Subject: [PATCH v4 1/6] git-compat-util: add a FREE_AND_NULL() wrapper around free(ptr); ptr = NULL

From: Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2017 23:15:44 +0000

Add a FREE_AND_NULL() wrapper marco for the common pattern of freeing
a pointer and assigning NULL to it right afterwards.

The implementation is similar to the (currently unused) XDL_PTRFREE
macro in xdiff/xmacros.h added in commit 3443546f6e ("Use a *real*
built-in diff generator", 2006-03-24). The only difference is that
free() is called unconditionally, see [1].

See [2] for a suggested alternative which does this via a function
instead of a macro. As covered in replies to that message, while it's
a viable approach, it would introduce caveats which this approach
doesn't have, so that potential change is left to a future follow-up
change.

This merely allows us to translate exactly what we're doing now to a
less verbose & idiomatic form using a macro, while guaranteeing that
we don't introduce any functional changes.

1. <alpine.DEB.2.20.1608301948310.129229@virtualbox>
   (http://public-inbox.org/git/alpine.DEB.2.20.1608301948310.129229@virtualbox/)

2. <20170610032143.GA7880@starla>
   (https://public-inbox.org/git/20170610032143.GA7880@starla/)

Signed-off-by: Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <[email-masked]>
---
 git-compat-util.h | 6 ++++++
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+)

diff --git a/git-compat-util.h b/git-compat-util.h
index 51ba4e6b3b..047172d173 100644
--- a/git-compat-util.h
+++ b/git-compat-util.h
@@ -808,6 +808,12 @@ extern char *xgetcwd(void);
 extern FILE *fopen_for_writing(const char *path);
 extern FILE *fopen_or_warn(const char *path, const char *mode);
 
+/*
+ * FREE_AND_NULL(ptr) is like free(ptr) followed by ptr = NULL. Note
+ * that ptr is used twice, so don't pass e.g. ptr++.
+ */
+#define FREE_AND_NULL(p) do { free(p); (p) = NULL; } while (0)
+
 #define ALLOC_ARRAY(x, alloc) (x) = xmalloc(st_mult(sizeof(*(x)), (alloc)))
 #define REALLOC_ARRAY(x, alloc) (x) = xrealloc((x), st_mult(sizeof(*(x)), (alloc)))
 
-- 
2.13.1.508.gb3defc5cc