git/list[1] front-page[2] threads[3] people[4] search[5] about
 

Re: [PATCH 1/2] introduce "banned function" list

From
Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date
Jul 19, 2018, 22:46 UTC
Message-ID
<xmqqmuumdetr.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com>
In-Reply-To
<20180719203901.GA8079@sigill.intra.peff.net>
Jeff King <peff@peff.net> writes:
Show 26 quoted lines
> For enforcement, we can rely on the compiler and just
> introduce code which breaks compilation when it sees these
> functions. This has a few advantages:
>
>   1. We know it's run as part of a build cycle, so it's
>      hard to ignore. Whereas an external linter is an extra
>      step the developer needs to remember to do.
>
>   2. Likewise, it's basically free since the compiler is
>      parsing the code anyway.
>
>   3. We know it's robust against false positives (unlike a
>      grep-based linter).
>
> The one big disadvantage is that it will only check code
> that is actually compiled, so it may miss code that isn't
> triggered on your particular system. But since presumably
> people don't add new code without compiling it (and if they
> do, the banned function list is the least of their worries),
> we really only care about failing to clean up old code when
> adding new functions to the list. And that's easy enough to
> address with a manual audit when adding a new function
> (which is what I did for the functions here).
>
> That leaves only the question of how to trigger the
> compilation error. The goals are:
I actually have another question, though.

Is it a downside that it is cumbersome to override? This is not a rhetorical question. I am not convinced there will not be a legit circumstance that calling strcpy (or whatever we are going to ban) is the best solution and it is safe. By "best", what I mean is "you could instead use memcpy/strncpy/whatever" can legitimately be argued with "but still using memcpy/strncpy/whatever is inferior than using strcpy in this case for such and such reasons".

Previous: Jeff KingNext: Randall S. Becker
Message 11 of 42 in “fail compilation with strcpy”
  1. 0/2 fail compilation with strcpyJeff King, Jul 19, 2018
  2. 1/2 introduce "banned function" listJeff King, Jul 19, 2018
  3. Eric SunshineJul 19, 2018
  4. Jeff KingJul 19, 2018
  5. Eric SunshineJul 19, 2018
  6. Jeff KingJul 20, 2018
  7. Stefan BellerJul 19, 2018
  8. Jeff KingJul 19, 2018
  9. Stefan BellerJul 19, 2018
  10. Jeff KingJul 20, 2018
  11. Junio C HamanoJul 19, 2018
  12. Randall S. BeckerJul 19, 2018
  13. Jeff KingJul 20, 2018
  14. Jeff KingJul 20, 2018
  15. Junio C HamanoJul 20, 2018
  16. Jeff KingJul 20, 2018
  17. Theodore Y. Ts'oJul 20, 2018
  18. Jeff KingJul 20, 2018
  19. Junio C HamanoJul 20, 2018
  20. Derrick StoleeJul 20, 2018
  21. Duy NguyenJul 20, 2018
  22. Elijah NewrenJul 20, 2018
  23. Jeff KingJul 20, 2018
  24. Jeff KingJul 20, 2018
  25. 2/2 banned.h: mark strncpy as bannedJeff King, Jul 19, 2018
  26. Ævar Arnfjörð BjarmasonJul 19, 2018
  27. Jeff KingJul 19, 2018
  28. Junio C HamanoJul 20, 2018
  29. Jeff KingJul 20, 2018
  30. Junio C HamanoJul 20, 2018
  31. 0/4 fail compilation with strcpyJeff King, Jul 24, 2018
  32. 1/4 automatically ban strcpy()Jeff King, Jul 24, 2018
  33. Eric SunshineJul 24, 2018
  34. Jeff KingJul 26, 2018
  35. 1/4 automatically ban strcpy()Jeff King, Jul 26, 2018
  36. Junio C HamanoJul 26, 2018
  37. Jeff KingJul 27, 2018
  38. Junio C HamanoJul 27, 2018
  39. Jeff KingJul 28, 2018
  40. 2/4 banned.h: mark strcat() as bannedJeff King, Jul 24, 2018
  41. 3/4 banned.h: mark sprintf() as bannedJeff King, Jul 24, 2018
  42. 4/4 banned.h: mark strncpy() as bannedJeff King, Jul 24, 2018

Read the whole thread, see it on lore, or plain text.

$ cat FOOTERMessages come from the public archive at lore.kernel.org/git, fetched every hour. The front page is chosen and written each morning by an AI editor and can be wrong; the threads themselves are the record. About and API. For agents: an MCP server at https://gitlist.dev/mcp, and any thread, story or person page as Markdown by adding .md to its URL (or sending Accept: text/markdown). Details in /llms.txt.