Using uninitialized_var() is dangerous as it papers over real bugs[1]
(or can in the future), and suppresses unrelated compiler warnings
(e.g. "unused variable"). If the compiler thinks it is uninitialized,
either simply initialize the variable or make compiler changes.

As recommended[2] by[3] Linus[4], remove the macro. With the recent
change to disable -Wmaybe-uninitialized in v5.7 in commit 78a5255ffb6a
("Stop the ad-hoc games with -Wno-maybe-initialized"), this is likely
the best time to make this treewide change.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20200603174714.192027-1-gli...@google.com/
[2] 
https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CA+55aFw+Vbj0i=1tgqcr5vqkczwj0qxk6cernou6eedsuda...@mail.gmail.com/
[3] 
https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/ca+55afwgbgqhbp1fkxvrkepzyr5j8n1vkt1vzdz9knmpuxh...@mail.gmail.com/
[4] 
https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CA+55aFz2500WfbKXAx8s67wrm9=yvju65tplgn_ybynv0ve...@mail.gmail.com/

Suggested-by: Linus Torvalds <torva...@linux-foundation.org>
Reviewed-by: Bart van Assche <bvanass...@acm.org>
Reviewed-by: Miguel Ojeda <miguel.ojeda.sando...@gmail.com>
Tested-by: Nathan Chancellor <natechancel...@gmail.com>
Tested-by: Sedat Dilek <sedat.di...@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Kees Cook <keesc...@chromium.org>
---
 include/linux/compiler-clang.h | 2 --
 include/linux/compiler-gcc.h   | 6 ------
 tools/include/linux/compiler.h | 2 --
 tools/virtio/linux/kernel.h    | 2 --
 4 files changed, 12 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/linux/compiler-clang.h b/include/linux/compiler-clang.h
index ee37256ec8bd..f2371b83aaf2 100644
--- a/include/linux/compiler-clang.h
+++ b/include/linux/compiler-clang.h
@@ -5,8 +5,6 @@
 
 /* Compiler specific definitions for Clang compiler */
 
-#define uninitialized_var(x) x = *(&(x))
-
 /* same as gcc, this was present in clang-2.6 so we can assume it works
  * with any version that can compile the kernel
  */
diff --git a/include/linux/compiler-gcc.h b/include/linux/compiler-gcc.h
index 7dd4e0349ef3..84e099a87383 100644
--- a/include/linux/compiler-gcc.h
+++ b/include/linux/compiler-gcc.h
@@ -59,12 +59,6 @@
        (typeof(ptr)) (__ptr + (off));                                  \
 })
 
-/*
- * A trick to suppress uninitialized variable warning without generating any
- * code
- */
-#define uninitialized_var(x) x = x
-
 #ifdef CONFIG_RETPOLINE
 #define __noretpoline __attribute__((__indirect_branch__("keep")))
 #endif
diff --git a/tools/include/linux/compiler.h b/tools/include/linux/compiler.h
index 9f9002734e19..2f2f4082225e 100644
--- a/tools/include/linux/compiler.h
+++ b/tools/include/linux/compiler.h
@@ -111,8 +111,6 @@
 # define noinline
 #endif
 
-#define uninitialized_var(x) x = *(&(x))
-
 #include <linux/types.h>
 
 /*
diff --git a/tools/virtio/linux/kernel.h b/tools/virtio/linux/kernel.h
index 6683b4a70b05..1e14ab967c11 100644
--- a/tools/virtio/linux/kernel.h
+++ b/tools/virtio/linux/kernel.h
@@ -109,8 +109,6 @@ static inline void free_page(unsigned long addr)
        const typeof( ((type *)0)->member ) *__mptr = (ptr);    \
        (type *)( (char *)__mptr - offsetof(type,member) );})
 
-#define uninitialized_var(x) x = x
-
 # ifndef likely
 #  define likely(x)    (__builtin_expect(!!(x), 1))
 # endif
-- 
2.25.1

Reply via email to