[PATCH v3] http API: fix dangling pointer issue noted by GCC 12.0

The pre-release GCC 12.0 development branch has a new warning about dangling pointers in -Wall:

    http.c: In function ‘run_active_slot’:
    http.c:1332:24: error: storing the address of local variable ‘finished’ in ‘*slot.finished’ [-Werror=dangling-pointer=]
     1332 |         slot->finished = &finished;
          |         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~
    http.c:1330:13: note: ‘finished’ declared here
     1330 |         int finished = 0;
          |             ^~~~~~~~

This is on a locally built "gcc (GCC) 12.0.1 20220120 (experimental)", built from gcc.git's 8bc700f4c3f (Enhance vec_pack_trunc for integral mode mask., 2022-01-17).

The GCC warning is specifically about pointers that survive the exit of the function. See a comment added to "pass_waccess::use_after_inval_p" in the GCC commit that added the warning, or:

    /* The use is one of a dangling pointer if a clobber of the variable
      [the pointer points to] has not been found before the function exit
      point.  */
    [...]

There's a few possible ways to fix this, but the simplest is to assign NULL to "slot->finished" at the end of run_active_slot().

This isn't the only caller that assigns to "slot->finished", see see the assignments in http-walker.c:process_alternates_response() and http.c:finish_active_slot().

But those assignments are both to the pointer to our local variable here, so this fix is correct. The only way that code in http-walker.c could have done its assignments is to the pointer to this specific variable.

It was suggested[2] to guard that with "if (slot->finished == &finished)", but that'll still trigger the warning.

1. https://gcc.gnu.org/git/?p=gcc.git;a=commitdiff;h=9d6a0f388eb048f8d87f47af78f07b5ce513bfe6
2. https://lore.kernel.org/git/xmqq8rv2nggn.fsf@gitster.g/

Signed-off-by: Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com>
---

This should clarify the feedback on v2, sorry about the very late re-roll.

I.e. I *meant* in v2 that it's the only assignment to slot->finished itself is here, the other assignments in http-walker.c are to the pointer to our variable here.

Range-diff against v2:
1:  777838267a5 ! 1:  69190804c67 http API: fix dangling pointer issue noted by GCC 12.0
    @@ Commit message
             [...]
     
         There's a few possible ways to fix this, but the simplest is to assign
    -    NULL to "slot->finished" at the end of run_active_slot(), it's the
    -    only caller that ever assigns non-NULL to it. It was suggested[2] to
    -    guard that with "if (slot->finished == &finished)", but that'll still
    -    trigger the warning.
    +    NULL to "slot->finished" at the end of run_active_slot().
    +
    +    This isn't the only caller that assigns to "slot->finished", see see
    +    the assignments in http-walker.c:process_alternates_response() and
    +    http.c:finish_active_slot().
    +
    +    But those assignments are both to the pointer to our local variable
    +    here, so this fix is correct. The only way that code in http-walker.c
    +    could have done its assignments is to the pointer to this specific
    +    variable.
    +
    +    It was suggested[2] to guard that with "if (slot->finished ==
    +    &finished)", but that'll still trigger the warning.
     
         1. https://gcc.gnu.org/git/?p=gcc.git;a=commitdiff;h=9d6a0f388eb048f8d87f47af78f07b5ce513bfe6
         2. https://lore.kernel.org/git/xmqq8rv2nggn.fsf@gitster.g/

 http.c | 1 +
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)