Wireshark-dev: Re: [Wireshark-dev] cast increases required alignment of target type in packet-d

From: "Luis EG Ontanon" <luis@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:24:22 +0200
I think the cast to void* is OK.

the GArray is created given sizeof(struct contained_t) so it is going
to mallocate a block of N*sizeof(struct contained_t) and the very
first struct contained_t will be aligned o the base of the block given
by malloc (a void*), taking into account that compilers are supposed
to size structs into valid pointer boundaries, my guess is that every
struct contained_t in the GArray will be propperly aligned.


On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 4:50 PM, Jeff Morriss <jeff.morriss.ws@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Hi folks,
>
> My Solaris/SPARC compiles (with gcc-3.4.6) die with an alignment warning
> in packet-diameter.c:
>
>> packet-diameter.c: In function `dissect_diameter_avp':
>> packet-diameter.c:340: warning: cast increases required alignment of target type
>
> (followed by several more such warnings)
>
> The relevant code for the first warning is:
>
>>     109 typedef struct _diam_vnd_t {
>>     110         guint32 code;
>>     111         GArray* vs_avps;
>>     112         GArray* vs_cmds;
>>     113 } diam_vnd_t;
> [...]
>>     126 #define VND_AVP_VS(v) ((value_string*)((v)->vs_avps->data))
> [...]
>>     319         const diam_vnd_t* vendor;
> [...]
>>     340         vendor_avp_vs = VND_AVP_VS(vendor);
>
> GArray comes from GLIB's garray.h:
>
>>      34 typedef struct _GArray          GArray;
> [...]
>>      38 struct _GArray
>>      39 {
>>      40   gchar *data;
>>      41   guint len;
>>      42 };
>
>
> The Solaris buildbot is not getting this warning but I think the warning
> is valid: an array of chars may not be aligned correctly to be accessed
> as a 'value_string' (a guint32 followed by a pointer).  And it may cause
> bus errors because GArrays make copies of the data passed in--so we have
> no guarantee how it will be aligned.
>
> Unfortunately GArrays come in only 3 flavors: with pointers to chars,
> pointers to guint8s, and pointers to pointers.
>
> Is there an easy way to solve this?
>
> Adding an intermediate cast to void*:
>
> #define VND_AVP_VS(v) ((value_string*)(void*)((v)->vs_avps->data))
>
> solves the warning and it appears this is the approach used by the glib
> team:
>
> http://svn.gnome.org/viewvc/glib?view=revision&revision=6092
>
> but I don't think it's correct.  But at the moment I also think the
> example (storing gint values) used in the GArrays documentation:
>
> http://library.gnome.org/devel/glib/unstable/glib-Arrays.html
>
> is also not correct/safe on SPARCs.  Can someone please tell me I'm wrong?
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