mmap() doesn't like certain value...

DervishD
2002-05-08T19:55:15Z

Hello all :))

While writing a test program I used mmap using SIZE_MAX (which is
the maximum value storeable in a size_t variable) as the length, just
to see when mmap starts failing with EINVAL or ENOMEM.

Well, mmap() acted quite good and reasonable and gave me the
values I was searching for... except when a value of SIZE_MAX-4095 or
higher is passed to it.

I've taken a look at the kernel sources and in the file
mm/mmap.c, in the function do_mmap_pgoff, the length supplied is page
aligned (thru the macro PAGE_ALIGN). But this macro correctly says
that when we are at address SIZE_MAX-4095 or higher the next page in
the addressable space is the page at address 0. But we are dealing
with *sizes*, not addresses.

The matter is that mmap() doesn't fail with values of
SIZE_MAX-4095 and higher (as it should do), but succeeds returning
'0' as the address... This is due the calculus that PAGE_ALIGN does
with the enormous length passed (namely 4294963200 or higher, up to
the limit marked by SIZE_MAX: 2^32-1). This macro cannot be used with
numbers near to the limit. mmap() should return -1 and set errno to
EINVAL, as properly does when the enormous length is less than
2^32-4096.

I know: this lengths are enormous, nobody uses them, etc... but I
think that mmap shouldn't behave as bad just because nobody will use
the entire domain of the function. If the length domain is [0, 2^32)
the function should behave correctly, returning errors as
appropriate, not succeeding falsely. So please consider correcting
the problem (should suffice with eliminating the use of PAGE_ALIGN or
adding special cases to the test prior to its use).

If this is not a bug, but an intended behaviour please excuse me.
Moreover, I can provide a patch (I suppose) against the 2.4.18 tree.

Thanks a lot for reading this :)
Raúl