This series is not intended for merge. It insteat provides examples of converting use of VLAs to alloca() would look like.
what's the advantages of VLA over alloca()? * sizeof(array) works as expected. * multi-dimensional arrays are still arrays instead of pointers to dynamically allocated space. this means multiple subscript syntax works (unlike on a pointer) and calculation of addresses into allocated space in ascending order is performed by the compiler instead of manually. what's the disadvantage of VLA over alloca()? * VLA generation is subtl/implicit, there do appear to be places where a VLA is being used where it perhaps was not intended but it is hard to spot. e.g. hotpath rte_mbuf *array[burst_size]; where burst_size is not a constant expression, e.g. unintended in other syntax positions that are not intuitive, see patchwork link. https://patchwork.dpdk.org/project/dpdk/patch/1699896038-28106-1-git-send-email-roret...@linux.microsoft.com/ for the above reasons i'd recommend only converting to alloca() where necessary (msvc has to compile it) and for the other instances leave them as they are. Tyler Retzlaff (4): latencystats: use alloca instead of vla trivial hash: use alloca instead of vla trivial vhost: use alloca instead of vla sizeof dispatcher: use alloca instead of vla multi dimensional lib/dispatcher/rte_dispatcher.c | 6 +++--- lib/hash/rte_thash.c | 2 +- lib/latencystats/rte_latencystats.c | 2 +- lib/vhost/socket.c | 5 +++-- 4 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-) -- 1.8.3.1
