MSVC: shift count negative or too big - c++

I am trying to wrap my head around a warning I get from MSVC. From what I can tell, the warning seems to be bogus, but I would like to be sure.
I am trying to convert an off_t to an offset in an OVERLAPPED. Given an off_t named offset and an OVERLAPPED named overlapped, I am trying the following:
overlapped.Offset = static_cast<DWORD>(offset);
if constexpr(sizeof(offset) > 4) {
overlapped.OffsetHigh = static_cast<DWORD>(offset >> 32);
}
MSVC complains about the bitshift, pretending the shift count is either negative or too big. Since it's clearly not negative - and even MSVC should be able to tell that - it must think it's too big.
How could it be too big? The code in question is only compiled if the size of an off_t is greater than 4. It must therefore be at least 5 bytes (but probably 8), and given 8 bits to the byte meaning a minimum of 40 bits, which is more than 32.
What is going on here?

Could it be the assignment into overlapped.OffsetHigh, and not your explicit shift, that is causing the warning? The following code generates the same warning on VS2015 compiling for x86 32-bit:
struct Clump
{
unsigned int a : 32;
unsigned int b : 32;
unsigned int c : 32;
};
unsigned int x = 0;
unsigned int y = 0;
unsigned int z = 0;
Clump clump = { x, y, z }; // This is line 1121.
1>E.cpp(1121): warning C4293: '<<': shift count negative or too big, undefined behavior
But removing the bit-fields, there is no warning:
struct Clump
{
unsigned int a;
unsigned int b;
unsigned int c;
};
unsigned int x = 0;
unsigned int y = 0;
unsigned int z = 0;
Clump clump = { x, y, z }; // No warning.

Related

Why is the size of the union greater than expected?

#include <iostream>
typedef union dbits {
double d;
struct {
unsigned int M1: 20;
unsigned int M2: 20;
unsigned int M3: 12;
unsigned int E: 11;
unsigned int s: 1;
};
};
int main(){
std::cout << "sizeof(dbits) = " << sizeof(dbits) << '\n';
}
output: sizeof(dbits) = 16, but if
typedef union dbits {
double d;
struct {
unsigned int M1: 12;
unsigned int M2: 20;
unsigned int M3: 20;
unsigned int E: 11;
unsigned int s: 1;
};
};
Output: sizeof(dbits) = 8
Why does the size of the union increase?
In the first and second union, the same number of bits in the bit fields in the structure, why the different size?
I would like to write like this:
typedef union dbits {
double d;
struct {
unsigned long long M: 52;
unsigned int E: 11;
unsigned int s: 1;
};
};
But, sizeof(dbits) = 16, but not 8, Why?
And how convenient it is to use bit fields in structures to parse bit in double?
members of a bit field will not cross boundaries of the specified storage type. So
unsigned int M1: 20;
unsigned int M2: 20;
will be 2 unsigned int using 20 out of 32 bit each.
In your second case 12 + 20 == 32 fits in a single unsigned int.
As for your last case members with different storage type can never share. So you get one unsigned long long and one unsigned int instead of a single unsigned long long as you desired.
You should use uint64_t so you get exact bit counts. unsigned int could e anything from 16 to 128 (or more) bit.
Note: bitfields are highly implementation defined, this is just the common way it usually works.

stranger "may be used uninitialized in this function [-Wmaybe-uninitialized]"

Any idea? this is the log:
util.h: In function ‘bool BusyBees()’:
util.h:162:17: warning: ‘bestHashBee’ may be used uninitialized in this function [-Wmaybe-uninitialized]
data[1] = x >> 8;
~~^~~~
miner.cpp:512:14: note: ‘bestHashBee’ was declared here
uint32_t bestHashBee;
^~~~~~~~~~~
this is util.h (the function declare):
/** Write a 32-bit unsigned little-endian integer. */
void inline WriteLE32(unsigned char *data, uint32_t x) {
data[0] = x;
data[1] = x >> 8;
data[2] = x >> 16;
data[3] = x >> 24;
}
this is where i use it:
uint32_t bestHashBee;
unsigned char beeNonceEncoded[4];
WriteLE32(beeNonceEncoded, bestHashBee);
std::vector<unsigned char> beeNonceVec(beeNonceEncoded, beeNonceEncoded + 4);
Thanks for any help!
Let's take a look at the code:
uint32_t bestHashBee;
// at this point bestHashBee is an integer, but it could be any integer
// you have not told it what value it should have. It might be 0 it might be
// 2879872. It depends entirely on what was in that memory location before.
unsigned char beeNonceEncoded[4];
// beeNonceEncoded is an array of 4 random chars - they have not been
// initialized to any known value
WriteLE32(beeNonceEncoded, bestHashBee);
// now beeNonceEncoded contains 4 random chars.
std::vector<unsigned char> beeNonceVec(beeNonceEncoded, beeNonceEncoded + 4);
// you've passes bestHashBee to this function - it's a random value
void inline WriteLE32(unsigned char *data, uint32_t x) {
data[0] = x;
// now data[0] contains a random value
//...
}
the compiler is warning you that you haven't initialized bestHashbee - it's unlikely that you want a slightly random value there.
The recommendations from all the commenters are: initialize it.
uint32_t bestHashBee = 100;
would do it. 100 might not be what you want either. Depending on the version of c++ you're using, you could also use
uint32_t bestHashBee{100};

Creating a generic payload class

my task is to place specified bits in an array of 8 bytes (not all 64 bits).
This can be done by using a struct:
struct Date {
unsigned int nWeekDay : 3;
unsigned int nMonthDay : 6;
unsigned int reserved1 : 10;
unsigned int nMonth : 5;
unsigned int nYear : 8;
};
I would like to write a generic class that gets value, start bits and length and place the the value a the correct position.
Could someone point me to an implementation of such a class\function?

C++ Bits in 64 bit integer

Hello I have a struct here that is 7 bytes and I'd like to write it to a 64 bit integer. Next, I'd like to extract out this struct later from the 64 bit integer.
Any ideas on this?
#include "stdafx.h"
struct myStruct
{
unsigned char a;
unsigned char b;
unsigned char b;
unsigned int someNumber;
};
int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
myStruct * m = new myStruct();
m->a = 11;
m->b = 8;
m->c = 12;
m->someNumber = 30;
printf("\n%s\t\t%i\t%i\t%i\t%i\n\n", "struct", m->a, m->b, m->c, m->someNumber);
unsigned long num = 0;
// todo: use bitwise operations from m into num (total of 7 bytes)
printf("%s\t\t%i\n\n", "ulong", num);
m = new myStruct();
// todo: use bitwise operations from num into m;
printf("%s\t\t%i\t%i\t%i\t%i\n\n", "struct", m->a, m->b, m->c, m->someNumber);
return 0;
}
You should to do something like this:
class structured_uint64
{
uint64_t data;
public:
structured_uint64(uint64_t x = 0):data(x) {}
operator uint64_t&() { return data; }
unsigned uint8_t low_byte(size_t n) const { return data >> (n * 8); }
void low_byte(size_t n, uint8_t val) {
uint64_t mask = static_cast<uint64_t>(0xff) << (8 * n);
data = (data & ~mask) | (static_cast<uint64_t>(val) << (8 * n));
}
unsigned uint32_t hi_word() const { return (data >> 24); }
// et cetera
};
(there is, of course, lots of room for variation on the details of the interface and where among the 64 bits the constituents are placed)
Using different types to alias the same portion of memory is a generally bad idea. The thing is, it's very valuable for the optimizer to be able to use reasoning like:
"Okay, I've read a uint64_t at the start of this block, and nowhere in the middle does the program write to any uint64_ts, therefore the value must be unchanged!"
which means it will get the wrong answer if you tried to change the value of the uint64_t object through a uint32_t reference. And as this is very dependent what optimizations are possible and done, it is actually pretty easy to never run across the problem in test cases, but see it in the real program you're trying to write -- and you'll spend forever trying to find the bug because you convinced yourself it's not this problem.
So, you really should do the insertion/extraction of the fields with bit twiddling (or intrinsics, if profiling shows that this is a performance issue and there are useful ones available) rather than trying to set up a clever struct.
If you really know what you're doing, you can make the aliasing work, I believe. But it should only be done if you really know what you're doing, and that includes knowing relevant rules from the standard inside and out (which I don't, and so I can't advise you on how to make it work). And even then you probably shouldn't do it.
Also, if you intend your integral types to be a specific size, you should really use the correct types. For example, never use unsigned int for an integer that is supposed to be exactly 32 bits. Instead use uint32_t. Not only is it self-documenting, but you won't run into a nasty surprise when you try to build your program in an environment where unsigned int is not 32 bits.
Use a union. Each element of a union occupies the same address space. The struct is one element, the unsigned long long is another.
#include <stdio.h>
union data
{
struct
{
unsigned char a;
unsigned char b;
unsigned char c;
unsigned int d;
} e;
unsigned long long f;
};
int main()
{
data dat;
dat.f = 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF;
dat.e.a = 1;
dat.e.b = 2;
dat.e.c = 3;
dat.e.d = 4;
printf("f=%016llX\n",dat.f);
printf("%02X %02X %02X %08X\n",dat.e.a,dat.e.b,dat.e.c,dat.e.d);
return 0;
}
Output, but note one byte of the original unsigned long long remains. Compilers like to align data such as 4-byte integers on addresses divisible by 4, so three bytes, then a pad byte so the integer is at offset 4 and the struct has a total size of 8.
f=00000004FF030201
01 02 03 00000004
This can be controlled in compiler-dependent fashion. Below is for Microsoft C++:
#include <stdio.h>
#pragma pack(push,1)
union data
{
struct
{
unsigned char a;
unsigned char b;
unsigned char c;
unsigned int d;
} e;
unsigned long long f;
};
#pragma pack(pop)
int main()
{
data dat;
dat.f = 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF;
dat.e.a = 1;
dat.e.b = 2;
dat.e.c = 3;
dat.e.d = 4;
printf("f=%016llX\n",dat.f);
printf("%02X %02X %02X %08X\n",dat.e.a,dat.e.b,dat.e.c,dat.e.d);
return 0;
}
Note the struct occupies seven bytes now and the highest byte of the unsigned long long is now unchanged:
f=FF00000004030201
01 02 03 00000004
Got it.
static unsigned long long compress(char a, char b, char c, unsigned int someNumber)
{
unsigned long long x = 0;
x = x | a;
x = x << 8;
x = x | b;
x = x << 8;
x = x | c;
x = x << 32;
x = x | someNumber;
return x;
}
myStruct * decompress(unsigned long long x)
{
printBinary(x);
myStruct * m = new myStruct();
m->someNumber = x | 4294967296;
x = x >> 32;
m->c = x | 256;
x = x >> 8;
m->b = x | 256;
x = x >> 8;
m->a = x | 256;
return m;
}

sizeof(struct) returns unexpected value

This should be simple but I have no clue where to look for the issue:
I have a struct:
struct region
{
public:
long long int x;
long long int y;
long long int width;
long long int height;
unsigned char scale;
};
When I do sizeof(region) it gives me 40 when I am expecting 33.
Any ideas?
(mingw gcc, win x64 os)
It's padding the struct to fit an 8-byte boundary. So it actually is taking 40 bytes in memory - sizeof is returning the correct value.
If you want it to only take 33 bytes then specify the packed attribute:
struct region
{
public:
long long int x;
long long int y;
long long int width;
long long int height;
unsigned char scale;
} __attribute__ ((packed));
long long int values are 8 bytes each. scale is only 1 byte but is padded for alignments, so it effectively takes up 8 bytes too. 5*8 = 40.
As others said, structs are padded for alignments, and such padding not only depends on the type of the members, but also on the order of the members in which they're defined.
For example, consider these two structs A and B as defined below. Both structs are identical in terms of members and types; the only difference is that the order in which members are defined isn't same:
struct A
{
int i;
int j;
char c;
char d;
};
struct B
{
int i;
char c;
int j;
char d;
};
Would the sizeof(A) be equal to sizeof(B) just because they've same number of members of same type? No. Try printing the size of each:
cout << "sizeof(A) = "<< sizeof(A) << endl;
cout << "sizeof(B) = "<< sizeof(B) << endl;
Output:
sizeof(A) = 12
sizeof(B) = 16
Surprised? See the output yourself : http://ideone.com/yCX4S