According to cppreference, assert will be used as a C++ attribute.
However, there already exist tons of projects heavily dependent on the macro assert, is there any bad effect?
No. The proposal p0542r5 which introduces C++20 contracts says:
Note that while assert(expression) would expand as a function-like macro with the appropriate header, assert: is not a function-like invocation, so does not expand.
The new use of assert won't cause any problems, because it is not followed by a ( and therefore the function-style macro assert(blah) won't be invoked.
Related
Consider the following code
#define foo 38
#define F(foo) G(foo)
F(42);
I expect this code to fail to compile because after applying the first line second line should transform into #define F(38) G(38) which does not make any sense. But on g++ it successfully compiles into G(42), as if there was no first line at all. I was unable to find any mention of this behaviour in neither g++ docs nor c standard. I know that code is ugly and should not be used in the first place, but I wonder if it has any guarantees to be portable.
C 2018 6.10 7 and C++ 2017 (draft n4659) 19 [cpp] 6 both say:
The preprocessing tokens within a preprocessing directive are not subject to macro expansion unless otherwise stated.
For parameters of function-like macros, nothing is otherwise stated. Therefore, the parameter names in the definition of a function-like macro are not replaced due to prior macro definitions.
(Examples of where macro expansion is otherwise stated include #if directives and #include directives.)
I am trying to build freetype2 using my own build system (I do not want to use Jam, and I am prepared to put the time into figuring it out). I found something odd in the headers. Freetype defines macros like this:
#define FT_CID_H <freetype/ftcid.h>
and then uses them later like this:
#include FT_CID_H
I didn't think that this was possible, and indeed Clang 3.9.1 complains:
error: expected "FILENAME" or <FILENAME>
#include FT_CID_H
What is the rationale behind these macros?
Is this valid C/C++?
How can I convince Clang to parse these headers?
This is related to How to use a macro in an #include directive? but different because the question here is about compiling freetype, not writing new code.
I will address your three questions out of order.
Question 2
Is this valid C/C++?
Yes, this is indeed valid. Macro expansion can be used to produce the final version of a #include directive. Quoting C++14 (N4140) [cpp.include] 16.2/4:
A preprocessing directive of the form
# include pp-tokens new-line
(that does not match one of the two previous forms) is permitted. The preprocessing tokens after include
in the directive are processed just as in normal text (i.e., each identifier currently defined as a macro name is
replaced by its replacement list of preprocessing tokens). If the directive resulting after all replacements does
not match one of the two previous forms, the behavior is undefined.
The "previous forms" mentioned are #include "..." and #include <...>. So yes, it is legal to use a macro which expands to the header/file to include.
Question 1
What is the rationale behind these macros?
I have no idea, as I've never used the freetype2 library. That would be a question best answered by its support channels or community.
Question 3
How can I convince Clang to parse these headers?
Since this is legal C++, you shouldn't have to do anything. Indeed, user #Fanael has demonstrated that Clang is capable of parsing such code. There must be some problem other problem in your setup or something else you haven't shown.
Is this valid C/C++?
The usage is valid C, provided that the macro definition is in scope at the point where the #include directive appears. Specifically, paragraph 6.10.2/4 of C11 says
A preprocessing directive of the form
# include pp-tokens new-line
(that does not match one of the two previous forms) is permitted. The
preprocessing tokens after include in the directive are processed just
as in normal text. (Each identifier currently defined as a macro name
is replaced by its replacement list of preprocessing tokens.) The
directive resulting after all replacements shall match one of the two
previous forms.
(Emphasis added.) Inasmuch as the preprocessor has the same semantics in C++ as in C, to the best of my knowledge, the usage is also valid in C++.
What is the rationale behind these macros?
I presume it is intended to provide for indirection of the header name or location (by providing alternative definitions of the macro).
How can I convince Clang to parse these headers?
Provided, again, that the macro definition is in scope at the point where the #include directive appears, you shouldn't have to do anything. If indeed it is, then Clang is buggy in this regard. In that case, after filing a bug report (if this issue is not already known), you probably need to expand the troublesome macro references manually.
But before you do that, be sure that the macro definitions really are in scope. In particular, they may be guarded by conditional compilation directives -- in that case, the best course of action would probably be to provide whatever macro definition is needed (via the compiler command line) to satisfy the condition. If you are expected to do this manually, then surely the build documentation discusses it. Read the build instructions.
Is the standard C assert(e) macro permitted to evaluate e multiple times? What about C++11 or later? I don't see any guarantees in the Open Group spec, and the answer isn't apparent to me from some searching (1, 2).
Context: could func() be called multiple times in assert(func() != NULL)?
Yes, I already know this is a bad idea for other reasons: as the glibc manual points out, the argument of assert() won't be evaluated at all if NDEBUG is defined. However, assuming NDEBUG is not defined, is there any guarantee on the maximum number of times e is evaluated?
Question prompted by this one.
The C standard says
In the C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011), §7.1.4 Use of library functions says:
Each of the following statements applies unless explicitly stated otherwise in the detailed descriptions that follow: …
Any invocation of a library function that is implemented as a macro shall expand to code that evaluates each of its arguments exactly once, fully protected by parentheses where necessary, so it is generally safe to use arbitrary expressions as arguments.186) Likewise, those function-like macros described in the following subclauses may be invoked in an expression anywhere a function with a compatible return type could be called.187)
186) Such macros might not contain the sequence points that the corresponding function calls do.
187) Because external identifiers and some macro names beginning with an underscore are reserved, implementations may provide special semantics for such names. For example, the identifier _BUILTIN_abs could be used to indicate generation of in-line code for the abs function. Thus, the appropriate header could specify
#define abs(x) _BUILTIN_abs(x)
for a compiler whose code generator will accept it. In this manner, a user desiring to guarantee that a given library function such as abs will be a genuine function may write
#undef abs
whether the implementation’s header provides a macro implementation of abs or a built-in implementation. The prototype for the function, which precedes and is hidden by any macro definition, is thereby revealed also.
The preamble in §7.2 Diagnostics <assert.h> says:
The assert macro shall be implemented as a macro, not as an actual function. If the macro definition is suppressed in order to access an actual function, the behavior is undefined.
And section §7.2.1.1 The assert macro says:
The assert macro puts diagnostic tests into programs; it expands to a void expression. When it is executed, if expression (which shall have a scalar type) is false (that is, compares equal to 0), the assert macro writes information about the particular call that failed (including the text of the argument, the name of the source file, the source line
number, and the name of the enclosing function — the latter are respectively the values of the preprocessing macros __FILE__ and __LINE__ and of the identifier __func__) on the standard error stream in an implementation-defined format.191) It then calls the abort function.
191) The message written might be of the form:
Assertion failed:expression, functionabc, filexyz, linennn.
A possible interpretation of the standard
So much for the verbiage of the standard — how does that translate in practice?
A lot hinges on the interpretation of the statement:
Any invocation of a library function that is implemented as a macro shall expand to code that evaluates each of its arguments exactly once
If assert is regarded as a function that is implemented via a macro, then its argument shall be evaluated just once (the conversion to string is a compile-time operation that does not evaluate the expression).
If assert is regarded as 'not a function' (because it is explicitly a macro), then the restriction quoted doesn't necessarily apply to it.
In practice, I'm sure that the intent is that the expression argument to assert should only be evaluated once (and that only if NDEBUG was not defined when the <assert.h> header was last included) — so I'd regard it as being constrained as if it was a function that is implemented via a macro. I'd also regard any implementation that implemented assert in such a way that the expression was evaluated twice as defective. I'm not certain that the quoted material supports that, but it is all the relevant material I know of in the standard.
While researching solutions to the windows min/max macro problem, I found an answer that I really like but I do not understand why it works. Is there something within the C++ specification that says that macro substitution doesn't occur within parens? If so where is that? Is this just a side effect of something else or is the language designed to work that way? If I use extra parens the max macro doesn't cause a problem:
(std::numeric_limits<int>::max)()
I'm working in a large scale MFC project, and there are some windows libraries that use those macros so I'd prefer not to use the #undef trick.
My other question is this. Does #undef max within a .cpp file only affect the file that it is used within, or would it undefine max for other compilation units?
Function-like macros only expand when the next thing after is an opening parenthesis. When surrounding the name with parentheses, the next thing after the name is a closing parenthesis, so no expansion occurs.
From C++11 § 16.3 [cpp.replace]/10:
Each subsequent instance of the function-like macro name followed by a ( as the next preprocessing token introduces the sequence of preprocessing tokens that is replaced by the replacement list in the definition (an invocation of the macro).
To answer the other question, preprocessing happens before normal compilation and linking, so doing an #undef in an implementation file will only affect that file. In a header, it affects every file that includes that header.
I need to have multi-line comments within a group of macros so that one of the macros initiates a comment block and another concludes it, like this:
#define C_BEGIN /*
#define C_END */
... other macros
But sure enough, this approach doesn't work.
You can't do it for the following reasoning. Let's assume it is possible.
So you created a macro that replaces itself with /*, and another for */. What happens then? First, the comments are removed from the code. After that, the preprocessor replaces your macros with the comments. After that, the compiler will choke: it doesn't know what to do with /* and */ because it simply never faces such things: the comments are always delete before the compilation, so it doesn't even know what a "comment" is. It will probably think it's a division followed by multiplication.
So our assumption is wrong and you can't do it.
Comment processing happens before macro expansion:
c++11
2.2 Phases of translation [lex.phases]
1 - The precedence among the syntax rules of translation is specified by the following phases. [...]
3. [...] Each comment is replaced by one space character. [...]
4. Preprocessing directives are executed, macro invocations are expanded [...]
Perhaps you could try preprocessing your source file twice? (Note: don't do this.)
But sure enough, this approach doesn't work.
It can't work. The comment in your #define C_BEGIN is not a part of and cannot be a part of your macro definition. As far as the language is concerned, your #define C_END is not a macro definition. It just a part of that multiline comment. In other words, it is whitespace. Comments are processed (turned into whitespace) before the preprocessor / compiler gets to the stage of interpreting your macro definitions.
If you are using an IDE, you can simply press ctrl/ for Windows or command/ on Mac. You should select the lines you want to comment first.