Re: [PATCH 1/5] hw/core/loader: Make load_elf_hdr() return bool, simplify caller

[Daniel Henrique Barboza]

On 11/19/25 10:08 AM, Markus Armbruster wrote:

Signed-off-by: Markus Armbruster <arm...@redhat.com>
---

Nice cleanup


Reviewed-by: Daniel Henrique Barboza <dbarb...@ventanamicro.com>

  include/hw/loader.h |  4 +++-
  hw/arm/boot.c       |  6 +-----
  hw/core/loader.c    |  8 ++++++--
  hw/riscv/spike.c    | 10 +---------
  4 files changed, 11 insertions(+), 17 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/hw/loader.h b/include/hw/loader.h
index d035e72748..6f91703503 100644
--- a/include/hw/loader.h
+++ b/include/hw/loader.h
@@ -188,8 +188,10 @@ ssize_t load_elf(const char *filename,
   *
   * Inspect an ELF file's header. Read its full header contents into a
   * buffer and/or determine if the ELF is 64bit.
+ *
+ * Returns true on success, false on failure.
   */
-void load_elf_hdr(const char *filename, void *hdr, bool *is64, Error **errp);
+bool load_elf_hdr(const char *filename, void *hdr, bool *is64, Error **errp);

ssize_t load_aout(const char *filename, hwaddr addr, int max_sz,

                    bool big_endian, hwaddr target_page_size);
diff --git a/hw/arm/boot.c b/hw/arm/boot.c
index b91660208f..06b303aab8 100644
--- a/hw/arm/boot.c
+++ b/hw/arm/boot.c
@@ -766,16 +766,12 @@ static ssize_t arm_load_elf(struct arm_boot_info *info, 
uint64_t *pentry,
      int data_swab = 0;
      int elf_data_order;
      ssize_t ret;
-    Error *err = NULL;

-

-    load_elf_hdr(info->kernel_filename, &elf_header, &elf_is64, &err);
-    if (err) {
+    if (!load_elf_hdr(info->kernel_filename, &elf_header, &elf_is64, NULL)) {
          /*
           * If the file is not an ELF file we silently return.
           * The caller will fall back to try other formats.
           */
-        error_free(err);
          return -1;
      }

diff --git a/hw/core/loader.c b/hw/core/loader.c

index 590c5b02aa..10687fe1c8 100644
--- a/hw/core/loader.c
+++ b/hw/core/loader.c
@@ -364,8 +364,9 @@ const char *load_elf_strerror(ssize_t error)
      }
  }

-void load_elf_hdr(const char *filename, void *hdr, bool *is64, Error **errp)

+bool load_elf_hdr(const char *filename, void *hdr, bool *is64, Error **errp)
  {
+    bool ok = false;
      int fd;
      uint8_t e_ident_local[EI_NIDENT];
      uint8_t *e_ident;
@@ -380,7 +381,7 @@ void load_elf_hdr(const char *filename, void *hdr, bool 
*is64, Error **errp)
      fd = open(filename, O_RDONLY | O_BINARY);
      if (fd < 0) {
          error_setg_errno(errp, errno, "Failed to open file: %s", filename);
-        return;
+        return false;
      }
      if (read(fd, hdr, EI_NIDENT) != EI_NIDENT) {
          error_setg_errno(errp, errno, "Failed to read file: %s", filename);
@@ -415,8 +416,11 @@ void load_elf_hdr(const char *filename, void *hdr, bool 
*is64, Error **errp)
          off += br;
      }

+ ok = true;

+
  fail:
      close(fd);
+    return ok;
  }

/* return < 0 if error, otherwise the number of bytes loaded in memory */

diff --git a/hw/riscv/spike.c b/hw/riscv/spike.c
index b0bab3fe00..8531e1d121 100644
--- a/hw/riscv/spike.c
+++ b/hw/riscv/spike.c
@@ -180,15 +180,7 @@ static void create_fdt(SpikeState *s, const MemMapEntry 
*memmap,

static bool spike_test_elf_image(char *filename)

  {
-    Error *err = NULL;
-
-    load_elf_hdr(filename, NULL, NULL, &err);
-    if (err) {
-        error_free(err);
-        return false;
-    } else {
-        return true;
-    }
+    return load_elf_hdr(filename, NULL, NULL, NULL);
  }

static void spike_board_init(MachineState *machine)