Re: [PATCH 1/1] cat-file: fix a memory leak in cat_one_file

From: Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com>
Date: Nov 27, 2014, 06:18 UTC
Message-ID: <CAPig+cSnOc42msPYsBSv+PTgFsDyBqeL7yhSutuRQUkezpTdmw@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <20141127002417.GT6527@google.com>

On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 7:24 PM, Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com> wrote:

Show 15 quoted lines

> Alexander Kuleshov wrote:
> [...]
>> +++ b/builtin/cat-file.c
>> @@ -68,9 +69,14 @@ static int cat_one_file(int opt, const char
>> +        buf_must_free = 1;
>> +
>> -        if (!buf)
>> +        if (!buf) {
>> +            free(buf);
>>              die("Cannot read object %s", obj_name);
>
> Is this free() needed?  The program die()s right afterward, which
> would free all memory automatically as part of exiting.  Tools like
> valgrind would understand that nothing is wrong since buf is still
> reachable through the stack.

Moreover, 'buf' can only be NULL inside the conditional, so the free() is pointless.