Re: [PATCH v2 17/23] bpf: selftests: introduce read_cgroup_file() helper

Roman Gushchin
2025-10-28T16:31:48Z

bot+bpf-ci@kernel.org writes:

> ```
> commit 712137918bba1b0a9c7c670bab9200b0f0d6a7e8
> Author: Roman Gushchin <roman.gushchin@linux.dev>
>
> bpf: selftests: introduce read_cgroup_file() helper
>
> This patch adds a new helper function read_cgroup_file() to read from
> cgroup control files in BPF selftests. The function opens a file,
> reads into a buffer, and returns the result.
>
>> diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/cgroup_helpers.c b/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/cgroup_helpers.c
>> index 20cede4db..8fb02fe4c 100644
>> --- a/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/cgroup_helpers.c
>> +++ b/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/cgroup_helpers.c
>> @@ -126,6 +126,45 @@ int enable_controllers(const char *relative_path, const char *controllers)
>> return __enable_controllers(cgroup_path, controllers);
>> }
>>
>> +static size_t __read_cgroup_file(const char *cgroup_path, const char *file,
>> + char *buf, size_t size)
>> +{
>> + char file_path[PATH_MAX + 1];
>> + size_t ret;
>> + int fd;
>> +
>> + snprintf(file_path, sizeof(file_path), "%s/%s", cgroup_path, file);
>> + fd = open(file_path, O_RDONLY);
>> + if (fd < 0) {
>> + log_err("Opening %s", file_path);
>> + return -1;
>
> Can __read_cgroup_file() return -1 when its return type is size_t?
>
> The function signature declares size_t (unsigned), but returns -1 here.
> When -1 is implicitly converted to size_t, it becomes SIZE_MAX
> (18446744073709551615 on 64-bit systems). Callers checking for errors
> with "if (ret < 0)" will fail because size_t is unsigned, and callers
> checking "if (ret == -1)" will also fail after the cast.
>
>> + }
>> +
>> + ret = read(fd, buf, size);
>> + close(fd);
>> + return ret;
>
> Does this handle read() errors correctly?
>
> The read() syscall returns ssize_t which can be negative on error.
> Assigning this to size_t (line 143) converts negative error codes into
> large positive numbers. For example, read() returning -1 becomes SIZE_MAX
> when stored in ret.
>
> Should the return type be ssize_t instead of size_t to properly propagate
> both success (byte count) and error (negative values) to callers?

Correct, fixed to ssize_t. Thanks!