I'm having difficulty figuring out exactly how to use execvp in C++. I'm not having any issues getting my code to work, but I'm specifically trying to figure out how to do it in a way that doesn't make the compiler complain.
I have looked at various questions on Stack Overflow and other resources, but I have been unable to find a solution that results in zero warnings from the compiler.
Consider the following C++ program, which prints its own source code:
#include <unistd.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
char *args[3];
args[0] = "/bin/cat";
args[1] = __FILE__;
args[2] = NULL;
execvp(args[0], args);
return 0;
}
(I know that the return 0 should never be reached; I'm not so concerned with error handling in this question.)
When I compile it, the compiler emits two warnings:
$ g++ -Wall exec.cpp
exec.cpp: In function ‘int main(int, char**)’:
exec.cpp:6:15: warning: ISO C++ forbids converting a string constant to ‘char*’ [-Wwrite-strings]
args[0] = "/bin/cat";
^~~~~~~~~~
exec.cpp:7:15: warning: ISO C++ forbids converting a string constant to ‘char*’ [-Wwrite-strings]
args[1] = __FILE__;
^~~~~~~~
The compiled program successfully prints the source file. However, I'd really like to get the program to compile without any warnings. Since the compiler doesn't like that the string literals are being assigned to a pointer of type char* (not const char*), I suppose it would make sense to mark args as an array of const char* pointers. Consider this version of the program:
#include <unistd.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
const char *args[3];
args[0] = "/bin/cat";
args[1] = __FILE__;
args[2] = NULL;
execvp(args[0], args);
return 0;
}
I would think that this program should compile and run with no warnings or errors, but the compiler does emit an error:
$ g++ -Wall exec.cpp
exec.cpp: In function ‘int main(int, char**)’:
exec.cpp:10:25: error: invalid conversion from ‘const char**’ to ‘char* const*’ [-fpermissive]
execvp(args[0], args);
^
In file included from exec.cpp:1:0:
/usr/include/unistd.h:581:12: note: initializing argument 2 of ‘int execvp(const char*, char* const*)’
extern int execvp (const char *__file, char *const __argv[])
^~~~~~
I also tried declaring args as char const *args[3], but the compiler emits the same error. The only way I am able to get it to compile with no warnings is by casting args in the call to execvp:
const char *args[3];
...
execvp(args[0], (char* const*)args);
This version compiles without warnings and runs successfully. However, I prefer to avoid casting when I can, because it makes it harder for me to reason about the type conversions going on.
Are one of the two working ways that I have shown above the best way to create an argument array to pass to execvp, or is there a better way that is clear and does not result in the compiler complaining?
I am using two different compilers - g++ 6.2.0 for native compilation on Ubuntu x86_64, and g++ 4.5.3 for cross compilation to an ARM platform.
Edit:
I do not believe that my question is a duplicate of this question. I understand the different effects of using const in different ways with respect to a char* variable. I am specifically asking which type is conventionally used for execvp calls, which is not answered by the linked question.
Related
I have a question regarding to the code snippet appended below. Anyway I ran the snippet on ideone.com and got two different results
C: Succeed.
C++: Error:
prog.cpp: In function ‘int main()’:
prog.cpp:20:13: error: cannot convert ‘int* (*)[2][10]’ to \
‘int* (*)[10]’ for argument ‘1’ to ‘void foo(int* (*)[10], size_t)’
foo(&a, LEN);
^
The result in C++ is what I expect, but it runs successfully in C, and it seems like it's compiler dependent because people on the chat helping ran the snippet only got a warning.
So which part I've missed? Is that C automatically did some conversion?
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stddef.h>
#define LEN 2
void foo(int* a[][10], size_t len) {
printf("%s\n", "successfully called foo.");
}
int main(void) {
// a is an LEN-array of an 10-array of (int *)
int *a[LEN][10] = {{0}};
// but the identifier `a` will decay to be a pointer of type int*[10]
// p1 is a pointer to an 10-array of (int *)
int *(*p1)[10] = 0;
foo(a, LEN);
foo(&a, LEN);
return 0;
}
Drastic edit; previous answer was wrong as pointed out in the comments.
The program is ill-formed in both C and C++. But the standards of the respective languages don't disallow successfully compiling programs that violate the imposed constraints. This allows the implementations to extend the language. Implementations are merely required to issue a diagnostic message. Both a warning and an error are conforming behaviours.
For whatever reason, the compiler that you use (through ideone) has chosen to behave differently when compiling C++.
This is not valid in C. Using gcc with -Wall -Wextra, it outputs the following:
x1.c: In function ‘main’:
x1.c:19:9: warning: passing argument 1 of ‘foo’ from incompatible pointer type [-Wincompatible-pointer-types]
foo(&a, LEN);
^
x1.c:5:6: note: expected ‘int * (*)[10]’ but argument is of type ‘int * (*)[2][10]’
void foo(int* a[][10], size_t len) {
^~~
The types are not compatible. It only shows up as a warning because C tends to allow various pointer conversions even though they aren't proper.
You can however do this:
int *(*p1)[10] = a;
foo(a, LEN);
foo(p1, LEN);
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
string argstr[argc];
for(int c = 1; c++; c<argc) {
argstr[c].assign(argv[c]);
}
for(int c = 1; c++; c<argc) {
__asm__(argstr[c]); //This is where the error occurs
cout << argstr[c] << endl;
}
}
If I try to compile it with MinGW, I get the following error:
Main.cpp: In function 'int main(int, char**)':
Main.cpp:15:6: error: expected string-literal before 'args'
asm(args);
I know this, that's why I assign the arguments to a vector of strings.
__asm__() is a compile-time construct. The argument must be a string literal, and not a variable.
You can't dynamically execute assembly code like this. The compiler needs to know about the assembly instructions at compile time so it can check if they are valid, but you are trying to pass them in at run time.
Edit: One workaround is to write a wrapper program in python (for example) that injects a string literal into your C++ __asm__ construct and then compiles it and executes it for you.
Here a basic code I'm trying to run But I'm having trouble with stoi (it's c++) I keep getting error:
‘stoi’ was not declared in this scope
I tried atoi and strtol with this error
.cpp:23: error: cannot convert ‘std::string’ to ‘const char*’ for argument ‘1’ to ‘int atoi(const char*)’
The code:
using namespace std;
int main(){
string numberGuessed;
int intNumberGuessed = 0;
do {
cout << "Guess a numeber btw 1 - 10: " << endl;
getline(cin, numberGuessed);
intNumberGuessed = atoi(numberGuessed);
cout << intNumberGuessed << endl;
} while(intNumberGuessed != 4);
cout<< "you win" << endl;
return 0;
}
The atoi() function accepts const char* argument, but you're trying to pass it std::string. Write it like intNumberGuessed = atoi(numberGuessed.c_str()); to take the pointer.
As for the first error, about stoi() being undeclared — it is because the function was added in C++11 standard, so you have to enable its support in your compiler. I.e. in older versions of GCC you could do it with -std=c++11 option (since gcc5 C11 is enabled by default, and since gcc6 C++11 will be enabled by default).
Use stoi, it's the modern C++ version of C's atoi.
Update:
Since the original answer text above the question was amended with the following error message:
‘stoi’ was not declared in this scope
Assuming this error was produced by g++ (which uses that wording), this can have two different causes:
Using a non-conforming variant of g++ that doesn't provide std::stoi.
Using g++ in C++03 mode (stoi was introduced in C++11).
For Windows, the MinGW-w64 variant is known to provide std::stoi, and in particular the Nuwen distribution is based on MinGW-w64.
For C++11 mode, with g++ use the option -std=c++11. For example, this is necessary with the Nuwen distribution g++ version 5.1.
While adding a detailed answer, I noticed that GCC does not warn the following code while Visual C++ complains.
#include <cstring>
int main()
{
const char CONSTSTR[] = "foo/bar/foobar.txt";
char *nonconst = std::strrchr (CONSTSTR, '/');
// cannot convert from 'const char *' to 'char *'
*nonconst++ = 'B';
*nonconst++ = 'A';
*nonconst++ = 'D';
}
I have tested three different GCC versions:
4.1.2 on Red Hat (Linux)
4.5.3 on Cygwin (Windows)
4.7.2 on MinGW (Windows)
But all these three GCC versions compiled this code without any warning/error:
> g++ -Wall -Wextra -pedantic -ansi test.cpp && echo "success"
success
While Microsoft compiler v16 complains:
> cl -c test.cpp
Microsoft (R) 32-bit C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 16.00.30319.01 for 80x86
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
test.cpp
test.cpp(5) : error C2440: 'initializing' : cannot convert from 'const char *' to 'char *'
Conversion loses qualifiers
(from my office, I do not have access to ideone/codepad/... to test it using other versions)
As this code uses std::strrchr, I do not understand why GCC does not complain.
const char* strrchr( const char* str, int ch ); //the code above uses this declaration
char* strrchr( char* str, int ch );
My question: Why does g++ successfully compile this code without any warning/error? Is it a bug? a feature? a miss-configuration on my side?
Actually your g++ does not accept the conversion from 'const char *' to 'char *', it's just that on your version std::strrchr() returns a char* (incorrectly, instead of a const char*).
To verify the first part of my statement, try to compile the following on your GCC versions, I predict that all will correctly issue an error:
int main()
{
const char* p = "foo";
char* q = p; // error, invalid conversion from 'const char*' to 'char*'
}
Now for the second part, I tried to compile the following minimal code, whose actual aim is to trigger an error in order to list the declared overloads of std::strrchr:
#include <cstring>
void (*p)() = &std::strrchr; // error here, with "candidates are: ..."
int main() {}
Well, with gcc 4.7.2 the message shows the expected "all non-const" and "all const" overloads:
prog.cpp:2:21: error: no matches converting function ‘strrchr’ to type ‘void (*)()’
In file included from /usr/include/c++/4.7/cstring:44:0,
from prog.cpp:1:
/usr/include/string.h:249:1: error: candidates are: char* strrchr(char*, int)
/usr/include/string.h:255:1: error: const char* strrchr(const char*, int)
i.e. the prototypes
char* strrchr( char* , int );
const char* strrchr( const char* , int ); // Question's code will use this one (-> error)
But with gcc 4.3.2 the message was different:
prog.cpp:2: error: no matches converting function 'strrchr' to type 'void (*)()'
/usr/include/string.h:171: error: candidates are: char* strrchr(const char*, int)
/usr/include/c++/4.3/cstring:118: error: char* std::strrchr(char*, int)
i.e. the overloads were
char* strrchr( const char* , int ); // Question's code would use this one (-> no error...)
char* strrchr( char* , int );
(the second one is the C++ non-const overload; but the first one is the old C version, and should instead be the C++ const overload).
This it seems that the headers (<cstring> and/or <string.h>) were incorrect on this version, and I suspect that it's the same on yours.
Edit: I found for example a discussion, a blog post and a bug report (for strchr not strrchr but it's the same story).
The program should get arguments from a command line, and add the arguments via posix threads. But Xcode successfully builds it, but gives no output. Is there something wrong with this code.
Thanks
#include <iostream>
#include <pthread.h>
using namespace std;
void *Add(void *threadid){
long tid;
tid =(long)threadid;
long sum=0;
sum=sum+tid;
printf("%ld.\n",sum);
pthread_exit(NULL);
}
void *Print(void *threadid){
long tid;
tid =(long)threadid;
printf("%ld.\n",tid);
pthread_exit(NULL);
}
int main (int argc, char const *argv[])
{
if(argc<6){
printf("you need more arguments");
return -1;
}
long real[5];
pthread_t athread,bthread;
for (int x=1;x<=5;x++)
real[x-1]=atol(argv[x]);
for(int y=1;y<=5;y++)
pthread_create(athread[y],NULL,Add,(void *)&real[y]);
for(int y=1;y<=5;y++)
pthread_create(bthread[y],NULL,Print,(void *)&real[y]);
pthread_exit(NULL);
return 0;
}
First of all I think you should check if pthread_create method was success.
I don't have expirience in pthread under Apple, but based on that code I think you have problem with thread creation.
First of all, printf is defined in stdio.h and not in iostream. If you'd like to do it the C++ way with iostream, then cout << "Blabla " << var << endl; should be used instead.
Second, you are calling pthread_create with wrong arguments. As defined athread and bthread are not arrays but you use them as such. I am not entirely sure why this would even compile since pthread_create expects pthread_t* as first argument and you are providing *pthread_t. If the code ever compiles, it will most likely crash when run.
Third, you are not joining the adder threads. This means that your print threads could start before the adder threads have finished.
Fourth, you are summing into local variables. You are supposed to sum into a global one. Don't forget to guard the access to it by a mutex or something.
Fifth, arguments to the thread routines are wrong. You are passing pointer to the value and not the value itself and later reinterpreting the pointer as the value itself. You would most likely want to use (void *)real[y] and not (void *)&real[y]. Mind that casting long to void * doesn't work on all systems. On Mac OS X both long and void * are of the same length (either 32 or 64 bits) but this is not true in general.
Edited: Your code doesn't even compile on OS X:
$ g++ -o t.x t.cpp
t.cpp: In function ‘int main(int, const char**)’:
t.cpp:37: error: cannot convert ‘_opaque_pthread_t’ to ‘_opaque_pthread_t**’ for argument ‘1’ to ‘int pthread_create(_opaque_pthread_t**, const pthread_attr_t*, void* (*)(void*), void*)’
t.cpp:40: error: cannot convert ‘_opaque_pthread_t’ to ‘_opaque_pthread_t**’ for argument ‘1’ to ‘int pthread_create(_opaque_pthread_t**, const pthread_attr_t*, void* (*)(void*), void*)’
$ clang -o t.x t.cpp
t.cpp:37:5: error: no matching function for call to 'pthread_create'
pthread_create(athread[y],NULL,Add,(void *)&real[y]);
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/usr/include/pthread.h:304:11: note: candidate function not viable: no known
conversion from 'struct _opaque_pthread_t' to 'pthread_t *' (aka
'_opaque_pthread_t **') for 1st argument;
int pthread_create(pthread_t * __restrict,
^
t.cpp:40:5: error: no matching function for call to 'pthread_create'
pthread_create(bthread[y],NULL,Print,(void *)&real[y]);
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/usr/include/pthread.h:304:11: note: candidate function not viable: no known
conversion from 'struct _opaque_pthread_t' to 'pthread_t *' (aka
'_opaque_pthread_t **') for 1st argument;
int pthread_create(pthread_t * __restrict,
^
2 errors generated.
Don't you even see the error messages that XCode is providing?