Re: [PATCH v3 2/3] overflow: Introduce add_wrap(), sub_wrap(), and mul_wrap()

Kees Cook
2024-02-06T10:01:54Z

On Tue, Feb 06, 2024 at 09:42:26AM +0100, Rasmus Villemoes wrote:
> On 06/02/2024 00.21, Kees Cook wrote:
> >
> >
> > On February 5, 2024 11:17:12 PM GMT, Eric Biggers <ebiggers@kernel.org> wrote:
> >> On Mon, Feb 05, 2024 at 02:44:14PM -0800, Kees Cook wrote:
> >>> On Mon, Feb 05, 2024 at 12:21:45PM -0800, Eric Biggers wrote:
> >>>> On Mon, Feb 05, 2024 at 01:12:30AM -0800, Kees Cook wrote:
> >>>>> Subject: Re: [PATCH v3 2/3] overflow: Introduce add_wrap(), sub_wrap(), and mul_wrap()
> >>>>
> >>>> Maybe these should be called wrapping_add, wrapping_sub, and wrapping_mul?
> >>>> Those names are more grammatically correct, and Rust chose those names too.
> >>>
> >>> Sure, that works for me. What bout the inc_wrap() and dec_wrap() names?
> >>> I assume wrapping_inc() and wrapping_dec() ?
> >>>
> >>
> >> Yes, though I'm not sure those should exist at all. Maybe a += b should just
> >> become a = wrapping_add(a, b), instead of wrapping_inc(a, b)?
> >> wrapping_inc(a, b) isn't as self-explanatory. Likewise for wrapping_dec.
> >
> > It was to avoid repeating type information, as it would go from:
> >
> > var_a += var_b;
> >
> > to:
> >
> > var_a = wrapping_add(typeof(var_a), var_a, var_b);
> >
> > Which repeats "var_a" 3 times. :|
>
> Yeah, I think that's a reasonable rationale. I'm fine with the
> wrapping_* naming, and then the _inc and _dec helpers should follow.

Sounds good.

> However, I now wonder if those should really also return the new value.
> Yes, that corresponds to the value of the expression (a += b), but
> nobody would ever write c = (a += b) or otherwise make use of that
> value, and the naming doesn't immediately imply whether one should think
> of ++a or a++.

They were designed to return the new value, and the selftests validate
that. I've updated the kern-doc to reflect this.

--
Kees Cook