ci(alloc-locality): the gate cannot fail when run locally on macOS

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@LeoBuron is already working on this.

Since Oct 29, 2026.

  • #507 by @LeoBuron — open

Assessment

Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Newbie friendliness
72/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
git, github-actions, shell
Domain
ci-cd

Research direction

Start with the alloc-locality job and the step "Reject malloc/calloc/realloc/free outside src/userApi/" in .github/workflows/ci.yml, and reproduce the bug by planting a free( call in src/ and running the git grep command locally on macOS. Replace the \b pattern with git grep -nP or an explicit boundary, and add a planted-violation self-test modeled on the other gates. Done when the gate fails on a planted violation on macOS and still passes on the clean tree on Linux CI.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Problem

The alloc-locality job in .github/workflows/ci.yml (step "Reject malloc/calloc/realloc/free outside src/userApi/") searches with

git grep -nE '\b(malloc|calloc|realloc|free)\s*\(' -- 'src/' 'test/' ...

On macOS (Apple Git 2.54, BSD regex), -E does not treat \b as a word boundary, so the pattern never matches. A local run of the job's script passes even with a planted free( in src/. On the Linux CI runner (GNU regex) the gate works as intended, so CI itself is not affected.

Reproduction (macOS)

mkdir -p src && printf 'void f(void){ free(p); }\n' > src/a.c
git init -q && git add -A && git -c commit.gpgsign=false commit -qm x
git grep -nE '\b(malloc|calloc|realloc|free)\s*\(' -- src/   # no match, rc=1
git grep -nP '\b(malloc|calloc|realloc|free)\s*\(' -- src/   # match, rc=0

Why it matters

Contributors run the CI gates locally (e.g. in a git copy) before pushing. For this gate a local "green" proves nothing on macOS.

Suggested fix

Use a portable pattern, e.g. git grep -nP (PCRE, same meaning on both platforms), or replace \b with an explicit boundary such as (^|[^A-Za-z0-9_])(malloc|calloc|realloc|free)[[:space:]]*\(. Add a planted-violation self-test like the other gates have, so the gate proves it can fail.

Out of scope: changing what the gate allows or forbids.

Dominant language
C
Stars
1
Forks
3
Avg merge
8h 35m
Merged PRs (30d)
18

Getting set up

First steps

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  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

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