[Xen-devel] page_alloc query

[Ben Thomas <bthomas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

The following code is causing some questions.  Perhaps someone could
help explain it...  (xen/common/page_alloc.c)

Why are the zones unsigned ints when they are used as indices ?
The ASSERTS do checks to keep you out of some amount of
trouble, but the loop appears to be able to get you quickly
into trouble by driving the index negative and with a check
that doesn't appear to be effective.

static struct page_info *alloc_heap_pages(
    unsigned int zone_lo, unsigned zone_hi,
    unsigned int cpu, unsigned int order)
{
.
.
.
    ASSERT(zone_lo <= zone_hi);
    ASSERT(zone_hi < NR_ZONES);
.
.
.

        for ( zone = zone_hi; zone >= zone_lo; --zone )
        {
            /* check if target node can support the allocation */
            if ( avail[node] && (avail[node][zone] >= request) )

Has it just been a long day and I'm not reading this correctly ?
The older version of this code didn't appear to operate in this
fashion.  Is a simple change of unsigned -> signed sufficient here ?
(While it has been a long day, and it could be failing neurons,
this code has just crashed recently due to a bad index, so....)

I have to run, and can't fix this right now, so I'll settle for this
query.

Thanks,
-b


--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ben Thomas                                         Virtual Iron Software
bthomas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                            Tower 1, Floor 2
978-849-1214                                       900 Chelmsford Street
                                                   Lowell, MA 01851

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