Why does -O2 or greater optimization in clang break this code? - c++

Question

I checked similar questions on the site, but I couldn't find anything that matches my scenario here. This is the code I'm trying to run (requires C++14):
#include <iostream>
#include <chrono>
#include <thread>
using namespace std;
class countdownTimer {
public:
using duration_t = chrono::high_resolution_clock::duration;
countdownTimer(duration_t duration) : duration{ duration }, paused{ true } {}
countdownTimer(const countdownTimer&) = default;
countdownTimer(countdownTimer&&) = default;
countdownTimer& operator=(countdownTimer&&) = default;
countdownTimer& operator=(const countdownTimer&) = default;
void start() noexcept {
if (started) return;
startTime = chrono::high_resolution_clock::now();
endTime = startTime + duration;
started = true;
paused = false;
}
void pause() noexcept {
if (paused || !started) return;
pauseBegin = chrono::high_resolution_clock::now();
paused = true;
}
void resume() noexcept {
if (!paused || !started) return;
auto pauseDuration = chrono::high_resolution_clock::now() - pauseBegin;
startTime += pauseDuration;
endTime += pauseDuration;
paused = false;
}
double remainingSeconds() const noexcept {
auto ret = double{ 0.0 };
if (!started) ret = chrono::duration_cast<chrono::duration<double>>(duration).count();
else if (paused) ret = chrono::duration_cast<chrono::duration<double>>(duration - (pauseBegin - startTime)).count();
else ret = chrono::duration_cast<chrono::duration<double>>(duration - (chrono::high_resolution_clock::now() - startTime)).count();
return (ret < 0.0) ? 0.0 : ret;
}
duration_t remainingTime() const noexcept {
auto ret = duration_t{ 0ms };
if (!started) ret = chrono::duration_cast<duration_t>(duration);
else if (paused) ret = chrono::duration_cast<duration_t>(duration - (pauseBegin - startTime));
else ret = chrono::duration_cast<duration_t>(duration - (chrono::high_resolution_clock::now() - startTime));
return (ret < 0ms) ? 0ms : ret;
}
bool isPaused() const noexcept { return paused; }
bool hasFinished() const noexcept { return remainingTime() == 0s; }
void reset() noexcept {
started = false;
paused = true;
}
private:
chrono::high_resolution_clock::time_point startTime;
chrono::high_resolution_clock::time_point endTime;
chrono::high_resolution_clock::time_point pauseBegin;
duration_t duration;
bool paused;
bool started;
};
int main() {
countdownTimer timer(10s);
timer.start();
while (!timer.hasFinished()) {
cout << timer.remainingSeconds() << endl;
this_thread::sleep_for(1s);
}
}
It's a simple countdown timer class that I wrote for one of my projects. The client code in main() is pretty self-explanatory, it should output a countdown from 10 to 0, and then exit the program. With no optimization or -O/-O1, it does exactly that:
10
8.99495
7.98992
6.9849
5.97981
4.9748
3.96973
2.9687
1.9677
0.966752
Program ended with exit code: 0
But if I step up the optimization to >=-O2, the program just keeps outputting 10, and runs forever. The countdown simply doesn't work, it's stuck at the starting value.
I'm using the latest Xcode on OS X. clang --version says Apple LLVM version 7.3.0 (clang-703.0.31).
The strange part is that my code doesn't contain any weird self-written loops, undefined behavior, or anything like that, it's pretty much just standard library calls, so it's very strange that optimization breaks it.
Any ideas?
PS: I haven't tried it on other compilers, but I'm about to. I'll update the question with those results.

Answer 1

bool started is not initialized.
If you initialize it to false, it works with -O2:
live example
You can find errors like this using the Undefined behavior sanitizer:
$ g++ -std=c++14 -O2 -g -fsanitize=undefined -fno-omit-frame-pointer main.cpp && ./a.out
main.cpp:18:9: runtime error: load of value 106, which is not a valid value for type 'bool'

Answer 2

The bug is in your constructor:
countdownTimer(duration_t duration)
: duration{ duration }, paused{ true } {}
You forgot to initialize started. This triggers undefined behavior when you call start().
No version of clang that I have convenient access to will diagnose this error, but GCC versions 5 and 6 (on Linux - I don't have GCC on my Mac anymore) will:
$ g++ -O2 -Wall -Wextra -std=c++14 test.cc
test.cc: In function ‘int main()’:
test.cc:18:13: warning: ‘*((void*)& timer +33)’ is used uninitialized in this function [-Wuninitialized]
if (started) return;
^~~~~~~
test.cc:74:20: note: ‘*((void*)& timer +33)’ was declared here
countdownTimer timer(10s);
^~~~~
(My copy of Xcode seems to be a bit out of date, with Apple LLVM version 7.0.2 (clang-700.1.81); it does not change the behavior of the program at -O2. It's possible that your clang would diagnose this error if you turned on the warnings.)
(I have filed a bug report with GCC about the IR gobbledygook in the diagnostics.)