Re: [PATCH v6 1/5] slab: Introduce kmalloc_obj() and family

Dan Carpenter
2026-02-19T08:01:13Z

On Wed, Dec 03, 2025 at 03:30:31PM -0800, Kees Cook wrote:
> Introduce type-aware kmalloc-family helpers to replace the common
> idioms for single object and arrays of objects allocation:
>
> ptr = kmalloc(sizeof(*ptr), gfp);
> ptr = kmalloc(sizeof(struct some_obj_name), gfp);
> ptr = kzalloc(sizeof(*ptr), gfp);
> ptr = kmalloc_array(count, sizeof(*ptr), gfp);
> ptr = kcalloc(count, sizeof(*ptr), gfp);
>
> These become, respectively:
>
> ptr = kmalloc_obj(*ptr, gfp);

We are already getting patches that covert these to:

ptr = kmalloc_obj(ptr, gfp);

(without the *). This feels like the obvious bug people will introduce
with this API. I sort of think that "ptr = kmalloc_obj(ptr, gfp);" is
more natural, so maybe we could make it work that way instead?

regards,
dan carpenter