Subject: [PATCH v2 12/27 5.10.y] minmax: relax check to allow comparison between unsigned arguments and signed constants

From: Eliav Farber <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2025 09:05:04 +0000

From: David Laight <[email-masked]>

[ Upstream commit 867046cc7027703f60a46339ffde91a1970f2901 ]

Allow (for example) min(unsigned_var, 20).

The opposite min(signed_var, 20u) is still errored.

Since a comparison between signed and unsigned never makes the unsigned
value negative it is only necessary to adjust the __types_ok() test.

Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/[email-masked]
Signed-off-by: David Laight <[email-masked]>
Cc: Andy Shevchenko <[email-masked]>
Cc: Christoph Hellwig <[email-masked]>
Cc: Jason A. Donenfeld <[email-masked]>
Cc: Linus Torvalds <[email-masked]>
Cc: Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) <[email-masked]>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <[email-masked]>
Signed-off-by: Eliav Farber <[email-masked]>
---
 include/linux/minmax.h | 24 +++++++++++++++++-------
 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/linux/minmax.h b/include/linux/minmax.h
index 842c1db62ffe..2ec559284a9f 100644
--- a/include/linux/minmax.h
+++ b/include/linux/minmax.h
@@ -10,13 +10,18 @@
 /*
  * min()/max()/clamp() macros must accomplish three things:
  *
- * - avoid multiple evaluations of the arguments (so side-effects like
+ * - Avoid multiple evaluations of the arguments (so side-effects like
  *   "x++" happen only once) when non-constant.
- * - perform signed v unsigned type-checking (to generate compile
- *   errors instead of nasty runtime surprises).
- * - retain result as a constant expressions when called with only
+ * - Retain result as a constant expressions when called with only
  *   constant expressions (to avoid tripping VLA warnings in stack
  *   allocation usage).
+ * - Perform signed v unsigned type-checking (to generate compile
+ *   errors instead of nasty runtime surprises).
+ * - Unsigned char/short are always promoted to signed int and can be
+ *   compared against signed or unsigned arguments.
+ * - Unsigned arguments can be compared against non-negative signed constants.
+ * - Comparison of a signed argument against an unsigned constant fails
+ *   even if the constant is below __INT_MAX__ and could be cast to int.
  */
 #define __typecheck(x, y) \
 	(!!(sizeof((typeof(x) *)1 == (typeof(y) *)1)))
@@ -26,9 +31,14 @@
 	__builtin_choose_expr(__is_constexpr(is_signed_type(typeof(x))),	\
 		is_signed_type(typeof(x)), 0)
 
-#define __types_ok(x, y) 			\
-	(__is_signed(x) == __is_signed(y) ||	\
-		__is_signed((x) + 0) == __is_signed((y) + 0))
+/* True for a non-negative signed int constant */
+#define __is_noneg_int(x)	\
+	(__builtin_choose_expr(__is_constexpr(x) && __is_signed(x), x, -1) >= 0)
+
+#define __types_ok(x, y) 					\
+	(__is_signed(x) == __is_signed(y) ||			\
+		__is_signed((x) + 0) == __is_signed((y) + 0) ||	\
+		__is_noneg_int(x) || __is_noneg_int(y))
 
 #define __cmp_op_min <
 #define __cmp_op_max >
-- 
2.47.3