open-nandra

Some time when I start with kernel development I couln’t understand how container_of macro from kerne lworks.
Some days ago there were and post on kernelnewbies list about using this. This gives me a signal to finally understand what’s going on. I try to write simple user space application with container_of macro using.

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

#define offsetof(TYPE, MEMBER) ((size_t) &((TYPE *)0)->MEMBER)

#define container_of(ptr, type, member) ({            \
 const typeof( ((type *)0)->member ) *__mptr = (ptr);    \
 (type *)( (char *)__mptr - offsetof(type,member) );})

#define CONT(prt, type, mem) container_of((prt), type, mem)

struct test {
 int a;
};

struct m {
 int b;
 struct test t;
 int c;
};

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
 /* existing structure */
 struct m *ma;
 ma = malloc(sizeof(struct m));
 ma->t.a = 5;
 ma->b = 3;
 /* pointer to existing entry */    
 struct test *te = &ma->t;

 struct m *m = CONT(te, struct m, t);

 printf("m->b = %d\n", m->b);

 return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

At the beginnig is defined offsetof and container_of macros taken from kernel source.

We will use structure m which encapsulate structure test.

Container of macro is used to get a pointer to beginning of structure which contain element by type.

In our case we have a element t (in struct main) and would like to get pointer to main structure.

Input arguments will be : prt – pointer to element, type – type of element, elemet.

Note: this code is just for understanding how it works, don’t comment it .

You can find very good description at : http://www.kroah.com/log/linux/container_of.html

Marek

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