Subject: Re: [PATCHv3 net-next 3/4] sctp: add support for generating stream reconf add incoming/outgoing streams request chunk

From: "'Marcelo Ricardo Leitner'" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2017 10:36:28 -0200

On Mon, Jan 23, 2017 at 12:26:12PM +0000, David Laight wrote:
> From: Marcelo Ricardo Leitner > Sent: 20 January 2017 16:39
> > To: David Laight
> > On Fri, Jan 20, 2017 at 02:50:01PM +0000, David Laight wrote:
> > > From: Xin Long
> > > > Sent: 19 January 2017 17:19
> > > > This patch is to define Add Incoming/Outgoing Streams Request
> > > > Parameter described in rfc6525 section 4.5 and 4.6. They can
> > > > be in one same chunk trunk as rfc6525 section 3.1-7 describes,
> > > > so make them in one function.
> > > ...
> > > > +struct sctp_strreset_addstrm {
> > > > +	sctp_paramhdr_t param_hdr;
> > > > +	__u32 request_seq;
> > > > +	__u16 number_of_streams;
> > > > +	__u16 reserved;
> > > > +} __packed;
> > > ...
> > > > +		addstrm.param_hdr.type = SCTP_PARAM_RESET_ADD_OUT_STREAMS;
> > > > +		addstrm.param_hdr.length = htons(size);
> > > > +		addstrm.number_of_streams = htons(out);
> > > > +		addstrm.request_seq = htonl(asoc->strreset_outseq);
> > > > +		addstrm.reserved = 0;
> > > > +
> > > > +		sctp_addto_chunk(retval, size, &addstrm);
> > >
> > > Since you allocate the sctp_strreset_addstrm structure on stack
> > > there is no requirement for it to be packed.
> > 
> > It shouldn't matter that it's allocated on stack. Why should it?
> > We need it to be packed as this is a header that will be sent out to
> > another peer, so there can't be any padding on it.
> 
> That isn't what __packed means.
> It means that the compiler must assume that the structure can be
> misaligned in memory and must use byte memory accesses on systems
> that fault misaligned memory accesses.

That's a side-effect of it.

https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Common-Type-Attributes.html#Common-Type-Attributes
"This attribute, attached to struct or union type definition, specifies
that each member (other than zero-width bit-fields) of the structure or
union is placed to minimize the memory required. "

So, no padding. A field just after the other, which is what we want on a
network header.

  Marcelo