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[PATCH v2 02/11] clean: do not pass strbuf by value

From
Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date
Jul 31, 2025, 22:54 UTC
Message-ID
<20250731225433.4028872-3-gitster@pobox.com>
In-Reply-To
<20250731225433.4028872-1-gitster@pobox.com>

When you pass a structure by value, the callee can modify the contents of the structure that was passed in without having to worry about changing the structure the caller has. Passing structure by value sometimes (but not very often) can be a valid way to give callee a temporary variable it can freely modify.

But not a structure with members that are pointers, like a strbuf.

builtin/clean.c:list_and_choose() reads a line interactively from the user, and passes the line (in a strbuf) to parse_choice() by value, which then munges by replacing ',' with ' ' (to accept both comma and space separated list of choices). But because the strbuf passed by value still shares the underlying character array buf[], this ends up munging the caller's strbuf contents.

This is a catastrophe waiting to happen. If the callee causes the strbuf to be reallocated, the buf[] the caller has will become dangling, and when the caller does strbuf_release(), it would result in double-free.

Stop calling the function with misleading call-by-value with strbuf.
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
---
 builtin/clean.c | 10 +++++-----
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
diff --git a/builtin/clean.c b/builtin/clean.c
index 053c94fc6b..224551537e 100644
--- a/builtin/clean.c
+++ b/builtin/clean.c
@@ -477,7 +477,7 @@ static int find_unique(const char *choice, struct menu_stuff *menu_stuff)
  */
 static int parse_choice(struct menu_stuff *menu_stuff,
 			int is_single,
-			struct strbuf input,
+			struct strbuf *input,
 			int **chosen)
 {
 	struct strbuf **choice_list, **ptr;
@@ -485,14 +485,14 @@ static int parse_choice(struct menu_stuff *menu_stuff,
 	int i;
 
 	if (is_single) {
-		choice_list = strbuf_split_max(&input, '\n', 0);
+		choice_list = strbuf_split_max(input, '\n', 0);
 	} else {
-		char *p = input.buf;
+		char *p = input->buf;
 		do {
 			if (*p == ',')
 				*p = ' ';
 		} while (*p++);
-		choice_list = strbuf_split_max(&input, ' ', 0);
+		choice_list = strbuf_split_max(input, ' ', 0);
 	}
 
 	for (ptr = choice_list; *ptr; ptr++) {
@@ -630,7 +630,7 @@ static int *list_and_choose(struct menu_opts *opts, struct menu_stuff *stuff)
 
 		nr = parse_choice(stuff,
 				  opts->flags & MENU_OPTS_SINGLETON,
-				  choice,
+				  &choice,
 				  &chosen);
 
 		if (opts->flags & MENU_OPTS_SINGLETON) {
-- 
2.50.1-618-g45d530d26b
Previous: Junio C HamanoNext: Jeff King
Message 17 of 33 in “do not overuse strbuf_split*()”
  1. 0/9 do not overuse strbuf_split*()Junio C Hamano, Jul 31, 2025
  2. 1/9 wt-status: avoid strbuf_split*()Junio C Hamano, Jul 31, 2025
  3. 2/9 clean: do not pass strbuf by valueJunio C Hamano, Jul 31, 2025
  4. 3/9 clean: do not use strbuf_split*() [part 1]Junio C Hamano, Jul 31, 2025
  5. 4/9 clean: do not use strbuf_split*() [part 2]Junio C Hamano, Jul 31, 2025
  6. 5/9 merge-tree: do not use strbuf_split*()Junio C Hamano, Jul 31, 2025
  7. 6/9 notes: do not use strbuf_split*()Junio C Hamano, Jul 31, 2025
  8. Eric SunshineJul 31, 2025
  9. 7/9 config: do not use strbuf_split()Junio C Hamano, Jul 31, 2025
  10. Eric SunshineJul 31, 2025
  11. 8/9 environment: do not use strbuf_split*()Junio C Hamano, Jul 31, 2025
  12. 9/9 sub-process: do not use strbuf_split*()Junio C Hamano, Jul 31, 2025
  13. Christian CouderJul 31, 2025
  14. Junio C HamanoJul 31, 2025
  15. 00/11 do not overuse strbuf_split*()Junio C Hamano, Jul 31, 2025
  16. 01/11 wt-status: avoid strbuf_split*()Junio C Hamano, Jul 31, 2025
  17. 02/11 clean: do not pass strbuf by valueJunio C Hamano, Jul 31, 2025
  18. Jeff KingAug 2, 2025
  19. Junio C HamanoAug 2, 2025
  20. Jeff KingAug 2, 2025
  21. 03/11 clean: do not use strbuf_split*() [part 1]Junio C Hamano, Jul 31, 2025
  22. 04/11 clean: do not use strbuf_split*() [part 2]Junio C Hamano, Jul 31, 2025
  23. 05/11 merge-tree: do not use strbuf_split*()Junio C Hamano, Jul 31, 2025
  24. Jeff KingAug 2, 2025
  25. 06/11 notes: do not use strbuf_split*()Junio C Hamano, Jul 31, 2025
  26. 07/11 config: do not use strbuf_split()Junio C Hamano, Jul 31, 2025
  27. 08/11 environment: do not use strbuf_split*()Junio C Hamano, Jul 31, 2025
  28. 09/11 sub-process: do not use strbuf_split*()Junio C Hamano, Jul 31, 2025
  29. 10/11 trace2: trim_trailing_newline followed by trim is a no-opJunio C Hamano, Jul 31, 2025
  30. 11/11 trace2: do not use strbuf_split*()Junio C Hamano, Jul 31, 2025
  31. Jeff KingAug 2, 2025
  32. Junio C HamanoAug 2, 2025
  33. Jeff KingAug 2, 2025

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