Ouch, good catch! Thanks.
I've long thought that the safe-alloc module was a mistake, and now I'm
surer about it. Let's obsolete it. I installed the attached patch for now.
From e94aad0ca4ab6b54473444c4d6a77460ee2ad3ef Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Paul Eggert <egg...@cs.ucla.edu>
Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2025 00:43:36 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] safe-alloc: make obsolete and remove REALLOC_N
Problem reported by Vivien Kraus in:
https://lists.gnu.org/r/bug-gnulib/2025-07/msg00073.html
This module never caught on.
* lib/safe-alloc.h (REALLOC_N): Remove.
* modules/safe-alloc: Now obsolete.
* tests/test-safe-alloc.c (main): Remove REALLOC_N test.
---
ChangeLog | 10 ++++++++++
NEWS | 3 +++
doc/safe-alloc.texi | 16 ++++------------
lib/safe-alloc.h | 14 --------------
modules/safe-alloc | 6 ++++++
tests/test-safe-alloc.c | 5 -----
6 files changed, 23 insertions(+), 31 deletions(-)
diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 20229b3fd5..73b9cfd7a5 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,13 @@
+2025-07-13 Paul Eggert <egg...@cs.ucla.edu>
+
+ safe-alloc: make obsolete and remove REALLOC_N
+ Problem reported by Vivien Kraus in:
+ https://lists.gnu.org/r/bug-gnulib/2025-07/msg00073.html
+ This module never caught on.
+ * lib/safe-alloc.h (REALLOC_N): Remove.
+ * modules/safe-alloc: Now obsolete.
+ * tests/test-safe-alloc.c (main): Remove REALLOC_N test.
+
2025-07-12 Bruno Haible <br...@clisp.org>
next-prime: Revert to original behaviour in GNU gettext.
diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 5499535f2a..08981f26e9 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -74,6 +74,9 @@ User visible incompatible changes
Date Modules Changes
+2025-07-13 safe-alloc This module is now obsolete. Also, it no longer
+ defines the REALLOC_N macro.
+
2025-05-09 string-desc These modules now distinguish between read-only
xstring-desc string descriptors (type string_desc_t) and
writable string descriptors (type rw_string_desc_t).
diff --git a/doc/safe-alloc.texi b/doc/safe-alloc.texi
index 238209c920..d4cd63ed26 100644
--- a/doc/safe-alloc.texi
+++ b/doc/safe-alloc.texi
@@ -7,6 +7,10 @@ number of common coding errors. The @code{safe-alloc} module provides
macros that make it easier to avoid many of them. It still uses the
standard C allocation functions behind the scenes.
+This module is obsolete, as it does not seem to have caught on in
+practice and some of its features could not be ported to unusual
+platforms.
+
Some of the memory allocation mistakes that are commonly made are
@itemize @bullet
@@ -71,18 +75,6 @@ bytes long, and store the address of allocated memory in
Returns @minus{}1 on failure, 0 on success.
@end defmac
-@defmac {int} REALLOC_N (ptr, count)
-@findex REALLOC_N
-Reallocate the memory pointed to by @code{ptr} to be big enough to hold
-at least @code{count} elements, each @code{sizeof *ptr} bytes long,
-and store the address of allocated memory in @code{ptr}. If
-reallocation fails, the @code{ptr} variable is not modified.
-If the new array is smaller than the old one, discard excess contents;
-if larger, the newly added storage is not initialized.
-
-Returns @minus{}1 on failure, 0 on success.
-@end defmac
-
@defmac {void} FREE (ptr)
@findex FREE
Free the memory stored in @code{ptr} and set @code{ptr} to
diff --git a/lib/safe-alloc.h b/lib/safe-alloc.h
index 08daaa86ee..4341b43edf 100644
--- a/lib/safe-alloc.h
+++ b/lib/safe-alloc.h
@@ -86,20 +86,6 @@ safe_alloc_check (void *ptr)
#define ALLOC_N_UNINITIALIZED(ptr, count) \
safe_alloc_check ((ptr) = reallocarray (NULL, count, sizeof *(ptr)))
-/**
- * REALLOC_N:
- * @ptr: pointer to allocated memory
- * @count: number of elements to allocate
- *
- * Re-allocate an array of 'count' elements, each sizeof *ptr
- * bytes long and store the address of allocated memory in
- * 'ptr'. Fill the newly allocated memory with zeros.
- *
- * Return -1 on failure to reallocate, zero on success.
- */
-#define REALLOC_N(ptr, count) \
- safe_alloc_check ((ptr) = reallocarray (ptr, count, sizeof *(ptr)))
-
/**
* FREE:
* @ptr: pointer holding address to be freed
diff --git a/modules/safe-alloc b/modules/safe-alloc
index 370b30f625..72e079b8bb 100644
--- a/modules/safe-alloc
+++ b/modules/safe-alloc
@@ -1,6 +1,12 @@
Description:
A set of macros to make calls to alloc/calloc/realloc safer.
+Status:
+obsolete
+
+Notice:
+This module is obsolete.
+
Files:
lib/safe-alloc.h
lib/safe-alloc.c
diff --git a/tests/test-safe-alloc.c b/tests/test-safe-alloc.c
index 32cb4714fd..332d378a92 100644
--- a/tests/test-safe-alloc.c
+++ b/tests/test-safe-alloc.c
@@ -42,11 +42,6 @@ main ()
ASSERT (p->a == 0 && p->b == 0);
- p->a = p->b = 42;
- r = REALLOC_N (p, 5);
-
- ASSERT (p[0].a == 42 && p[0].b == 42);
-
FREE (p);
ASSERT (p == NULL);
--
2.48.1
