C Hamano
Message 3 of 6 in “a few format-patch leak fixes”
  1. 0/2 a few format-patch leak fixesJeff King, May 19, 2023
  2. 1/2 format-patch: free rev.message_id when exitingJeff King, May 19, 2023
  3. 2/2 format-patch: free elements of rev.ref_message_ids listJeff King, May 19, 2023
  4. Junio C HamanoMay 19, 2023
  5. Konstantin KhomoutovMay 19, 2023
  6. Junio C HamanoMay 19, 2023

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