GCC: Customizing printf for string output - gcc

GCC allows customization of printf specifiers. However, I don't see how I can "teach" it to accept my string class for %s specifier. My string class is a simple wrapper over char pointer and has exactly one member variable (char * data) and no virtual functions. So, it's kind of ok to pass it as-is to printf-like functions in place of regular char *. The problem is that on gcc static analyzer prevents me from doing so and I have to explicitly cast it to const char * to avoid warnings or errors.
My cstring looks something like this:
class cstring
{
cstring() : data(NULL){}
cstring(const char * str) : data(strdup(str)){}
cstring(const cstring & str) : data(strdup(str.data)){}
~cstring()
{
free(data);
}
...
const char * c_str() const
{
return data;
}
private:
char * data;
};
Example code that uses cstring:
cstring str("my string");
printf("str: '%s'", str);
On GCC I get this error:
error: cannot pass objects of non-trivially-copyable type 'class cstring' through '...'
error: format '%s' expects argument of type 'char*', but argument 1 has type 'cstring' [-Werror=format]
cc1plus.exe: all warnings being treated as errors

The C++ standard doesn't require compilers to support this sort of code, and not all versions of gcc support it. (https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Conditionally-supported-behavior.html suggests that gcc-6.0 does, at least - an open question whether it will work with classes such as the one here.)
The relevant section in the C++11 standard is 5.2.2 section 7:
When there is no parameter for a given argument, the argument is passed in such a way that the receiving function can obtain the value of the argument by invoking va_arg ...
Passing a potentially-evaluated argument of class type (Clause 9)
having a non-trivial copy constructor, a non-trivial move constructor,
or a non-trivial destructor, with no corresponding parameter, is
conditionally-supported with implementation-defined semantics.
(But look on the bright side: if you get into the habit of using c_str, then at least you won't get tripped up when/if you use std::string.)

Related

Why does g++ 4.x allows implicit conversion of nullptr to another types when passed as parameter but > 5.x dont?

My understanding is that, nullptr could not be converted implicitly to another types. But later I "found" that it could be converted to bool.
The issue is, I can see it being converted to bool on GCC 4.x, but it complains on GCC > 5.X
#include <iostream>
bool f(bool a){
return !a;
}
// Type your code here, or load an example.
int main() {
return f(nullptr);
}
On >5.x I get
<source>: In function 'int main()':
<source>:7:21: error: converting to 'bool' from 'std::nullptr_t' requires direct-initialization [-fpermissive]
return f(nullptr);
^
<source>:2:6: note: initializing argument 1 of 'bool f(bool)'
bool f(bool a){
^
Compiler returned: 1
I couldn't find anything on the release notes of GCC 5.X that would explain that.
Can be observed here:
https://godbolt.org/g/1Uc2nM
Can someone explain why there is a difference between versions and what rule is applied here.
The rule can be found in C++17 [conv.bool]/1:
For direct-initialization, a prvalue of type std::nullptr_t can
be converted to a prvalue of type bool; the resulting value is false.
Initialization of function parameters is copy-initialization , not direct-initialization. If you are not familiar with this topic; initialization contexts in C++ can be divided into these two classes, and there are some operations that can only occur in direct-initialization.
The restriction to direct-initialization was added in C++14, which could explain the difference between g++ versions.
I assume the purpose of this rule is to raise an error for the exact code you've written: a bool is expected and a null pointer constant was provided; testing a null pointer constant for boolean-ness is not very meaningful since it only has one state anyway.
Remember that nullptr is not a pointer; it's a thing that can be implicitly converted to a null pointer if the code explicitly requests such a conversion. The whole reason for adding it was to fix the hack of 0 being used as a null pointer constant, and inadvertently matching some other template or overload.
The code could be:
return f(static_cast<bool>(nullptr));
or perhaps you could add an overload of f that accepts std::nullptr_t.

initialize a string size during declaration

suppose I have a class like this and I would like to create a string with a
specific capacity. I tried doing the following but that did not work.
Any suggestions ? I know I could do it in the constructor but would like to do it during the declaration if possible.
class foo
{
std::string bar = std::string().resize(45);
}
I get the error
main.cpp: In function 'int main()':
main.cpp:8:46: error: conversion from 'void' to non-scalar type 'std::__cxx11::string {aka std::__cxx11::basic_string}' requested
std::string test = std::string().resize(45);
In C++, you probably don't want to "chain" methods unless previous methods have the correct return type.
As suggested by #James Maa, you can do simply use the constructor.
In c++11 we have new feature called move constructor so
string str = string();
doesn't cause extra time.
http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/move_constructor
with move constructor, the program would directly use the address of the temporary constructed string after = sign, without making a copy.
The problem is that resize()function in c++ actually returns void
basic_string( size_type count,
CharT ch,
const Allocator& alloc = Allocator() );
This constructor might be something you are directly interested in.
You can do something with
std::string str(45, ' ');

Is this change in overload resolution between Clang 3.5 and 3.6 correct or a bug?

The code below compiles in Visual Studio 2013, gcc 4.8, clang 3.4 and clang 3.5 (Apple LLVM 6.0) but does not compile in clang 3.6 (via Apple LLVM 6.1)
The code is a simplified version of a complicated class in our codebase which is the minimum required to exhibit the issue.
The crux of the problem is that the copy construction of TYPED_VALUE is, in 3.6, evaluating the templated conversion operator for type STRING because of the presence of a constructor that accepts a STRING; this causes std::is_constructible to be evaluated which leads to it needing the definition of STRING (which we cannot provide here - would lead to a circular dependency in the full code).
class STRING;
class TYPED_VALUE
{
public:
TYPED_VALUE( const TYPED_VALUE& ) = default; // explicit or implicit doesn't make a difference
TYPED_VALUE( const STRING & ) {}
template< typename TYPE, typename std::enable_if<!std::is_pointer< TYPE >::value && !std::is_constructible< TYPE, const STRING& >::value && !std::is_constructible< TYPE, bool >::value, int >::type = 0 >
operator TYPE( void ) const = delete;
};
class TYPED_STORAGE
{
public:
TYPED_STORAGE( const TYPED_VALUE &v ) : value( v ) {}
TYPED_VALUE value;
};
The error message is
/type_traits:2329:38: error: incomplete type 'SICORE::STRING' used in type trait expression
: public integral_constant<bool, __is_constructible(_Tp, _Args...)>
^
/main.cpp:348:99: note: in instantiation of template class 'std::__1::is_constructible<SICORE::STRING, const SICORE::STRING &>' requested here
template< typename TYPE, typename std::enable_if<!std::is_pointer< TYPE >::value && !std::is_constructible< TYPE, const STRING& >::value && !std::is_constructible< TYPE, bool >::value, int >::type = 0 >
^
/main.cpp:349:9: note: while substituting prior template arguments into non-type template parameter [with TYPE = SICORE::STRING]
operator TYPE( void ) const = delete;
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/main.cpp:355:56: note: while substituting deduced template arguments into function template 'operator type-parameter-0-0' [with TYPE = SICORE::STRING, $1 = (no value)]
TYPED_STORAGE( const TYPED_VALUE &v ) : value( v ) {}
^
/main.cpp:340:11: note: forward declaration of 'SICORE::STRING'
class STRING;
^
To me this seems like a bug in 3.6, in previous versions the overload resolution determines that the copy constructor is the best fit without having to evaluate the template arguments - I tried to understand the overload resolution notes in the standard but I think that just confused me more ;)
(This can be fixed by making either the constructor or the conversion operator explicit I realise, but that is not the behaviour we want)
Any standard experts out there know the answer?
I believe Clang is correct to produce this error:
The [temp.inst] section of the C++ standard in paragraph 10 says:
If a function template or a member function template specialization is
used in a way that involves overload resolution, a declaration of the
specialization is implicitly instantiated (14.8.3).
Forming the implicit conversion sequence necessary to rank the overload candidates for the call to TYPE_VALUE's constructor requires the instantiation of the conversion operator. And the use of an incomplete type parameter to the trait doesn't form an invalid type, so this isn't a substitution failure, it is a hard error.
The copy constructor of TYPED_VALUE uses a reference to STRING, it should not be evaluated.
I think this is a clang error.
I haven't read the new c++ standard for a long time, however, I couldn't make sure it hadn't changed.
templates are instantiated as-needed, and I think Clang 3.6 implemented a DR where it needed to instantiate a template earlier than 3.5 did.

risk of compile warning

I have mainly two kinds of compile warning:
1. implicit declaration of function
in a.c, it has char *foo(char *ptr1, char *ptr2), in b.c, some functions use this foo function without any declaration, and I found seems compiler will treat the function foo return value as integer, and even I can pass some variables less or more than foo function declaration
2. enumerated type mixed with another type
My target chip is ARM11, it seems that even I don't solve these two kinds of compile warning, my program can run without any issues, but I believe it must have some risk behind these. Can anyone give me some good example that these two kinds of compile warning can cause some unexpected issues?
Meanwhile, if these two warnings have potential risk, why c compiler allow these kinds warning happen but not set them to error directly? any story behind?
Implicit declaration. E.g. you have function: float foo(float a), which isn't declared when you call it. Implicit rules will create auto-declaration with following signature: int foo(double) (if passed argument is float). So value you pass will be converted to double, but foo expects float. The same with return - calling code expects int, but returned float. Values would be a complete mess.
enum mixed with other type. Enumerated type have list of values it could take. If you trying to assign numeric value to it, there is a chance that it isn't one of listed values; if later your code expects only specified range and presumes nothing else could be there - it could misbehave.
Simple example:
File: warn.c
#include <stdio.h>
double foo(double x)
{
return myid(x);
}
int
main (void)
{
double x = 1.0;
fprintf (stderr, "%lg == %lg\n", x, foo (x));
return 0;
}
File: foo.c
double
myid (double x)
{
return x;
}
Compile and run:
$ gcc warn.c foo.c -Wall
warn.c: In function ‘foo’:
warn.c:5: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘myfabs’
$ ./a.out
1 == 0
Old C standard (C90) had this strange "default int" rule and for compatibility it is supported even in latest compilers.

Clang does not allow static_cast to parent class with template, while g++ and icc allow

I am trying my C++11 code to see if all recent major compiler supports the features I used, and the following shortened code
#include <valarray>
struct T
{
double vv[3];
};
class V : public std::valarray<T>
{
public:
auto begin()->decltype(std::begin(static_cast<std::valarray<T>>(*this)))
{
return std::begin(static_cast<std::valarray<T>>(*this));
}
};
int main(void)
{
}
would compile with g++ 4.8.1(from Debian sid repository), Intel C++ compiler 13.1.1 20130313, but not Clang 3.3-2(from Debian sid repository).
The given error is:
test.cpp:11:73: error: no viable conversion from 'V' to 'std::valarray<T>'
auto begin()->decltype(std::begin(static_cast<std::valarray<T>>(*this)))
^~~~~
However, code like this
namespace std
{
auto begin(V& vv) -> decltype(std::begin(static_cast<V::parent_t>(vv)))
{
return std::begin(static_cast<V::parent_t>(vv));
}
}
would compile by all three compilers.
My question is: is the code itself allowed by the language standard, just Clang miscompiled it, or it is only supported by g++/icc extension? Or it is undefined behavior?
The code very dangerous and needs to be fixed even for GCC and ICC.
You're doing a static_cast to a value type, not a reference or pointer. That creates a new temporary valarray object, so the const overload of begin gets called (probably not what you intended), and the iterator returned by begin() refers to the temporary which goes out of scope immediately, so the returned iterator is invalid and dereferencing it is undefined behaviour.
The code will compile like this:
auto begin()->decltype(std::begin(std::declval<std::valarray<T>&>()))
{
return std::begin(static_cast<std::valarray<T>&>(*this));
/* cast to reference type! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ */
}
The decltype doesn't need to cast this, it just needs to know the type of calling std::begin on a valarray<T>, so it doesn't matter if the type is incomplete because you don't need a cast.
In the body of the function the type is considered complete anyway, so the cast is valid.

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