Re: [PATCH 01/14] tools lib traceevent: Get rid of malloc_or_die() in show_error()

[Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@ghostprotocols.net>]

Em Mon, Dec 09, 2013 at 02:03:42PM -0500, Steven Rostedt escreveu:
> On Mon, 9 Dec 2013 15:30:09 -0300
> Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@ghostprotocols.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> > > +		error = malloc(MAX_ERR_STR_SIZE);
> > > +		if (error == NULL) {
> > > +			/* no memory */
> > > +			*error_str = "failed to allocate memory";
> > > +			return;
> > 
> > Can *error_str point to either malloc'ed or constant strings? Who
> > releases the allocated memory?
> > 
> 
> Good question. Perhaps we should have a flag that states if the string
> is allocated or not. Or better yet, since the only reason it would be
> pointing to a static string is if the string for error_str itself
> failed to allocate. Then we could use a string within pevent for it:
> 
> static char *pevent_failed_error_alloc = "failed to allocate memory";
> 
> Then in the freeing of error str:
> 
> void pevent_free_error_str(error_str)
> {
> 	if (error_str != pevent_failed_error_alloc)
> 		free(error_str);
> }

That is a possibility, yes, then any other routine that works in such a
way could check against this string, but what is wrong with returning a
value to that function and checking against < 0?

- Arnaldo