From the GCC manual:
nonstring
The nonstring variable attribute specifies that an object or member
declaration with type array of char, signed char, or unsigned char,
or pointer to such a type is intended to store character arrays that
do not necessarily contain a terminating NUL. This is useful in detecting
uses of such arrays or pointers with functions that expect NUL-terminated
strings, and to avoid warnings when such an array or pointer is used as
an argument to a bounded string manipulation function such as strncpy.
https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Common-Variable-Attributes.html
This attribute can be used for documentation purposes (i.e. replacing
comments), but it is most helpful when the following warnings are enabled:
-Wstringop-overflow
Warn for calls to string manipulation functions such as memcpy and
strcpy that are determined to overflow the destination buffer.
[...]
-Wstringop-truncation
Warn for calls to bounded string manipulation functions such as
strncat, strncpy, and stpncpy that may either truncate the copied
string or leave the destination unchanged.
[...]
In situations where a character array is intended to store a sequence
of bytes with no terminating NUL such an array may be annotated with
attribute nonstring to avoid this warning. Such arrays, however,
are not suitable arguments to functions that expect NUL-terminated
strings. To help detect accidental misuses of such arrays GCC issues
warnings unless it can prove that the use is safe.
https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Warning-Options.html
Tested-by: Sedat Dilek <sedat.dilek@gmail.com> # on top of v4.19-rc5, clang 7
Reviewed-by: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>
Reviewed-by: Nick Desaulniers <ndesaulniers@google.com>
Reviewed-by: Luc Van Oostenryck <luc.vanoostenryck@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Miguel Ojeda <miguel.ojeda.sandonis@gmail.com>
Instead of using version checks per-compiler to define (or not)
each attribute, use __has_attribute to test for them, following
the cleanup started with commit 815f0ddb34
("include/linux/compiler*.h: make compiler-*.h mutually exclusive"),
which is supported on gcc >= 5, clang >= 2.9 and icc >= 17.
In the meantime, to support 4.6 <= gcc < 5, we implement
__has_attribute by hand.
All the attributes that can be unconditionally defined and directly
map to compiler attribute(s) (even if optional) have been moved
to a new file include/linux/compiler_attributes.h
In an effort to make the file as regular as possible, comments
stating the purpose of attributes have been removed. Instead,
links to the compiler docs have been added (i.e. to gcc and,
if available, to clang as well). In addition, they have been sorted.
Finally, if an attribute is optional (i.e. if it is guarded
by __has_attribute), the reason has been stated for future reference.
Tested-by: Sedat Dilek <sedat.dilek@gmail.com> # on top of v4.19-rc5, clang 7
Reviewed-by: Nick Desaulniers <ndesaulniers@google.com>
Reviewed-by: Luc Van Oostenryck <luc.vanoostenryck@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Miguel Ojeda <miguel.ojeda.sandonis@gmail.com>
Miguel Ojeda