Messages in this thread | | | From | "Christopher Peterson" <> | Subject | Remember, kmalloc() can return NUL | Date | Sun, 4 Jul 1999 15:07:29 -0700 |
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Searching through the Linux 2.2.10 source tree, I have found 217 possibly crash-worthy bugs. These are places where a developer has called a function that can return NULL, but has forgotten to check for a NULL return value. For example, many developers call kmalloc() or __get_free_pages() without checking for NULL, assuming these functions will always succeed. Although these functions rarely return NULL, this is still a real possibility for a heavily stressed Linux server. If we want Linux to become even more reliable, we need to stamp out bugs in every corner of the source code.
I don't have the copious time necessary to track down the owners for all 217 bugs, so I'm hoping the friendly, distributed Linux community can help track down all the proper owners! I'll remove bugs from my posted bug list when they are fixed in future Linux patches. Rather than flooding the linux-kernel list with a huge email, I've posted the list of bugs at:
http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/cpeterso/linuxbugs.txt
bon appetite! :-D
chris
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