Re: [RFC PATCH] type safe allocator

[Andi Kleen <andi@firstfloor.org>]

Miklos Szeredi <miklos@szeredi.hu> writes:

> I wonder why we don't have type safe object allocators a-la new() in
> C++ or g_new() in glib?
> 
>   fooptr = k_new(struct foo, GFP_KERNEL);
> 
> is nicer and more descriptive than
> 
>   fooptr = kmalloc(sizeof(*fooptr), GFP_KERNEL);
> 
> and more safe than
> 
>   fooptr = kmalloc(sizeof(struct foo), GFP_KERNEL);

How is it more safe? It seems 100% equivalent to me,
just a different syntax.

> 
> And we have zillions of both variants.

In my own non kernel code i tend to define a pascal style NEW()

#define NEW(p) ((p) = malloc(sizeof(*(p))))

But I'm not sure such a untraditional solution would too popular.

Also I don't think we have too many bugs in this area anyways; so
it might be better to concentrate on more fruitful areas.

-Andi