@@ -302,6 +302,7 @@ struct scatterlist *sgl_alloc(unsigned long long length, gfp_t gfp,
unsigned int *nent_p);
void sgl_free_n_order(struct scatterlist *sgl, int nents, int order);
void sgl_free_order(struct scatterlist *sgl, int order);
+/* Only use sgl_free() when order is 0 */
void sgl_free(struct scatterlist *sgl);
#endif /* CONFIG_SGL_ALLOC */
@@ -493,9 +493,6 @@ struct scatterlist *sgl_alloc_order(unsigned long long length,
u32 elem_len;
nent = round_up(length, PAGE_SIZE << order) >> (PAGE_SHIFT + order);
- /* Check for integer overflow */
- if (length > (nent << (PAGE_SHIFT + order)))
- return NULL;
nalloc = nent;
if (chainable) {
/* Check for integer overflow */
This patch removes a check done by sgl_alloc_order() before it starts any allocations. The comment before the removed code says: "Check for integer overflow" arguably gives a false sense of security. The right hand side of the expression in the condition is resolved as u32 so cannot exceed UINT32_MAX (4 GiB) which means 'length' cannot exceed that amount. If that was the intention then the comment above it could be dropped and the condition rewritten more clearly as: if (length > UINT32_MAX) <<failure path >>; The author's intention is to use sgl_alloc_order() to replace vmalloc(unsigned long) for a large allocation (debug ramdisk). vmalloc has no limit at 4 GiB so its seems unreasonable that: sgl_alloc_order(unsigned long long length, ....) does. sgl_s made with sgl_alloc_order(chainable=false) have equally sized segments placed in a scatter gather array. That allows O(1) navigation around a big sgl using some simple integer maths. Having previously sent a patch to fix a memory leak in sg_alloc_order() take the opportunity to put a one line comment above sgl_free()'s declaration that it is not suitable when order > 0 . The mis-use of sgl_free() when order > 0 was the reason for the memory leak. The other users of sgl_alloc_order() in the kernel where checked and found to handle free-ing properly. Signed-off-by: Douglas Gilbert <dgilbert@interlog.com> --- include/linux/scatterlist.h | 1 + lib/scatterlist.c | 3 --- 2 files changed, 1 insertion(+), 3 deletions(-)