[clang] [NFC][analyzer] Rewrite comment header of MallocChecker (PR #165443)
via cfe-commits
cfe-commits at lists.llvm.org
Tue Oct 28 10:27:24 PDT 2025
llvmbot wrote:
<!--LLVM PR SUMMARY COMMENT-->
@llvm/pr-subscribers-clang
Author: DonĂ¡t Nagy (NagyDonat)
<details>
<summary>Changes</summary>
This commit rewrites the big comment block at the beginning of MallocChecker because it contained lots of obsolete and inaccurate information. I see that this block is a bit verbose (especially compared to the analogous comments in other checkers), but as this is one of the most complex checker families, I think it's useful to give this overview at the beginning of the source file.
---
Full diff: https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/pull/165443.diff
1 Files Affected:
- (modified) clang/lib/StaticAnalyzer/Checkers/MallocChecker.cpp (+34-30)
``````````diff
diff --git a/clang/lib/StaticAnalyzer/Checkers/MallocChecker.cpp b/clang/lib/StaticAnalyzer/Checkers/MallocChecker.cpp
index 70baab54df563..ec7ef237b7c31 100644
--- a/clang/lib/StaticAnalyzer/Checkers/MallocChecker.cpp
+++ b/clang/lib/StaticAnalyzer/Checkers/MallocChecker.cpp
@@ -6,41 +6,45 @@
//
//===----------------------------------------------------------------------===//
//
-// This file defines a variety of memory management related checkers, such as
+// This file defines checkers that report memory management errors such as
// leak, double free, and use-after-free.
//
-// The following checkers are defined here:
+// The logic for modeling memory allocations is implemented in the checker
+// family which is called 'MallocChecker' for historical reasons. (This name is
+// inaccurate, something like 'DynamicMemory' would be more precise.)
//
-// * MallocChecker
-// Despite its name, it models all sorts of memory allocations and
-// de- or reallocation, including but not limited to malloc, free,
-// relloc, new, delete. It also reports on a variety of memory misuse
-// errors.
-// Many other checkers interact very closely with this checker, in fact,
-// most are merely options to this one. Other checkers may register
-// MallocChecker, but do not enable MallocChecker's reports (more details
-// to follow around its field, ChecksEnabled).
-// It also has a boolean "Optimistic" checker option, which if set to true
-// will cause the checker to model user defined memory management related
-// functions annotated via the attribute ownership_takes, ownership_holds
-// and ownership_returns.
+// The reports produced by this backend are exposed through several frontends:
+// * MallocChecker: reports all misuse of dynamic memory allocated by
+// malloc, related functions (like calloc, realloc etc.) and the functions
+// annotated by ownership_returns. (Here the name "MallocChecker" is
+// reasonably accurate; don't confuse this checker frontend with the whole
+// misnamed family.)
+// * NewDeleteChecker: reports most misuse (anything but memory leaks) of
+// memory managed by the C++ operators new and new[].
+// * NewDeleteLeaksChecker: reports leaks of dynamic memory allocated by
+// the C++ operators new and new[].
+// * MismatchedDeallocatorChecker: reports situations where the allocation
+// and deallocation is mismatched, e.g. memory allocated via malloc is
+// passed to operator delete.
+// * InnerPointerChecker: reports use of pointers to the internal buffer of
+// a std::string instance after operations that invalidate them.
+// * TaintedAllocChecker: reports situations where the size argument of a
+// memory allocation function or array new operator is tainted (i.e. comes
+// from an untrusted source and can be controlled by an attacker).
//
-// * NewDeleteChecker
-// Enables the modeling of new, new[], delete, delete[] in MallocChecker,
-// and checks for related double-free and use-after-free errors.
+// In addition to these frontends this file also defines the registration
+// functions for "unix.DynamicMemoryModeling". This registers the callbacks of
+// the checker family MallocChecker without enabling any of the frontends and
+// and handle two checker options which are attached to this "modeling
+// checker" because they affect multiple checker frontends.
//
-// * NewDeleteLeaksChecker
-// Checks for leaks related to new, new[], delete, delete[].
-// Depends on NewDeleteChecker.
-//
-// * MismatchedDeallocatorChecker
-// Enables checking whether memory is deallocated with the corresponding
-// allocation function in MallocChecker, such as malloc() allocated
-// regions are only freed by free(), new by delete, new[] by delete[].
-//
-// InnerPointerChecker interacts very closely with MallocChecker, but unlike
-// the above checkers, it has it's own file, hence the many InnerPointerChecker
-// related headers and non-static functions.
+// Note that what the users see as the checker "cplusplus.InnerPointer" is a
+// combination of the frontend InnerPointerChecker (within this family) which
+// emits the bug reports and a separate checker class (also named
+// InnerPointerChecker) which is defined in InnerPointerChecker.cpp and does a
+// significant part of the modeling. This cooperation is enabled by several
+// non-static helper functions that are defined within this translation unit
+// and used in InnerPointerChecker.cpp.
//
//===----------------------------------------------------------------------===//
``````````
</details>
https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/pull/165443
More information about the cfe-commits
mailing list