[arch-general] gcc: loop do not terminate

13 May 2013

      I have just been hit by something:

lano1106@hpmini ~/dev/gcc-test $ g++ --version
g++ (GCC) 4.8.0 20130502 (prerelease)
Copyright (C) 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

lano1106@hpmini ~/dev/gcc-test $ g++ -O2 -o test1 test1.cpp test1_init.cpp
lano1106@hpmini ~/dev/gcc-test $ ./test1
item 0
 a: 1
lano1106@hpmini ~/dev/gcc-test $ g++ -O1 -o test1 test1.cpp test1_init.cpp
lano1106@hpmini ~/dev/gcc-test $ ./test1
item 0
 a: 1
lano1106@hpmini ~/dev/gcc-test $ g++ -O0 -o test1 test1.cpp test1_init.cpp
lano1106@hpmini ~/dev/gcc-test $ ./test1
item 0
 a: 1
item 1
 a: 2
lano1106@hpmini ~/dev/gcc-test $ cat test1.h

struct A
{
        int a;
        int b;
        int c;
};

struct B
{
        int numelem;
        /*
         * Old C trick to define a dynamically sizable array just by allocating
         * sizeof(B) + (numelem-1)*sizeof(A) memory.
         */
        A   item[1];
};

void initArr(B *p);

lano1106@hpmini ~/dev/gcc-test $ cat test1_init.cpp
#include "test1.h"

void initArr(B *p)
{
        p->numelem = 2;
        p->item[0].a = 1;
        p->item[1].a = 2;
}

lano1106@hpmini ~/dev/gcc-test $ cat test1.cpp
/*
 * Author: Olivier Langlois 
 *
 * Purpose: Small test to highlight gcc optimization bug
 */

#include 
#include 
#include "test1.h"

/*
 * Create a B array with the intent of only using the first item.
 * The 19 other items sole purpose is to create a buffer large enough
 * to accomodate A array needs.
 */
#define MAXBLEN 20

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
        B arr[MAXBLEN];
        memset(arr,0,sizeof(arr));

        initArr(arr);

        for( int i = 0; i < arr[0].numelem; ++i )
        {
                printf( "item %d\n"
                        " a: %d\n",
                        i,
                        arr[0].item[i].a);
        }

        return 0;
}
...
From gcc website, this is not a bug:
Loops do not terminate

    This is often caused by out-of-bound array accesses or by signed integer overflow which both result in undefined behavior according to the ISO C standard. For example

        int
        SATD (int* diff, int use_hadamard)
        {
          int k, satd = 0, m[16], dd, d[16];
          ...
            for (dd=d[k=0]; k<16; dd=d[++k])
              satd += (dd < 0 ? -dd : dd);

    accesses d[16] before the loop is exited with the k<16 check. This causes the compiler to optimize away the exit test because the new value of k must be in the range [0, 15] according to ISO C.

    GCC starting with version 4.8 has a new option -fno-aggressive-loop-optimizations that may help here. If it does, then this is a clear sign that your code is not conforming to ISO C and it is not a GCC bug.

I am surprised that I didn't hit the problem before but I am seriously considering using '-fno-aggressive-loop-optimizations' in my own makepkg.conf. I just want to test others feeling on this discovery to see if it wouldn't be a good idea to make the switch standard in Arch...

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[arch-general] gcc: loop do not terminate

LANGLOIS Olivier PIS -EXT