Re: [PATCH 29/32] lib/string_helpers: string_get_size() now returns characters wrote

Kees Cook
2023-07-12T19:58:59Z

On Tue, May 09, 2023 at 12:56:54PM -0400, Kent Overstreet wrote:
> From: Kent Overstreet <kent.overstreet@gmail.com>
>
> printbuf now needs to know the number of characters that would have been
> written if the buffer was too small, like snprintf(); this changes
> string_get_size() to return the the return value of snprintf().

Unfortunately, snprintf doesn't return characters written, it return
what it TRIED to write, and can cause a lot of problems[1]. This patch
would be fine with me if the snprintf was also replaced by scnprintf,
which will return the actual string length copied (or 0) *not* including
the trailing %NUL.

> [...]
> @@ -126,8 +126,8 @@ void string_get_size(u64 size, u64 blk_size, const enum string_size_units units,
> else
> unit = units_str[units][i];
>
> - snprintf(buf, len, "%u%s %s", (u32)size,
> - tmp, unit);
> + return snprintf(buf, len, "%u%s %s", (u32)size,
> + tmp, unit);

-Kees

[1] https://github.com/KSPP/linux/issues/105

--
Kees Cook