123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100101102103104105106107108109110111112113114115116117118119120121122123124125126127128129130131132133134135136137138139140141142143144145146147148149150151152153154155156157158159160161162163164165166167168169170171172173174175176177178179180181182183184185186187188189190191192193194195196197198199200201202203204205206207208209210211212213214215216217218219220221222223224225226227228229230231232233234235236237238239240241242243244245246247248249250251252253254255256257258259260261262263264265266267268269270271272273274275276277278279280281282283284285286287288289290291292293294295296297298299300301302303304305306307308309310311312313314315316317318319320321322323324325326327328329330331332333334335336337338339340341342343344345346347348349350351352353354355356357358359360361362363364365366367368369370371372373374375376377378379380381382383384385386387388389390391392393394395396397398399400401402403404405406407408409410411412413414415416417418419420421422423424425426427428429430431432433434435436437438439440441442443444445446447448449450451452453454455456457458459460461462463464465466467468469470471472473474475476477478479480481482483484485486487488489490491492493494495496497498499500501502503504505506507508509510511512513514515516517518519520521522523524525526527528529530531532533534535536537538539540541542543544545546547548549550551552553554555556557558559560561562563564565566567568569570571572573574575576577578579580581582583584585586587588589590591592593594595596597598599600601602603604605606607608609610611612613614615616617618619620621622623624625626627628629630631632633634635636637638639640641642643644645646647648649650651652653654655656657658659660661662663664665666667668669670671672673674675676677678679680681682683684685686687688689690691692693694695696697698699700701702703704705706707708709710711712713714715716717718719720721722723724725726727728729730731732733734735736737738739740741742743744745746747748749750751752753754755756757758759760761762763764765766767768769770771772773774775776777778779780781782783784785786787788 |
- <html>
- <head>
- <title>GCC Bugs</title>
- </head>
- <body>
- <h1>GCC Bugs</h1>
- <p>The latest version of this document is always available at
- <a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html">http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html</a>.</p>
- <hr />
- <h2>Table of Contents</h2>
- <ul>
- <li><a href="#report">Reporting Bugs</a>
- <ul>
- <li><a href="#need">What we need</a></li>
- <li><a href="#dontwant">What we DON'T want</a></li>
- <li><a href="#where">Where to post it</a></li>
- <li><a href="#detailed">Detailed bug reporting instructions</a></li>
- <li><a href="#gnat">Detailed bug reporting instructions for GNAT</a></li>
- <li><a href="#pch">Detailed bug reporting instructions when using a precompiled header</a></li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li><a href="#known">Frequently Reported Bugs in GCC</a>
- <ul>
- <li><a href="#cxx">C++</a>
- <ul>
- <li><a href="#cxx-abi">ABI bugs</a></li>
- <li><a href="#missing">Missing features</a></li>
- <li><a href="#parsing">Parse errors for "simple" code</a></li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li><a href="#fortran">Fortran</a></li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li><a href="#nonbugs">Non-bugs</a>
- <ul>
- <li><a href="#nonbugs_general">General</a></li>
- <li><a href="#nonbugs_c">C</a></li>
- <li><a href="#nonbugs_cxx">C++</a>
- <ul>
- <li><a href="#updating">Common problems updating from G++ 2.95 to
- G++ 3.0</a></li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- </ul>
- <hr />
- <h1><a name="report">Reporting Bugs</a></h1>
- <p>The main purpose of a bug report is to enable us to fix the bug. The
- most important prerequisite for this is that the report must be complete and
- self-contained, which we explain in detail below.</p>
- <p>Before you report a bug, please check the
- <a href="#known">list of well-known bugs</a> and, <strong>if possible
- in any way, try a current development snapshot</strong>.
- If you want to report a bug with versions of GCC before 3.1 we strongly
- recommend upgrading to the current release first.</p>
- <p>Before reporting that GCC compiles your code incorrectly, please
- compile it with <code>gcc -Wall</code> and see whether this shows
- anything wrong with your code that could be the cause instead of a bug
- in GCC.</p>
- <h2>Summarized bug reporting instructions</h2>
- <p>After this summary, you'll find detailed bug reporting
- instructions, that explain how to obtain some of the information
- requested in this summary.</p>
- <h3><a name="need">What we need</a></h3>
- <p>Please include in your bug report all of the following items, the first
- three of which can be obtained from the output of <code>gcc -v</code>:</p>
- <ul>
- <li>the exact version of GCC;</li>
- <li>the system type;</li>
- <li>the options given when GCC was configured/built;</li>
- <li>the complete command line that triggers the bug;</li>
- <li>the compiler output (error messages, warnings, etc.); and</li>
- <li>the <em>preprocessed</em> file (<code>*.i*</code>) that triggers the
- bug, generated by adding <code>-save-temps</code> to the complete
- compilation command, or, in the case of a bug report for the GNAT front end,
- a complete set of source files (see below).</li>
- </ul>
- <h3><a name="dontwant">What we do <strong>not</strong> want</a></h3>
- <ul>
- <li>A source file that <code>#include</code>s header files that are left
- out of the bug report (see above)</li>
- <li>That source file and a collection of header files.</li>
- <li>An attached archive (tar, zip, shar, whatever) containing all
- (or some :-) of the above.</li>
- <li>A code snippet that won't cause the compiler to produce the
- exact output mentioned in the bug report (e.g., a snippet with just
- a few lines around the one that <b>apparently</b> triggers the bug,
- with some pieces replaced with ellipses or comments for extra
- obfuscation :-)</li>
- <li>The location (URL) of the package that failed to build (we won't
- download it, anyway, since you've already given us what we need to
- duplicate the bug, haven't you? :-)</li>
- <li>An error that occurs only some of the times a certain file is
- compiled, such that retrying a sufficient number of times results in
- a successful compilation; this is a symptom of a hardware problem,
- not of a compiler bug (sorry)</li>
- <li>E-mail messages that complement previous, incomplete bug
- reports. Post a new, self-contained, full bug report instead, if
- possible as a follow-up to the original bug report</li>
- <li>Assembly files (<code>*.s</code>) produced by the compiler, or any
- binary files, such as object files, executables, core files, or
- precompiled header files</li>
- <li>Duplicate bug reports, or reports of bugs already fixed in the
- development tree, especially those that have already been reported
- as fixed last week :-)</li>
- <li>Bugs in the assembler, the linker or the C library. These are
- separate projects, with separate mailing lists and different bug
- reporting procedures</li>
- <li>Bugs in releases or snapshots of GCC not issued by the GNU
- Project. Report them to whoever provided you with the release</li>
- <li>Questions about the correctness or the expected behavior of
- certain constructs that are not GCC extensions. Ask them in forums
- dedicated to the discussion of the programming language</li>
- </ul>
- <h3><a name="where">Where to post it</a></h3>
- <p>Please submit your bug report directly to the
- <a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/">GCC bug database</a>.
- Alternatively, you can use the <code>gccbug</code> script that mails your bug
- report to the bug database.
- Only if all this is absolutely impossible, mail all information to
- <a href="mailto:gcc-bugs@gcc.gnu.org">gcc-bugs@gcc.gnu.org</a>, but note that
- such reports are often overlooked since they are not permanently recorded into
- the database for later processing.</p>
- <h2><a name="detailed">Detailed bug reporting instructions</a></h2>
- <p>Please refer to the <a href="#gnat">next section</a> when reporting
- bugs in GNAT, the Ada compiler, or to the <a href="#pch">one after
- that</a> when reporting bugs that appear when using a precompiled header.</p>
- <p>In general, all the information we need can be obtained by
- collecting the command line below, as well as its output and the
- preprocessed file it generates.</p>
- <blockquote><p><code>gcc -v -save-temps <i>all-your-options
- source-file</i></code></p></blockquote>
- <p>Typically the preprocessed file (extension <code>.i</code> for C or
- <code>.ii</code> for C++, and <code>.f</code> if the preprocessor is used on
- Fortran files) will be large, so please compress the
- resulting file with one of the popular compression programs such as
- bzip2, gzip, zip or compress (in
- decreasing order of preference). Use maximum compression
- (<code>-9</code>) if available. Please include the compressed
- preprocessor output in your bug report, even if the source code is
- freely available elsewhere; it makes the job of our volunteer testers
- much easier.</p>
- <p>The <b>only</b> excuses to not send us the preprocessed sources are
- (i) if you've found a bug in the preprocessor, (ii) if you've reduced
- the testcase to a small file that doesn't include any other file or
- (iii) if the bug appears only when using precompiled headers. If you
- can't post the preprocessed sources because they're proprietary code,
- then try to create a small file that triggers the same problem.</p>
- <p>Since we're supposed to be able to re-create the assembly output
- (extension <code>.s</code>), you usually should not include
- it in the bug report, although you may want to post parts of it to
- point out assembly code you consider to be wrong.</p>
- <p>Whether to use MIME attachments or <code>uuencode</code> is up to
- you. In any case, make sure the compiler command line, version and
- error output are in plain text, so that we don't have to decode the
- bug report in order to tell who should take care of it. A meaningful
- subject indicating language and platform also helps.</p>
- <p>Please avoid posting an archive (.tar, .shar or .zip); we generally
- need just a single file to reproduce the bug (the .i/.ii/.f preprocessed
- file), and, by storing it in an archive, you're just making our
- volunteers' jobs harder. Only when your bug report requires multiple
- source files to be reproduced should you use an archive. This is, for example,
- the case if you are using <code>INCLUDE</code> directives in Fortran code,
- which are not processed by the preprocessor, but the compiler. In that case,
- we need the main file and all <code>INCLUDE</code>d files. In any case,
- make sure the compiler version, error message, etc, are included in
- the body of your bug report as plain text, even if needlessly
- duplicated as part of an archive.</p>
- <p>If you fail to supply enough information for a bug report to be
- reproduced, someone will probably ask you to post additional
- information (or just ignore your bug report, if they're in a bad day,
- so try to get it right on the first posting :-). In this case, please
- post the additional information to the bug reporting mailing list, not
- just to the person who requested it, unless explicitly told so. If
- possible, please include in this follow-up all the information you had
- supplied in the incomplete bug report (including the preprocessor
- output), so that the new bug report is self-contained.</p>
- <h2><a name="gnat">Detailed bug reporting instructions for GNAT</a></h2>
- <p>See the <a href="#detailed">previous section</a> for bug reporting
- instructions for GCC language implementations other than Ada.</p>
- <p>Bug reports have to contain at least the following information in
- order to be useful:</p>
- <ul>
- <li>the exact version of GCC, as shown by "<code>gcc -v</code>";</li>
- <li>the system type;</li>
- <li>the options when GCC was configured/built;</li>
- <li>the exact command line passed to the <code>gcc</code> program
- triggering the bug
- (not just the flags passed to <code>gnatmake</code>, but
- <code>gnatmake</code> prints the parameters it passed to <code>gcc</code>)</li>
- <li>a collection of source files for reproducing the bug,
- preferably a minimal set (see below);</li>
- <li>a description of the expected behavior;</li>
- <li>a description of actual behavior.</li>
- </ul>
- <p>If your code depends on additional source files (usually package
- specifications), submit the source code for these compilation units in
- a single file that is acceptable input to <code>gnatchop</code>,
- i.e. contains no non-Ada text. If the compilation terminated
- normally, you can usually obtain a list of dependencies using the
- "<code>gnatls -d <i>main_unit</i></code>" command, where
- <code><i>main_unit</i></code> is the file name of the main compilation
- unit (which is also passed to <code>gcc</code>).</p>
- <p>If you report a bug which causes the compiler to print a bug box,
- include that bug box in your report, and do not forget to send all the
- source files listed after the bug box along with your report.</p>
- <p>If you use <code>gnatprep</code>, be sure to send in preprocessed
- sources (unless you have to report a bug in <code>gnatprep</code>).</p>
- <p>When you have checked that your report meets these criteria, please
- submit it according to our <a href="#where">generic instructions</a>.
- (If you use a mailing list for reporting, please include an
- "<code>[Ada]</code>" tag in the subject.)</p>
- <h2><a name="pch">Detailed bug reporting instructions when using a
- precompiled header</a></h2>
- <p>If you're encountering a bug when using a precompiled header, the
- first thing to do is to delete the precompiled header, and try running
- the same GCC command again. If the bug happens again, the bug doesn't
- really involve precompiled headers, please report it without using
- them by following the instructions <a href="#detailed">above</a>.</p>
- <p>If you've found a bug while <i>building</i> a precompiled header
- (for instance, the compiler crashes), follow the usual instructions
- <a href="#detailed">above</a>.</p>
- <p>If you've found a real precompiled header bug, what we'll need to
- reproduce it is the sources to build the precompiled header (as a
- single <code>.i</code> file), the source file that uses the
- precompiled header, any other headers that source file includes, and
- the command lines that you used to build the precompiled header and to
- use it.</p>
- <p>Please <strong>don't</strong> send us the actual precompiled
- header. It is likely to be very large and we can't use it to
- reproduce the problem.</p>
- <hr />
- <h1><a name="known">Frequently Reported Bugs in GCC</a></h1>
- <p>This is a list of bugs in GCC that are reported very often, but not
- yet fixed. While it is certainly better to fix bugs instead of documenting
- them, this document might save people the effort of writing a bug report
- when the bug is already well-known.</p>
- <p>There are many reasons why a reported bug doesn't get fixed.
- It might be difficult to fix, or fixing it might break compatibility.
- Often, reports get a low priority when there is a simple work-around.
- In particular, bugs caused by invalid code have a simple work-around:
- <em>fix the code</em>.</p>
- <hr />
- <h2><a name="cxx">C++</a></h2>
- <h3><a name="cxx-abi">ABI bugs</a></h3>
- <p>GCC 3.0 had a new ABI, which affected class layout, function mangling and
- calling conventions. We had intended it to be complete, but unfortunately
- some issues came to light, too late to fix in the 3.0 series.
- The ABI should not change in dot releases, so we addressed most issues
- in GCC 3.1.</p>
- <dl>
- <dt>Covariant return types</dt>
- <dd>Up to (and including) GCC 3.3 we did not implement non-trivial
- covariant returns. This has been addressed for GCC 3.4.</dd>
- </dl>
- <h3><a name="missing">Missing features</a></h3>
- <p>We know some things are missing from G++.</p>
- <dl>
- <dt>The <code>export</code> keyword is not implemented.</dt>
- <dd><p>Most C++ compilers (G++ included) do not yet implement
- <code>export</code>, which is necessary for separate compilation of
- template declarations and definitions. Without <code>export</code>, a
- template definition must be in scope to be used. The obvious
- workaround is simply to place all definitions in the header
- itself. Alternatively, the compilation unit containing template
- definitions may be included from the header.</p></dd>
- <dt>Two stage lookup in templates is not implemented.</dt>
- <dd><p>[14.6] specifies how names are looked up inside a template. G++
- does not do this correctly, but for most templates this will not be
- noticeable.</p></dd>
- </dl>
- <h3><a name="parsing">Parse errors for "simple" code</a></h3>
- <p>Up to and including GCC 3.0, the compiler will give "parse error" for
- seemingly simple code, such as</p>
- <pre>
- struct A{
- A();
- A(int);
- void func();
- };
- struct B{
- B(A);
- B(A,A);
- void func();
- };
- void foo(){
- B b(A(),A(1)); //Variable b, initialized with two temporaries
- B(A(2)).func(); //B temporary, initialized with A temporary
- }
- </pre>
- <p>The problem is that GCC starts to parse the declaration of
- <code>b</code> as a function <code>b</code> returning <code>B</code>,
- taking a function returning <code>A</code> as an argument. When it
- sees the 1, it is too late. The work-around in these cases is to add
- additional parentheses around the expressions that are mistaken as
- declarations:</p>
- <pre>
- (B(A(2))).func();
- </pre>
- <p>Sometimes, even that is not enough; to show the compiler that this
- should be really an expression, a comma operator with a dummy argument
- can be used:</p>
- <pre>
- B b((0,A()),A(1));
- </pre>
- <p>Another example is the parse error for the <code>return</code>
- statement in</p>
- <pre>
- struct A{};
- struct B{
- A a;
- A f1(bool);
- };
- A B::f1(bool b)
- {
- if (b)
- return (A());
- return a;
- }
- </pre>
- <p>The problem is that the compiler interprets <code>A()</code> as a
- function (taking no arguments, returning <code>A</code>), and
- <code>(A()</code>) as a cast - with a missing expression, hence the
- parse error. The work-around is to omit the parentheses:</p>
- <pre>
- if (b)
- return A();
- </pre>
- <p>This problem occurs in a number of variants; in <code>throw</code>
- statements, people also frequently put the object in parentheses. The
- exact error also somewhat varies with the compiler version. The
- work-arounds proposed do not change the semantics of the program at
- all; they make them perhaps less readable.</p>
- <hr />
- <h2><a name="fortran">Fortran</a></h2>
- <p>Fortran bugs are documented in the G77 manual rather than
- explicitly listed here. Please see
- <a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/g77/Trouble.html">Known Causes of
- Trouble with GNU Fortran</a> in the G77 manual.</p>
- <hr />
- <h1><a name="nonbugs">Non-bugs</a></h1>
- <p>The following are not actually bugs, but are reported often
- enough to warrant a mention here.</p>
- <p>It is not always a bug in the compiler, if code which "worked" in a
- previous version, is now rejected. Earlier versions of GCC sometimes were
- less picky about standard conformance and accepted invalid source code.
- In addition, programming languages themselves change, rendering code
- invalid that used to be conforming (this holds especially for C++).
- In either case, you should update your code to match recent language
- standards.</p>
- <hr />
- <h2><a name="nonbugs_general">General</a></h2>
- <dl>
- <dt>Problems with floating point numbers - the
- <a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/PR323">most often reported non-bug</a>.</dt>
- <dd><p>In a number of cases, GCC appears to perform floating point
- computations incorrectly. For example, the C++ program</p>
- <blockquote><pre>
- #include <iostream>
- int main()
- {
- double a = 0.5;
- double b = 0.01;
- std::cout << (int)(a / b) << std::endl;
- return 0;
- }
- </pre></blockquote>
- <p>might print 50 on some systems and optimization levels, and 49 on
- others.</p>
- <p>The is the result of <em>rounding</em>: The computer cannot
- represent all real numbers exactly, so it has to use
- approximations. When computing with approximation, the computer needs
- to round to the nearest representable number.</p>
- <p>This is not a bug in the compiler, but an inherent limitation of
- the floating point types. Please study
- <a href="http://www.validlab.com/goldberg/paper.ps">this paper</a>
- for more information.</p></dd>
- </dl>
- <hr />
- <h2><a name="nonbugs_c">C</a></h2>
- <dl>
- <dt>Casting does not work as expected when optimization is turned on.</dt>
- <dd><p>This is often caused by a violation of aliasing rules, which are part
- of the ISO C standard. These rules say that a program is invalid if you try
- to access a variable through a pointer of an incompatible type. This is
- happening in the following example where a short is accessed through a
- pointer to integer (the code assumes 16-bit <code>short</code>s and 32-bit
- <code>int</code>s):</p>
- <blockquote><pre>
- #include <stdio.h>
- int main()
- {
- short a[2];
- a[0]=0x1111;
- a[1]=0x1111;
- *(int *)a = 0x22222222; /* violation of aliasing rules */
- printf("%x %x\n", a[0], a[1]);
- return 0;
- }
- </pre></blockquote>
- <p>The aliasing rules were designed to allow compilers more aggressive
- optimization. Basically, a compiler can assume that all changes to variables
- happen through pointers or references to variables of a type compatible to
- the accessed variable. Dereferencing a pointer that violates the aliasing
- rules results in undefined behavior.</p>
- <p>In the case above, the compiler may assume that no access through an
- integer pointer can change the array <code>a</code>, consisting of shorts.
- Thus, <code>printf</code> may be called with the original values of
- <code>a[0]</code> and <code>a[1]</code>. What really happens is up to
- the compiler and may change with architecture and optimization level.</p>
- <p>Recent versions of GCC turn on the option <code>-fstrict-aliasing</code>
- (which allows alias-based optimizations) by default with <code>-O2</code>.
- And some architectures then really print "1111 1111" as result. Without
- optimization the executable will generate the "expected" output
- "2222 2222".</p>
- <p>To disable optimizations based on alias-analysis for faulty legacy code,
- the option <code>-fno-strict-aliasing</code> can be used as a work-around.</p>
- <p>The option <code>-Wstrict-aliasing</code> (which is included in
- <code>-Wall</code>) warns about some - but not all - cases of violation
- of aliasing rules when <code>-fstrict-aliasing</code> is active.</p>
- <p>To fix the code above, you can use a <code>union</code> instead of a
- cast (note that this is a GCC extension which might not work with other
- compilers):</p>
- <blockquote><pre>
- #include <stdio.h>
- int main()
- {
- union
- {
- short a[2];
- int i;
- } u;
- u.a[0]=0x1111;
- u.a[1]=0x1111;
- u.i = 0x22222222;
- printf("%x %x\n", u.a[0], u.a[1]);
- return 0;
- }
- </pre></blockquote>
- <p>Now the result will always be "2222 2222".</p>
- <p>For some more insight into the subject, please have a look at
- <a href="http://mail-index.NetBSD.org/tech-kern/2003/08/11/0001.html">this
- article</a>.</p></dd>
- <dt>Cannot use preprocessor directive in macro arguments.</dt>
- <dd><p>Let me guess... you used an older version of GCC to compile code
- that looks something like this:</p>
- <blockquote><pre>
- memcpy(dest, src,
- #ifdef PLATFORM1
- 12
- #else
- 24
- #endif
- );
- </pre></blockquote>
- <p>and you got a whole pile of error messages:</p>
- <blockquote><pre>
- test.c:11: warning: preprocessing directive not recognized within macro arg
- test.c:11: warning: preprocessing directive not recognized within macro arg
- test.c:11: warning: preprocessing directive not recognized within macro arg
- test.c: In function `foo':
- test.c:6: undefined or invalid # directive
- test.c:8: undefined or invalid # directive
- test.c:9: parse error before `24'
- test.c:10: undefined or invalid # directive
- </pre></blockquote>
- <p>This is because your C library's <code><string.h></code> happens
- to define <code>memcpy</code> as a macro - which is perfectly legitimate.
- In recent versions of glibc, for example, <code>printf</code> is among those
- functions which are implemented as macros.</p>
- <p>Versions of GCC prior to 3.3 did not allow you to put <code>#ifdef</code>
- (or any other preprocessor directive) inside the arguments of a macro. The
- code therefore would not compile.</p>
- <p>As of GCC 3.3 this kind of construct is always accepted and the
- preprocessor will probably do what you expect, but see the manual for
- detailed semantics.</p>
- <p>However, this kind of code is not portable. It is "undefined behavior"
- according to the C standard; that means different compilers may do
- different things with it. It is always possible to rewrite code which
- uses conditionals inside macros so that it doesn't. You could write
- the above example</p>
- <blockquote><pre>
- #ifdef PLATFORM1
- memcpy(dest, src, 12);
- #else
- memcpy(dest, src, 24);
- #endif
- </pre></blockquote>
- <p>This is a bit more typing, but I personally think it's better style
- in addition to being more portable.</p></dd>
- <dt>Cannot initialize a static variable with <code>stdin</code>.</dt>
- <dd><p>This has nothing to do with GCC, but people ask us about it a
- lot. Code like this:</p>
- <blockquote><pre>
- #include <stdio.h>
- FILE *yyin = stdin;
- </pre></blockquote>
- <p>will not compile with GNU libc, because <code>stdin</code> is not a
- constant. This was done deliberately, to make it easier to maintain
- binary compatibility when the type <code>FILE</code> needs to be changed.
- It is surprising for people used to traditional Unix C libraries, but it
- is permitted by the C standard.</p>
- <p>This construct commonly occurs in code generated by old versions of
- lex or yacc. We suggest you try regenerating the parser with a
- current version of flex or bison, respectively. In your own code, the
- appropriate fix is to move the initialization to the beginning of
- main.</p>
- <p>There is a common misconception that the GCC developers are
- responsible for GNU libc. These are in fact two entirely separate
- projects; please check the
- <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/glibc/">GNU libc web pages</a>
- for details.
- </p></dd>
- </dl>
- <hr />
- <h2><a name="nonbugs_cxx">C++</a></h2>
- <dl>
- <dt>Nested classes can access private members and types of the containing
- class.</dt>
- <dd><p>Defect report 45 clarifies that nested classes are members of the
- class they are nested in, and so are granted access to private members of
- that class.</p></dd>
- <dt>G++ emits two copies of constructors and destructors.</dt>
- <dd><p>In general there are <em>three</em> types of constructors (and
- destructors).</p>
- <ol>
- <li>The complete object constructor/destructor.</li>
- <li>The base object constructor/destructor.</li>
- <li>The allocating constructor/deallocating destructor.</li>
- </ol>
- <p>The first two are different, when virtual base classes are involved.
- </p></dd>
- <dt>Global destructors are not run in the correct order.</dt>
- <dd><p>Global destructors should be run in the reverse order of their
- constructors <em>completing</em>. In most cases this is the same as
- the reverse order of constructors <em>starting</em>, but sometimes it
- is different, and that is important. You need to compile and link your
- programs with <code>--use-cxa-atexit</code>. We have not turned this
- switch on by default, as it requires a <code>cxa</code> aware runtime
- library (<code>libc</code>, <code>glibc</code>, or equivalent).</p></dd>
- <dt>Classes in exception specifiers must be complete types.</dt>
- <dd><p>[15.4]/1 tells you that you cannot have an incomplete type, or
- pointer to incomplete (other than <code><i>cv</i> void *</code>) in
- an exception specification.</p></dd>
- <dt>Exceptions don't work in multithreaded applications.</dt>
- <dd><p>You need to rebuild g++ and libstdc++ with
- <code>--enable-threads</code>. Remember, C++ exceptions are not like
- hardware interrupts. You cannot throw an exception in one thread and
- catch it in another. You cannot throw an exception from a signal
- handler and catch it in the main thread.</p></dd>
- <dt>Templates, scoping, and digraphs.</dt>
- <dd><p>If you have a class in the global namespace, say named <code>X</code>,
- and want to give it as a template argument to some other class, say
- <code>std::vector</code>, then <code>std::vector<::X></code>
- fails with a parser error.</p>
- <p>The reason is that the standard mandates that the sequence
- <code><:</code> is treated as if it were the token <code>[</code>.
- (There are several such combinations of characters - they are called
- <em>digraphs</em>.) Depending on the version, the compiler then reports
- a parse error before the character <code>:</code> (the colon before
- <code>X</code>) or a missing closing bracket <code>]</code>.</p>
- <p>The simplest way to avoid this is to write <code>std::vector<
- ::X></code>, i.e. place a space between the opening angle bracket
- and the scope operator.</p></dd>
- </dl>
- <h3><a name="updating">Common problems updating from G++ 2.95 to G++
- 3.0</a></h3>
- <p>G++ 3.0 conforms much closer to the ISO C++ standard (available at
- <a href="http://www.ncits.org/cplusplus.htm">http://www.ncits.org/cplusplus.htm</a>).</p>
- <p>We have also implemented some of the core and library defect reports
- (available at
- <a href="http://anubis.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/cwg_defects.html">http://anubis.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/cwg_defects.html</a>
- &
- <a href="http://anubis.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/lwg-defects.html">
- http://anubis.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/lwg-defects.html</a>
- respectively).</p>
- <ul>
- <li>The ABI has changed. This means that both class layout and name
- mangling is different. You <em>must</em> recompile all c++ libraries (if
- you don't you will get link errors).</li>
- <li>The standard library is much more conformant, and uses the
- <code>std::</code> namespace.</li>
- <li><code>std::</code> is now a real namespace, not an alias for
- <code>::</code>.</li>
- <li>The standard header files for the c library don't end with
- <code>.h</code>, but begin with <code>c</code> (i.e.
- <code><cstdlib></code> rather than <code><stdlib.h></code>).
- The <code>.h</code> names are still available, but are deprecated.</li>
- <li><code><strstream></code> is deprecated, use
- <code><sstream></code> instead.</li>
- <li><code>streambuf::seekoff</code> &
- <code>streambuf::seekpos</code> are private, instead use
- <code>streambuf::pubseekoff</code> &
- <code>streambuf::pubseekpos</code> respectively.</li>
- <li>If <code>std::operator << (std::ostream &, long long)</code>
- doesn't exist, you need to recompile libstdc++ with
- <code>--enable-long-long</code>.</li>
- </ul>
- <p>This means you may get lots of errors about things like
- <code>strcmp</code> not being found. You've most likely forgotten to
- tell the compiler to look in the <code>std::</code> namespace. There are
- several ways to do this,</p>
- <ul>
- <li>Say, <code>std::strcmp</code> at the call. This is the most explicit
- way of saying what you mean.</li>
- <li>Say, <code>using std::strcmp;</code> somewhere before the call. You
- will need to do this for each function or type you wish to use from the
- standard library.</li>
- <li>Say, <code>using namespace std;</code> somewhere before the call.
- This is the quick-but-dirty fix. This brings the <em>whole</em> of the
- <code>std::</code> namespace into scope. <em>Never</em> do this in a
- header file, as you will be forcing users of your header file to do the
- same.</li>
- </ul>
- <p>In addition to the problems listed above, the manual contains a section on
- <a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/C---Misunderstandings.html">Common
- Misunderstandings with GNU C++</a>.</p>
- </body>
- </html>
|