变长数组在Linux USB当中的应用

        偶然浏览Linux-USB的代码，发现了变长数据的妙用，总结一下，学起来。
所示的函数中

struct urb *usb_alloc_urb(int iso_packets, gfp_t mem_flags)
{
	struct urb *urb;

	urb = kmalloc(sizeof(struct urb) +
		iso_packets * sizeof(struct usb_iso_packet_descriptor),
		mem_flags);
	if (!urb) {
		printk(KERN_ERR "alloc_urb: kmalloc failed\n");
		return NULL;
	}
	usb_init_urb(urb);
	return urb;
}

其中，kmalloc分配新的urb时，多分配了一下内存，用于存储数据。

iso_packets * sizeof(struct usb_iso_packet_descriptor)

再来看urb结构体定义，结构体的末尾有个零数组，可以再分配urb的同时，在urb后的连续内存上，非配不等长的内存用来存储数据。

struct urb {
	/* private: usb core and host controller only fields in the urb */
	struct kref kref;		/* reference count of the URB */
	void *hcpriv;			/* private data for host controller */
	atomic_t use_count;		/* concurrent submissions counter */
	atomic_t reject;		/* submissions will fail */
	int unlinked;			/* unlink error code */

	/* public: documented fields in the urb that can be used by drivers */
	struct list_head urb_list;	/* list head for use by the urb's
					 * current owner */
	struct list_head anchor_list;	/* the URB may be anchored */
	struct usb_anchor *anchor;
	struct usb_device *dev;		/* (in) pointer to associated device */
	struct usb_host_endpoint *ep;	/* (internal) pointer to endpoint */
	unsigned int pipe;		/* (in) pipe information */
	unsigned int stream_id;		/* (in) stream ID */
	int status;			/* (return) non-ISO status */
	unsigned int transfer_flags;	/* (in) URB_SHORT_NOT_OK | ...*/
	void *transfer_buffer;		/* (in) associated data buffer */
	dma_addr_t transfer_dma;	/* (in) dma addr for transfer_buffer */
	struct scatterlist *sg;		/* (in) scatter gather buffer list */
	int num_mapped_sgs;		/* (internal) mapped sg entries */
	int num_sgs;			/* (in) number of entries in the sg list */
	u32 transfer_buffer_length;	/* (in) data buffer length */
	u32 actual_length;		/* (return) actual transfer length */
	unsigned char *setup_packet;	/* (in) setup packet (control only) */
	dma_addr_t setup_dma;		/* (in) dma addr for setup_packet */
	int start_frame;		/* (modify) start frame (ISO) */
	int number_of_packets;		/* (in) number of ISO packets */
	int interval;			/* (modify) transfer interval
					 * (INT/ISO) */
	int error_count;		/* (return) number of ISO errors */
	void *context;			/* (in) context for completion */
	usb_complete_t complete;	/* (in) completion routine */
	struct usb_iso_packet_descriptor iso_frame_desc[0];
					/* (in) ISO ONLY */
};