Re: [RFC][PATCH] kmalloc + memset(foo, 0, bar) = kmalloc0

["J.A. Magallon" <jamagallon@able.es>]

On 09.12, Alan Cox wrote:
> On Iau, 2003-09-11 at 22:58, J.A. Magallon wrote:
> > On 09.11, Jamie Lokier wrote:
> > > viro@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk wrote:
> > > > Bad choice of name - too easy to confuse with kmalloc().
> > > 
> > > kmalloc_and_zero() would be much clearer.
> > > 
> > 
> > Why not kcalloc() ?
> 
> A kcalloc that also checked for maths overflows would probably
> help avoid various errors and checks against ~0/sizeof(n) in
> drivers we have now
> 

Some time ago when I tried to do some wrappers, I choosed something
like this (k-prefixed here for kernel...):

void* kalloc(size_t size)
void* kvalloc(size_t size,size_t num)
void* kallocz(size_t size) // or kalloc_z, clearer...
void* kvallocz(size_t size,size_t num) // kvalloc_z
void* kfree(void*)

And if you don't hate too much C++

#define knew(mytype) (mytype*)kalloc(sizeof(mytype))
#define kvnew(mytype,n) (mytype*)kvalloc(sizeof(mytype),n)

and so on...
I can tell for sure they clarify the code very much... and you
don't forget the NULL check anymore ;).

-- 
J.A. Magallon <jamagallon@able.es>      \                 Software is like sex:
werewolf.able.es                         \           It's better when it's free
Mandrake Linux release 9.2 (Cooker) for i586
Linux 2.4.23-pre2-jam1m (gcc 3.3.1 (Mandrake Linux 9.2 3.3.1-1mdk))