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1995-06-16
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This is Info file gcc.info, produced by Makeinfo-1.55 from the input
file gcc.texi.
This file documents the use and the internals of the GNU compiler.
Published by the Free Software Foundation 59 Temple Place - Suite 330
Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
Copyright (C) 1988, 1989, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 Free Software
Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
preserved on all copies.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of
this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also
that the sections entitled "GNU General Public License," "Funding for
Free Software," and "Protect Your Freedom--Fight `Look And Feel'" are
included exactly as in the original, and provided that the entire
resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission
notice identical to this one.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified
versions, except that the sections entitled "GNU General Public
License," "Funding for Free Software," and "Protect Your Freedom--Fight
`Look And Feel'", and this permission notice, may be included in
translations approved by the Free Software Foundation instead of in the
original English.
File: gcc.info, Node: Cross-Compiler Problems, Next: Interoperation, Prev: Installation Problems, Up: Trouble
Cross-Compiler Problems
=======================
You may run into problems with cross compilation on certain machines,
for several reasons.
* Cross compilation can run into trouble for certain machines because
some target machines' assemblers require floating point numbers to
be written as *integer* constants in certain contexts.
The compiler writes these integer constants by examining the
floating point value as an integer and printing that integer,
because this is simple to write and independent of the details of
the floating point representation. But this does not work if the
compiler is running on a different machine with an incompatible
floating point format, or even a different byte-ordering.
In addition, correct constant folding of floating point values
requires representing them in the target machine's format. (The C
standard does not quite require this, but in practice it is the
only way to win.)
It is now possible to overcome these problems by defining macros
such as `REAL_VALUE_TYPE'. But doing so is a substantial amount of
work for each target machine. *Note Cross-compilation::.
* At present, the program `mips-tfile' which adds debug support to
object files on MIPS systems does not work in a cross compile
environment.
File: gcc.info, Node: Interoperation, Next: External Bugs, Prev: Cross-Compiler Problems, Up: Trouble
Interoperation
==============
This section lists various difficulties encountered in using GNU C or
GNU C++ together with other compilers or with the assemblers, linkers,
libraries and debuggers on certain systems.
* Objective C does not work on the RS/6000.
* GNU C++ does not do name mangling in the same way as other C++
compilers. This means that object files compiled with one compiler
cannot be used with another.
This effect is intentional, to protect you from more subtle
problems. Compilers differ as to many internal details of C++
implementation, including: how class instances are laid out, how
multiple inheritance is implemented, and how virtual function
calls are handled. If the name encoding were made the same, your
programs would link against libraries provided from other
compilers--but the programs would then crash when run.
Incompatible libraries are then detected at link time, rather than
at run time.
* Older GDB versions sometimes fail to read the output of GNU CC
version 2. If you have trouble, get GDB version 4.4 or later.
* DBX rejects some files produced by GNU CC, though it accepts
similar constructs in output from PCC. Until someone can supply a
coherent description of what is valid DBX input and what is not,
there is nothing I can do about these problems. You are on your
own.
* The GNU assembler (GAS) does not support PIC. To generate PIC
code, you must use some other assembler, such as `/bin/as'.
* On some BSD systems, including some versions of Ultrix, use of
profiling causes static variable destructors (currently used only
in C++) not to be run.
* Use of `-I/usr/include' may cause trouble.
Many systems come with header files that won't work with GNU CC
unless corrected by `fixincludes'. The corrected header files go
in a new directory; GNU CC searches this directory before
`/usr/include'. If you use `-I/usr/include', this tells GNU CC to
search `/usr/include' earlier on, before the corrected headers.
The result is that you get the uncorrected header files.
Instead, you should use these options (when compiling C programs):
-I/usr/local/lib/gcc-lib/TARGET/VERSION/include -I/usr/include
For C++ programs, GNU CC also uses a special directory that
defines C++ interfaces to standard C subroutines. This directory
is meant to be searched *before* other standard include
directories, so that it takes precedence. If you are compiling
C++ programs and specifying include directories explicitly, use
this option first, then the two options above:
-I/usr/local/lib/g++-include
* On some SGI systems, when you use `-lgl_s' as an option, it gets
translated magically to `-lgl_s -lX11_s -lc_s'. Naturally, this
does not happen when you use GNU CC. You must specify all three
options explicitly.
* On a Sparc, GNU CC aligns all values of type `double' on an 8-byte
boundary, and it expects every `double' to be so aligned. The Sun
compiler usually gives `double' values 8-byte alignment, with one
exception: function arguments of type `double' may not be aligned.
As a result, if a function compiled with Sun CC takes the address
of an argument of type `double' and passes this pointer of type
`double *' to a function compiled with GNU CC, dereferencing the
pointer may cause a fatal signal.
One way to solve this problem is to compile your entire program
with GNU CC. Another solution is to modify the function that is
compiled with Sun CC to copy the argument into a local variable;
local variables are always properly aligned. A third solution is
to modify the function that uses the pointer to dereference it via
the following function `access_double' instead of directly with
`*':
inline double
access_double (double *unaligned_ptr)
{
union d2i { double d; int i[2]; };
union d2i *p = (union d2i *) unaligned_ptr;
union d2i u;
u.i[0] = p->i[0];
u.i[1] = p->i[1];
return u.d;
}
Storing into the pointer can be done likewise with the same union.
* On Solaris, the `malloc' function in the `libmalloc.a' library may
allocate memory that is only 4 byte aligned. Since GNU CC on the
Sparc assumes that doubles are 8 byte aligned, this may result in a
fatal signal if doubles are stored in memory allocated by the
`libmalloc.a' library.
The solution is to not use the `libmalloc.a' library. Use instead
`malloc' and related functions from `libc.a'; they do not have
this problem.
* Sun forgot to include a static version of `libdl.a' with some
versions of SunOS (mainly 4.1). This results in undefined symbols
when linking static binaries (that is, if you use `-static'). If
you see undefined symbols `_dlclose', `_dlsym' or `_dlopen' when
linking, compile and link against the file `mit/util/misc/dlsym.c'
from the MIT version of X windows.
* The 128-bit long double format that the Sparc port supports
currently works by using the architecturally defined quad-word
floating point instructions. Since there is no hardware that
supports these instructions they must be emulated by the operating
system. Long doubles do not work in Sun OS versions 4.0.3 and
earlier, because the kernel eumulator uses an obsolete and
incompatible format. Long doubles do not work in Sun OS version
4.1.1 due to a problem in a Sun library. Long doubles do work on
Sun OS versions 4.1.2 and higher, but GNU CC does not enable them
by default. Long doubles appear to work in Sun OS 5.x (Solaris
2.x).
* On HP-UX version 9.01 on the HP PA, the HP compiler `cc' does not
compile GNU CC correctly. We do not yet know why. However, GNU CC
compiled on earlier HP-UX versions works properly on HP-UX 9.01
and can compile itself properly on 9.01.
* On the HP PA machine, ADB sometimes fails to work on functions
compiled with GNU CC. Specifically, it fails to work on functions
that use `alloca' or variable-size arrays. This is because GNU CC
doesn't generate HP-UX unwind descriptors for such functions. It
may even be impossible to generate them.
* Debugging (`-g') is not supported on the HP PA machine, unless you
use the preliminary GNU tools (*note Installation::.).
* Taking the address of a label may generate errors from the HP-UX
PA assembler. GAS for the PA does not have this problem.
* Using floating point parameters for indirect calls to static
functions will not work when using the HP assembler. There simply
is no way for GCC to specify what registers hold arguments for
static functions when using the HP assembler. GAS for the PA does
not have this problem.
* In extremely rare cases involvving some very large functions you
may receive errors from the HP linker complaining about an out of
bounds unconditional branch offset. This used to occur more often
in previous versions of GNU CC, but is now exceptionally rare. If
you should run into it, you can work around by making your
function smaller.
* GNU CC compiled code sometimes emits warnings from the HP-UX
assembler of the form:
(warning) Use of GR3 when
frame >= 8192 may cause conflict.
These warnings are harmless and can be safely ignored.
* The current version of the assembler (`/bin/as') for the RS/6000
has certain problems that prevent the `-g' option in GCC from
working. Note that `Makefile.in' uses `-g' by default when
compiling `libgcc2.c'.
IBM has produced a fixed version of the assembler. The upgraded
assembler unfortunately was not included in any of the AIX 3.2
update PTF releases (3.2.2, 3.2.3, or 3.2.3e). Users of AIX 3.1
should request PTF U403044 from IBM and users of AIX 3.2 should
request PTF U416277. See the file `README.RS6000' for more
details on these updates.
You can test for the presense of a fixed assembler by using the
command
as -u < /dev/null
If the command exits normally, the assembler fix already is
installed. If the assembler complains that "-u" is an unknown
flag, you need to order the fix.
* On the IBM RS/6000, compiling code of the form
extern int foo;
... foo ...
static int foo;
will cause the linker to report an undefined symbol `foo'.
Although this behavior differs from most other systems, it is not a
bug because redefining an `extern' variable as `static' is
undefined in ANSI C.
* AIX on the RS/6000 provides support (NLS) for environments outside
of the United States. Compilers and assemblers use NLS to support
locale-specific representations of various objects including
floating-point numbers ("." vs "," for separating decimal
fractions). There have been problems reported where the library
linked with GCC does not produce the same floating-point formats
that the assembler accepts. If you have this problem, set the
LANG environment variable to "C" or "En_US".
* Even if you specify `-fdollars-in-identifiers', you cannot
successfully use `$' in identifiers on the RS/6000 due to a
restriction in the IBM assembler. GAS supports these identifiers.
* On the RS/6000, XLC version 1.3.0.0 will miscompile `jump.c'. XLC
version 1.3.0.1 or later fixes this problem. You can obtain
XLC-1.3.0.2 by requesting PTF 421749 from IBM.
* There is an assembler bug in versions of DG/UX prior to 5.4.2.01
that occurs when the `fldcr' instruction is used. GNU CC uses
`fldcr' on the 88100 to serialize volatile memory references. Use
the option `-mno-serialize-volatile' if your version of the
assembler has this bug.
* On VMS, GAS versions 1.38.1 and earlier may cause spurious warning
messages from the linker. These warning messages complain of
mismatched psect attributes. You can ignore them. *Note VMS
Install::.
* On NewsOS version 3, if you include both of the files `stddef.h'
and `sys/types.h', you get an error because there are two typedefs
of `size_t'. You should change `sys/types.h' by adding these
lines around the definition of `size_t':
#ifndef _SIZE_T
#define _SIZE_T
ACTUAL TYPEDEF HERE
#endif
* On the Alliant, the system's own convention for returning
structures and unions is unusual, and is not compatible with GNU
CC no matter what options are used.
* On the IBM RT PC, the MetaWare HighC compiler (hc) uses a different
convention for structure and union returning. Use the option
`-mhc-struct-return' to tell GNU CC to use a convention compatible
with it.
* On Ultrix, the Fortran compiler expects registers 2 through 5 to
be saved by function calls. However, the C compiler uses
conventions compatible with BSD Unix: registers 2 through 5 may be
clobbered by function calls.
GNU CC uses the same convention as the Ultrix C compiler. You can
use these options to produce code compatible with the Fortran
compiler:
-fcall-saved-r2 -fcall-saved-r3 -fcall-saved-r4 -fcall-saved-r5
* On the WE32k, you may find that programs compiled with GNU CC do
not work with the standard shared C library. You may need to link
with the ordinary C compiler. If you do so, you must specify the
following options:
-L/usr/local/lib/gcc-lib/we32k-att-sysv/2.7.0 -lgcc -lc_s
The first specifies where to find the library `libgcc.a' specified
with the `-lgcc' option.
GNU CC does linking by invoking `ld', just as `cc' does, and there
is no reason why it *should* matter which compilation program you
use to invoke `ld'. If someone tracks this problem down, it can
probably be fixed easily.
* On the Alpha, you may get assembler errors about invalid syntax as
a result of floating point constants. This is due to a bug in the
C library functions `ecvt', `fcvt' and `gcvt'. Given valid
floating point numbers, they sometimes print `NaN'.
* On Irix 4.0.5F (and perhaps in some other versions), an assembler
bug sometimes reorders instructions incorrectly when optimization
is turned on. If you think this may be happening to you, try
using the GNU assembler; GAS version 2.1 supports ECOFF on Irix.
Or use the `-noasmopt' option when you compile GNU CC with itself,
and then again when you compile your program. (This is a temporary
kludge to turn off assembler optimization on Irix.) If this
proves to be what you need, edit the assembler spec in the file
`specs' so that it unconditionally passes `-O0' to the assembler,
and never passes `-O2' or `-O3'.
File: gcc.info, Node: External Bugs, Next: Incompatibilities, Prev: Interoperation, Up: Trouble
Problems Compiling Certain Programs
===================================
Certain programs have problems compiling.
* Parse errors may occur compiling X11 on a Decstation running
Ultrix 4.2 because of problems in DEC's versions of the X11 header
files `X11/Xlib.h' and `X11/Xutil.h'. People recommend adding
`-I/usr/include/mit' to use the MIT versions of the header files,
using the `-traditional' switch to turn off ANSI C, or fixing the
header files by adding this:
#ifdef __STDC__
#define NeedFunctionPrototypes 0
#endif
* If you have trouble compiling Perl on a SunOS 4 system, it may be
because Perl specifies `-I/usr/ucbinclude'. This accesses the
unfixed header files. Perl specifies the options
-traditional -Dvolatile=__volatile__
-I/usr/include/sun -I/usr/ucbinclude
-fpcc-struct-return
most of which are unnecessary with GCC 2.4.5 and newer versions.
You can make a properly working Perl by setting `ccflags' to
`-fwritable-strings' (implied by the `-traditional' in the
original options) and `cppflags' to empty in `config.sh', then
typing `./doSH; make depend; make'.
* On various 386 Unix systems derived from System V, including SCO,
ISC, and ESIX, you may get error messages about running out of
virtual memory while compiling certain programs.
You can prevent this problem by linking GNU CC with the GNU malloc
(which thus replaces the malloc that comes with the system). GNU
malloc is available as a separate package, and also in the file
`src/gmalloc.c' in the GNU Emacs 19 distribution.
If you have installed GNU malloc as a separate library package,
use this option when you relink GNU CC:
MALLOC=/usr/local/lib/libgmalloc.a
Alternatively, if you have compiled `gmalloc.c' from Emacs 19, copy
the object file to `gmalloc.o' and use this option when you relink
GNU CC:
MALLOC=gmalloc.o
File: gcc.info, Node: Incompatibilities, Next: Fixed Headers, Prev: External Bugs, Up: Trouble
Incompatibilities of GNU CC
===========================
There are several noteworthy incompatibilities between GNU C and most
existing (non-ANSI) versions of C. The `-traditional' option
eliminates many of these incompatibilities, *but not all*, by telling
GNU C to behave like the other C compilers.
* GNU CC normally makes string constants read-only. If several
identical-looking string constants are used, GNU CC stores only one
copy of the string.
One consequence is that you cannot call `mktemp' with a string
constant argument. The function `mktemp' always alters the string
its argument points to.
Another consequence is that `sscanf' does not work on some systems
when passed a string constant as its format control string or
input. This is because `sscanf' incorrectly tries to write into
the string constant. Likewise `fscanf' and `scanf'.
The best solution to these problems is to change the program to use
`char'-array variables with initialization strings for these
purposes instead of string constants. But if this is not possible,
you can use the `-fwritable-strings' flag, which directs GNU CC to
handle string constants the same way most C compilers do.
`-traditional' also has this effect, among others.
* `-2147483648' is positive.
This is because 2147483648 cannot fit in the type `int', so
(following the ANSI C rules) its data type is `unsigned long int'.
Negating this value yields 2147483648 again.
* GNU CC does not substitute macro arguments when they appear inside
of string constants. For example, the following macro in GNU CC
#define foo(a) "a"
will produce output `"a"' regardless of what the argument A is.
The `-traditional' option directs GNU CC to handle such cases
(among others) in the old-fashioned (non-ANSI) fashion.
* When you use `setjmp' and `longjmp', the only automatic variables
guaranteed to remain valid are those declared `volatile'. This is
a consequence of automatic register allocation. Consider this
function:
jmp_buf j;
foo ()
{
int a, b;
a = fun1 ();
if (setjmp (j))
return a;
a = fun2 ();
/* `longjmp (j)' may occur in `fun3'. */
return a + fun3 ();
}
Here `a' may or may not be restored to its first value when the
`longjmp' occurs. If `a' is allocated in a register, then its
first value is restored; otherwise, it keeps the last value stored
in it.
If you use the `-W' option with the `-O' option, you will get a
warning when GNU CC thinks such a problem might be possible.
The `-traditional' option directs GNU C to put variables in the
stack by default, rather than in registers, in functions that call
`setjmp'. This results in the behavior found in traditional C
compilers.
* Programs that use preprocessing directives in the middle of macro
arguments do not work with GNU CC. For example, a program like
this will not work:
foobar (
#define luser
hack)
ANSI C does not permit such a construct. It would make sense to
support it when `-traditional' is used, but it is too much work to
implement.
* Declarations of external variables and functions within a block
apply only to the block containing the declaration. In other
words, they have the same scope as any other declaration in the
same place.
In some other C compilers, a `extern' declaration affects all the
rest of the file even if it happens within a block.
The `-traditional' option directs GNU C to treat all `extern'
declarations as global, like traditional compilers.
* In traditional C, you can combine `long', etc., with a typedef
name, as shown here:
typedef int foo;
typedef long foo bar;
In ANSI C, this is not allowed: `long' and other type modifiers
require an explicit `int'. Because this criterion is expressed by
Bison grammar rules rather than C code, the `-traditional' flag
cannot alter it.
* PCC allows typedef names to be used as function parameters. The
difficulty described immediately above applies here too.
* PCC allows whitespace in the middle of compound assignment
operators such as `+='. GNU CC, following the ANSI standard, does
not allow this. The difficulty described immediately above
applies here too.
* GNU CC complains about unterminated character constants inside of
preprocessing conditionals that fail. Some programs have English
comments enclosed in conditionals that are guaranteed to fail; if
these comments contain apostrophes, GNU CC will probably report an
error. For example, this code would produce an error:
#if 0
You can't expect this to work.
#endif
The best solution to such a problem is to put the text into an
actual C comment delimited by `/*...*/'. However, `-traditional'
suppresses these error messages.
* Many user programs contain the declaration `long time ();'. In the
past, the system header files on many systems did not actually
declare `time', so it did not matter what type your program
declared it to return. But in systems with ANSI C headers, `time'
is declared to return `time_t', and if that is not the same as
`long', then `long time ();' is erroneous.
The solution is to change your program to use `time_t' as the
return type of `time'.
* When compiling functions that return `float', PCC converts it to a
double. GNU CC actually returns a `float'. If you are concerned
with PCC compatibility, you should declare your functions to return
`double'; you might as well say what you mean.
* When compiling functions that return structures or unions, GNU CC
output code normally uses a method different from that used on most
versions of Unix. As a result, code compiled with GNU CC cannot
call a structure-returning function compiled with PCC, and vice
versa.
The method used by GNU CC is as follows: a structure or union
which is 1, 2, 4 or 8 bytes long is returned like a scalar. A
structure or union with any other size is stored into an address
supplied by the caller (usually in a special, fixed register, but
on some machines it is passed on the stack). The
machine-description macros `STRUCT_VALUE' and
`STRUCT_INCOMING_VALUE' tell GNU CC where to pass this address.
By contrast, PCC on most target machines returns structures and
unions of any size by copying the data into an area of static
storage, and then returning the address of that storage as if it
were a pointer value. The caller must copy the data from that
memory area to the place where the value is wanted. GNU CC does
not use this method because it is slower and nonreentrant.
On some newer machines, PCC uses a reentrant convention for all
structure and union returning. GNU CC on most of these machines
uses a compatible convention when returning structures and unions
in memory, but still returns small structures and unions in
registers.
You can tell GNU CC to use a compatible convention for all
structure and union returning with the option
`-fpcc-struct-return'.
* GNU C complains about program fragments such as `0x74ae-0x4000'
which appear to be two hexadecimal constants separated by the minus
operator. Actually, this string is a single "preprocessing token".
Each such token must correspond to one token in C. Since this
does not, GNU C prints an error message. Although it may appear
obvious that what is meant is an operator and two values, the ANSI
C standard specifically requires that this be treated as erroneous.
A "preprocessing token" is a "preprocessing number" if it begins
with a digit and is followed by letters, underscores, digits,
periods and `e+', `e-', `E+', or `E-' character sequences.
To make the above program fragment valid, place whitespace in
front of the minus sign. This whitespace will end the
preprocessing number.
File: gcc.info, Node: Fixed Headers, Next: Standard Libraries, Prev: Incompatibilities, Up: Trouble
Fixed Header Files
==================
GNU CC needs to install corrected versions of some system header
files. This is because most target systems have some header files that
won't work with GNU CC unless they are changed. Some have bugs, some
are incompatible with ANSI C, and some depend on special features of
other compilers.
Installing GNU CC automatically creates and installs the fixed header
files, by running a program called `fixincludes' (or for certain
targets an alternative such as `fixinc.svr4'). Normally, you don't
need to pay attention to this. But there are cases where it doesn't do
the right thing automatically.
* If you update the system's header files, such as by installing a
new system version, the fixed header files of GNU CC are not
automatically updated. The easiest way to update them is to
reinstall GNU CC. (If you want to be clever, look in the makefile
and you can find a shortcut.)
* On some systems, in particular SunOS 4, header file directories
contain machine-specific symbolic links in certain places. This
makes it possible to share most of the header files among hosts
running the same version of SunOS 4 on different machine models.
The programs that fix the header files do not understand this
special way of using symbolic links; therefore, the directory of
fixed header files is good only for the machine model used to
build it.
In SunOS 4, only programs that look inside the kernel will notice
the difference between machine models. Therefore, for most
purposes, you need not be concerned about this.
It is possible to make separate sets of fixed header files for the
different machine models, and arrange a structure of symbolic
links so as to use the proper set, but you'll have to do this by
hand.
* On Lynxos, GNU CC by default does not fix the header files. This
is because bugs in the shell cause the `fixincludes' script to
fail.
This means you will encounter problems due to bugs in the system
header files. It may be no comfort that they aren't GNU CC's
fault, but it does mean that there's nothing for us to do about
them.
File: gcc.info, Node: Standard Libraries, Next: Disappointments, Prev: Fixed Headers, Up: Trouble
Standard Libraries
==================
GNU CC by itself attempts to be what the ISO/ANSI C standard calls a
"conforming freestanding implementation". This means all ANSI C
language features are available, as well as the contents of `float.h',
`limits.h', `stdarg.h', and `stddef.h'. The rest of the C library is
supplied by the vendor of the operating system. If that C library
doesn't conform to the C standards, then your programs might get
warnings (especially when using `-Wall') that you don't expect.
For example, the `sprintf' function on SunOS 4.1.3 returns `char *'
while the C standard says that `sprintf' returns an `int'. The
`fixincludes' program could make the prototype for this function match
the Standard, but that would be wrong, since the function will still
return `char *'.
If you need a Standard compliant library, then you need to find one,
as GNU CC does not provide one. The GNU C library (called `glibc') has
been ported to a number of operating systems, and provides ANSI/ISO,
POSIX, BSD and SystemV compatibility. You could also ask your operating
system vendor if newer libraries are available.
File: gcc.info, Node: Disappointments, Next: C++ Misunderstandings, Prev: Standard Libraries, Up: Trouble
Disappointments and Misunderstandings
=====================================
These problems are perhaps regrettable, but we don't know any
practical way around them.
* Certain local variables aren't recognized by debuggers when you
compile with optimization.
This occurs because sometimes GNU CC optimizes the variable out of
existence. There is no way to tell the debugger how to compute the
value such a variable "would have had", and it is not clear that
would be desirable anyway. So GNU CC simply does not mention the
eliminated variable when it writes debugging information.
You have to expect a certain amount of disagreement between the
executable and your source code, when you use optimization.
* Users often think it is a bug when GNU CC reports an error for code
like this:
int foo (struct mumble *);
struct mumble { ... };
int foo (struct mumble *x)
{ ... }
This code really is erroneous, because the scope of `struct
mumble' in the prototype is limited to the argument list
containing it. It does not refer to the `struct mumble' defined
with file scope immediately below--they are two unrelated types
with similar names in different scopes.
But in the definition of `foo', the file-scope type is used
because that is available to be inherited. Thus, the definition
and the prototype do not match, and you get an error.
This behavior may seem silly, but it's what the ANSI standard
specifies. It is easy enough for you to make your code work by
moving the definition of `struct mumble' above the prototype.
It's not worth being incompatible with ANSI C just to avoid an
error for the example shown above.
* Accesses to bitfields even in volatile objects works by accessing
larger objects, such as a byte or a word. You cannot rely on what
size of object is accessed in order to read or write the bitfield;
it may even vary for a given bitfield according to the precise
usage.
If you care about controlling the amount of memory that is
accessed, use volatile but do not use bitfields.
* GNU CC comes with shell scripts to fix certain known problems in
system header files. They install corrected copies of various
header files in a special directory where only GNU CC will
normally look for them. The scripts adapt to various systems by
searching all the system header files for the problem cases that
we know about.
If new system header files are installed, nothing automatically
arranges to update the corrected header files. You will have to
reinstall GNU CC to fix the new header files. More specifically,
go to the build directory and delete the files `stmp-fixinc' and
`stmp-headers', and the subdirectory `include'; then do `make
install' again.
* On 68000 systems, you can get paradoxical results if you test the
precise values of floating point numbers. For example, you can
find that a floating point value which is not a NaN is not equal
to itself. This results from the fact that the the floating point
registers hold a few more bits of precision than fit in a `double'
in memory. Compiled code moves values between memory and floating
point registers at its convenience, and moving them into memory
truncates them.
You can partially avoid this problem by using the `-ffloat-store'
option (*note Optimize Options::.).
* On the MIPS, variable argument functions using `varargs.h' cannot
have a floating point value for the first argument. The reason
for this is that in the absence of a prototype in scope, if the
first argument is a floating point, it is passed in a floating
point register, rather than an integer register.
If the code is rewritten to use the ANSI standard `stdarg.h'
method of variable arguments, and the prototype is in scope at the
time of the call, everything will work fine.
File: gcc.info, Node: C++ Misunderstandings, Next: Protoize Caveats, Prev: Disappointments, Up: Trouble
Common Misunderstandings with GNU C++
=====================================
C++ is a complex language and an evolving one, and its standard
definition (the ANSI C++ draft standard) is also evolving. As a result,
your C++ compiler may occasionally surprise you, even when its behavior
is correct. This section discusses some areas that frequently give
rise to questions of this sort.
* Menu:
* Static Definitions:: Static member declarations are not definitions
* Temporaries:: Temporaries may vanish before you expect
File: gcc.info, Node: Static Definitions, Next: Temporaries, Up: C++ Misunderstandings
Declare *and* Define Static Members
-----------------------------------
When a class has static data members, it is not enough to *declare*
the static member; you must also *define* it. For example:
class Foo
{
...
void method();
static int bar;
};
This declaration only establishes that the class `Foo' has an `int'
named `Foo::bar', and a member function named `Foo::method'. But you
still need to define *both* `method' and `bar' elsewhere. According to
the draft ANSI standard, you must supply an initializer in one (and
only one) source file, such as:
int Foo::bar = 0;
Other C++ compilers may not correctly implement the standard
behavior. As a result, when you switch to `g++' from one of these
compilers, you may discover that a program that appeared to work
correctly in fact does not conform to the standard: `g++' reports as
undefined symbols any static data members that lack definitions.
File: gcc.info, Node: Temporaries, Prev: Static Definitions, Up: C++ Misunderstandings
Temporaries May Vanish Before You Expect
----------------------------------------
It is dangerous to use pointers or references to *portions* of a
temporary object. The compiler may very well delete the object before
you expect it to, leaving a pointer to garbage. The most common place
where this problem crops up is in classes like the libg++ `String'
class, that define a conversion function to type `char *' or `const
char *'. However, any class that returns a pointer to some internal
structure is potentially subject to this problem.
For example, a program may use a function `strfunc' that returns
`String' objects, and another function `charfunc' that operates on
pointers to `char':
String strfunc ();
void charfunc (const char *);
In this situation, it may seem natural to write
`charfunc (strfunc ());' based on the knowledge that class `String' has
an explicit conversion to `char' pointers. However, what really
happens is akin to `charfunc (strfunc ().convert ());', where the
`convert' method is a function to do the same data conversion normally
performed by a cast. Since the last use of the temporary `String'
object is the call to the conversion function, the compiler may delete
that object before actually calling `charfunc'. The compiler has no
way of knowing that deleting the `String' object will invalidate the
pointer. The pointer then points to garbage, so that by the time
`charfunc' is called, it gets an invalid argument.
Code like this may run successfully under some other compilers,
especially those that delete temporaries relatively late. However, the
GNU C++ behavior is also standard-conformant, so if your program depends
on late destruction of temporaries it is not portable.
If you think this is surprising, you should be aware that the ANSI
C++ committee continues to debate the lifetime-of-temporaries problem.
For now, at least, the safe way to write such code is to give the
temporary a name, which forces it to remain until the end of the scope
of the name. For example:
String& tmp = strfunc ();
charfunc (tmp);
File: gcc.info, Node: Protoize Caveats, Next: Non-bugs, Prev: C++ Misunderstandings, Up: Trouble
Caveats of using `protoize'
===========================
The conversion programs `protoize' and `unprotoize' can sometimes
change a source file in a way that won't work unless you rearrange it.
* `protoize' can insert references to a type name or type tag before
the definition, or in a file where they are not defined.
If this happens, compiler error messages should show you where the
new references are, so fixing the file by hand is straightforward.
* There are some C constructs which `protoize' cannot figure out.
For example, it can't determine argument types for declaring a
pointer-to-function variable; this you must do by hand. `protoize'
inserts a comment containing `???' each time it finds such a
variable; so you can find all such variables by searching for this
string. ANSI C does not require declaring the argument types of
pointer-to-function types.
* Using `unprotoize' can easily introduce bugs. If the program
relied on prototypes to bring about conversion of arguments, these
conversions will not take place in the program without prototypes.
One case in which you can be sure `unprotoize' is safe is when you
are removing prototypes that were made with `protoize'; if the
program worked before without any prototypes, it will work again
without them.
You can find all the places where this problem might occur by
compiling the program with the `-Wconversion' option. It prints a
warning whenever an argument is converted.
* Both conversion programs can be confused if there are macro calls
in and around the text to be converted. In other words, the
standard syntax for a declaration or definition must not result
from expanding a macro. This problem is inherent in the design of
C and cannot be fixed. If only a few functions have confusing
macro calls, you can easily convert them manually.
* `protoize' cannot get the argument types for a function whose
definition was not actually compiled due to preprocessing
conditionals. When this happens, `protoize' changes nothing in
regard to such a function. `protoize' tries to detect such
instances and warn about them.
You can generally work around this problem by using `protoize' step
by step, each time specifying a different set of `-D' options for
compilation, until all of the functions have been converted.
There is no automatic way to verify that you have got them all,
however.
* Confusion may result if there is an occasion to convert a function
declaration or definition in a region of source code where there
is more than one formal parameter list present. Thus, attempts to
convert code containing multiple (conditionally compiled) versions
of a single function header (in the same vicinity) may not produce
the desired (or expected) results.
If you plan on converting source files which contain such code, it
is recommended that you first make sure that each conditionally
compiled region of source code which contains an alternative
function header also contains at least one additional follower
token (past the final right parenthesis of the function header).
This should circumvent the problem.
* `unprotoize' can become confused when trying to convert a function
definition or declaration which contains a declaration for a
pointer-to-function formal argument which has the same name as the
function being defined or declared. We recommand you avoid such
choices of formal parameter names.
* You might also want to correct some of the indentation by hand and
break long lines. (The conversion programs don't write lines
longer than eighty characters in any case.)