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From: Josh Law <objecting@objecting.org>
To: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
	Josh Law <objecting@objecting.org>
Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: [PATCH 5/7] lib/glob: add glob_validate() for pattern syntax checking
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2026 17:11:02 +0000	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260315171104.268944-6-objecting@objecting.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20260315171104.268944-1-objecting@objecting.org>

Add glob_validate() which checks whether a glob pattern is
syntactically well-formed before matching.  It detects:

  - Unclosed character classes: a '[' with no matching ']'
  - Trailing backslash: a '\' at end of pattern with nothing to escape

glob_match() already handles these gracefully (unclosed brackets are
matched literally, a trailing backslash matches itself), but callers
like ftrace filters or sysfs attribute stores that accept patterns
from userspace may want to reject malformed input upfront with a
clear error rather than silently falling back to literal matching.

Signed-off-by: Josh Law <objecting@objecting.org>
---
 include/linux/glob.h |  1 +
 lib/glob.c           | 44 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 45 insertions(+)

diff --git a/include/linux/glob.h b/include/linux/glob.h
index 36527ae89730..deceaa2e4a74 100644
--- a/include/linux/glob.h
+++ b/include/linux/glob.h
@@ -7,5 +7,6 @@
 
 bool __pure glob_match(char const *pat, char const *str);
 bool __pure glob_match_nocase(char const *pat, char const *str);
+bool __pure glob_validate(char const *pat);
 
 #endif	/* _LINUX_GLOB_H */
diff --git a/lib/glob.c b/lib/glob.c
index 9c71ccc15abc..800163ed4dbf 100644
--- a/lib/glob.c
+++ b/lib/glob.c
@@ -186,3 +186,47 @@ bool __pure glob_match_nocase(char const *pat, char const *str)
 	return __glob_match(pat, str, true);
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(glob_match_nocase);
+
+/**
+ * glob_validate - Check whether a glob pattern is well-formed
+ * @pat: Shell-style pattern to validate.
+ *
+ * Return: true if @pat is a syntactically valid glob pattern, false
+ * if it contains malformed constructs.  The following are considered
+ * invalid:
+ *
+ *  - An opening '[' with no matching ']' (unclosed character class).
+ *  - A trailing '\' with no character following it.
+ *
+ * Note that glob_match() handles these gracefully (an unclosed bracket
+ * is matched literally, a trailing backslash matches itself), but
+ * callers that accept patterns from user input may wish to reject
+ * malformed patterns early with a clear error.
+ */
+bool __pure glob_validate(char const *pat)
+{
+	while (*pat) {
+		switch (*pat++) {
+		case '\\':
+			if (*pat == '\0')
+				return false;
+			pat++;
+			break;
+		case '[': {
+			if (*pat == '!' || *pat == '^')
+				pat++;
+			/* ] as first character is literal, not end of class */
+			if (*pat == ']')
+				pat++;
+			while (*pat && *pat != ']')
+				pat++;
+			if (*pat == '\0')
+				return false;
+			pat++;	/* skip ']' */
+			break;
+		}
+		}
+	}
+	return true;
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL(glob_validate);
-- 
2.34.1


  parent reply	other threads:[~2026-03-15 17:11 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 8+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2026-03-15 17:10 [PATCH 0/7] lib/glob: fixes, new features, and test coverage Josh Law
2026-03-15 17:10 ` [PATCH 1/7] lib/glob: normalize inverted character class ranges Josh Law
2026-03-15 17:10 ` [PATCH 2/7] lib/glob: treat trailing backslash as literal character Josh Law
2026-03-15 17:11 ` [PATCH 3/7] lib/glob: accept [^...] as character class negation syntax Josh Law
2026-03-15 17:11 ` [PATCH 4/7] lib/glob: add case-insensitive glob_match_nocase() Josh Law
2026-03-15 17:11 ` Josh Law [this message]
2026-03-15 17:11 ` [PATCH 6/7] lib/tests: add glob test cases for escapes, edge cases, and new features Josh Law
2026-03-15 17:11 ` [PATCH 7/7] lib/tests: add kunit tests for glob_match_nocase() and glob_validate() Josh Law

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