Subject: [PATCH v2 2/3] path: use size_t for dir_prefix length

From: K Jayatheerth <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2026 18:35:01 +0530

The strlen() function returns a size_t. Storing this in a standard
signed int is a bad practice that invites overflow vulnerabilities if
paths get absurdly long.

Switch the variable to size_t. This is safe to do because 'len' is
strictly used as an argument to strncmp() (which expects size_t) and
as a positive array index, involving no signed arithmetic that could
rely on negative values.

Signed-off-by: K Jayatheerth <[email-masked]>
---
 path.c | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/path.c b/path.c
index f613d8bbd1..56be5e1726 100644
--- a/path.c
+++ b/path.c
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ static void strbuf_cleanup_path(struct strbuf *sb)
 
 static int dir_prefix(const char *buf, const char *dir)
 {
-	int len = strlen(dir);
+	size_t len = strlen(dir);
 	return !strncmp(buf, dir, len) &&
 		(is_dir_sep(buf[len]) || buf[len] == '\0');
 }
-- 
2.53.0