Autotools check for C++11 - c++

I use AX_CXX_COMPILE_STDCXX_0X(can look on autoconf-archive) to check for c++11 capabilities of the compiler. It correctly determines that -std=c++0x required, but does not add it to CXXFLAGS. I took a look at the macro source and it actually checks but then restores previous flags.
What should I do to get CXXFLAGS set to be able to compile c++11 source?
Just adding -std=c++0x to AM_CXXFLAGS is not nice solution, because I'd like to put the burden of making the compiler compile in C++11 mode on the autoconf developers, not me.

What you're looking for has already been made as AX_CXX_COMPILE_STDCXX_11, part of autoconf-archive. It will add the required option to the environment (formerly through CXXFLAGS, now through CXX) and error out if no C++11 support is available.

In general you can compile a simple code and set a variable based the outcome of your compilation
DIALECT="-std=c++14"
echo 'int main() {return 0;}' > ./log.cpp && $CXX -std=c++14 ./log.cpp || $DIALECT="no"
if test $DILAECT = no; then
AC_MSG_ERROR([c++ compiler does not support c++14])
else
echo $DILAECT
fi

Related

Warning: range-based for loop is a C++11 extension

While trying to compile a simple range based for loop on MacOS Big Sur, I got this warning:
warning: range-based for loop is a C++11 extension [-Wc++11-extensions]
I tried using clang++ and g++ but both gave the same warning. Is there a way to always compile with C++11 without having to use -std=c++11 and without using aliases?
Edit: The reason I would prefer not to use -std=c++11 is because I want the compiler to default to C++11 or higher.
To provide this question with a proper answer, based on the discussion in the comments:
Compilers such as GCC and Clang set the default in their source code and it cannot be changed by, e.g., modifying a config file. The only way to change the default would be to change it in the source code and to compile the compiler yourself. This is not worth it.
Furthermore, compilers change their default language from time to time, and setting another default, e.g. to C++11, will make all non-C++11 code require setting the language version explicitly.
Here's the key point: code and compilation options belong together. Do not rely on compiler defaults. Any serious project will use a build system (e.g. Make) which specifies how to compile the project.
Edit
For completeness sake, the default C++ version for GCC 10.2.0 is hardcoded in /gcc/c-family/c-opts.c:
/* Set C++ standard to C++17 if not specified on the command line. */
if (c_dialect_cxx ())
set_std_cxx17 (/*ISO*/false);

how to configure -std=c++11 as default compiler?

Hi i am working on C++11 related feature , i need to include header file such as
#include <zmqpp/zmqpp.hpp>
in my source code and i wrote some simple g++ script to compile it such as
g++ client.c -o client
i just realized i need to run it with additional argument
g++ -std=gnu++11 client.c .......
in order for me compile successfully.
I am curious what is the default compiler for g++? is it possible for me set
-std=gnu++11 as my default c++ compiler?
Let me know if this duplicated, i was googling around but i don't see any information related to my scenario. Thanks
as stated here, the only way to change the standard version is to rebuild a custom version of g++. If you are using Linux, I recommend having a custom alias in .bashrc, like so:
alias g++11='g++ -std=c++11';
CMake is another common method to do this, simply add this directive to make the default version C++11 :
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -std=c++11")
Keep in mind CMake is typically used for projects, so it may not be applicable to your use case.

G++ ignores _Pragma diagnostic ignored

I am trying to disable g++ warnings in code expanded from macros. By my understanding, _Pragma should follow macro usage and this should not trigger Wparentheses when being compiled with g++:
#include <stdio.h>
#define TEST(expr) \
int a = 1; \
_Pragma( "GCC diagnostic push" ) \
_Pragma( "GCC diagnostic ignored \"-Wparentheses\"" ) \
if (a <= expr) { \
printf("filler\n"); \
} \
_Pragma( "GCC diagnostic pop" )
int main(){
int b = 2, c = 3;
TEST(b == c);
}
When I compile this with g++, I get Wparentheses warning, which I am trying to disable.
xarn#DESKTOP-B2A3CNC:/mnt/c/ubuntu$ g++ -Wall -Wextra test3.c
test3.c: In function ‘int main()’:
test3.c:8:11: warning: suggest parentheses around comparison in operand of ‘==’ [-Wparentheses]
if (a <= expr) { \
^
test3.c:15:5: note: in expansion of macro ‘TEST’
TEST(b == c);
^
However it works as expected when using gcc:
xarn#DESKTOP-B2A3CNC:/mnt/c/ubuntu$ gcc -Wall -Wextra test3.c
test3.c: In function ‘main’:
test3.c:16:1: warning: control reaches end of non-void function [-Wreturn-type]
}
^
I am using g++ version 4.8.5.
There are long-standing bugs in g++ handling of _Pragmas, that are not present when using the gcc front-end. The only solution is to either go forward to a sufficiently modern version of g++ (IIRC 6+), or to disable the warning for the entire TU.
Xarn's answer was very helpful in working out why we were hitting the same issues with our macros when compiling with g++ < 9.0, but fortunately I'm stubborn and don't take "the only solution" for an answer. Some more digging revealed that there is a workaround for affected versions of GCC.
One of the original 2012 reports for this issue at GNU's bugzilla included an offhand mention from the reporter, that _Pragma() would be processed as expected if they added either -save-temps or -no-integrated-cpp to the compile command.
Turns out, either of those options cause g++ NOT to run in its default streamlined mode, which folds the preprocessing and compiling stages together into a single pass. From the man page for g++ 9.1.1:
-no-integrated-cpp
Perform preprocessing as a separate pass before compilation. By
default, GCC performs preprocessing as an integrated part of input
tokenization and parsing. If this option is provided, the
appropriate language front end (cc1, cc1plus, or cc1obj for C, C++,
and Objective-C, respectively) is instead invoked twice, once for
preprocessing only and once for actual compilation of the
preprocessed input. This option may be useful in conjunction with
the -B or -wrapper options to specify an alternate preprocessor or
perform additional processing of the program source between normal
preprocessing and compilation.
Which means that adding -no-integrated-cpp does indeed work around the _Pragma() bug in every affected version of GCC we've tested — so far that's 5.4, 7.3, and I believe 8.1 — but otherwise has no effect on the final results of the build. (One can deduce from this that the _Pragma() bug was introduced with and by that single-pass streamlining.)
The only real tradeoff is that compilation is indeed a bit slower, if you build with that option enabled. While that's certainly worth it when your GCC is one of the affected versions, we're using a conditional in our CMake build setup to ensure -no-integrated-cpp is only set when necessary:
#### Work around a GCC < 9 bug with handling of _Pragma() in macros
#### See https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=55578
if ((${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_ID} STREQUAL "GNU") AND
(${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_VERSION} VERSION_LESS "9.0.0"))
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -no-integrated-cpp")
endif()
(Substitute appropriately modern calls to target_compile_options() for the ugly brute-forcing of CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS, if your CMake setup is better than ours.)
Typically you use warning suppression only to deal with unavoidable warning coming from third-party code so they won't clutter compilation logs. In your case it would be better to
1) use regular function because macros are evil
2) deal with warning by adding round brackets around potentially broken expression
if (a <= (expr)) {

how can I check a particular gcc feature in configure.ac

For example, gcc 4.7 has a new feature -Wnarrowing. In configure.ac, how can I test where a feature is supported by the current gcc or not?
There's a file in gnulibc, but doesn't make much sense to me.
Both gcc and clang support -W[no-]narrowing and -W[no-]error=narrowing options.
With -std=c++11, gcc emits a warning by default, and clang emits an error by default. Even though you only mention gcc, I think you could extend the functionality check to compilers like clang that attempt to provide the same options and extensions. That might include Intel's icc too.
Let's assume you've selected the C++ compiler with AC_PROG_CXX, and have ensured that it's using the C++11 standard.
ac_save_CXXFLAGS="$CXXFLAGS"
CXXFLAGS="$CXXFLAGS -Werror -Wno-error=narrowing"
AC_LANG_PUSH([C++])
AC_COMPILE_IFELSE([AC_LANG_PROGRAM([],
[[int i {1.0}; (void) i;]])],
[ac_cxx_warn_narrowing=1], [ac_cxx_warn_narrowing=0])
AS_IF([test $ac_cxx_warn_narrowing -ne 0],
[AC_MSG_RESULT(['$CXX' supports -Wnarrowing])])
AC_LANG_POP([C++])
CXXFLAGS="$ac_save_CXXFLAGS"
Compilation will only succeed if: 1) the compiler supports -Wnarrowing related options, which implies it supports -Werror, and: 2) recognizes C++11 initialization syntax.
Normally, configure.ac scripts and flags passed to configure should avoid -Werror, as it breaks too many internal tests. In this context, we ensure there are no other warnings besides the narrowing, which is why (void) i; is needed to prevent a warning about unused variables.
The logic behind this should probably be:
Create a correct file that should get a warning with -Wnarrowing. Verify that it gets compiled correctly. This is a sanity check.
Then compile that same file with -Wnarrowing, and verify that it still gets compiled correctly. This makes sure you detect compilers that don't support -Wnarrowing as an option, and don't attempt to pass bogus options to them.
Finally, compile that same file with -Werror=narrowing, and verify that it now does not get compiled correctly. If it now fails, you can be fairly certain that the compiler does indeed support -Wnarrowing. This last check is useful to detect compilers that do accept -Wnarrowing/-Werror=narrowing, but spit out a warning "ignoring unknown option -Wnarrowing". In that case, you shouldn't be passing -Wnarrowing.
Optionally, you may also want to compile a file that shouldn't get a warning with -Wnarrowing with -Werror=narrowing, in case you find a compiler where -Wnarrowing is useless and -Werror=narrowing is a hard error. I cannot think of a compiler where this would be required, though.
Translating this to a configure check should be trivial.
See http://code.google.com/p/opendoom/source/browse/trunk/VisualC8/autotools/ac_c_compile_flags.m4 for an example test of this sort - this tries to compile a trivial program with the given compiler flag, and adds it to CFLAGS if it works.

What warnings are included in Clang's -Wall and -Wextra?

I've found Clang's documentation to be quite poor. I haven't been able to find much of a list of available Clang warning flags. I'm interested particularly in C/C++ warnings, but this is a bit of a general issue.
GCC lists and describes warnings here, and also lists what is included in -Wall and -Wextra:
https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Warning-Options.html#Warning-Options
What warning flags are included with Clang's -Wall and -Wextra?
I can scour the Clang release notes for each version to see what new warning flags are introduced each time (e.g. http://llvm.org/releases/3.4/tools/clang/docs/ReleaseNotes.html), but is there an easier list and/or description of Clang's warnings? This would be extremely useful. I need to know what is included in -Wall and what is not, so I can consider turning on those that are not.
(I know that -Weverything exists for Clang - might I have to resort to using that and just explicitly disabling the ones I don't like? More documentation would make this much more ideal.)
You can check the source code:
For example,
def : DiagGroup<"all", [Most, Parentheses, Switch]>;
// Warnings enabled by -pedantic. This is magically filled in by TableGen.
def Pedantic : DiagGroup<"pedantic">;
// Aliases.
def : DiagGroup<"", [Extra]>; // -W = -Wextra
For -Wall look at the Most, Parentheses, Switch. You can find:
def Most : DiagGroup<"most", [
....
further down the file. Similarly, for extra:
def Extra : DiagGroup<"extra", [
MissingFieldInitializers,
IgnoredQualifiers,
InitializerOverrides,
SemiBeforeMethodBody,
MissingMethodReturnType,
SignCompare,
UnusedParameter
]>;
Clang used to be very bad at documenting what was available.
Though from release 4.0.0 on, they have fixed it. For older releases one can try or consult the source code. At the compiler-warnings page on Github you can find an extract of the warnings based upon the source code.
So you can find the documentation over the latest flags at the documentation pages, as well as the matching documentation for a specific release at their release pages (4.0.0).
Clang-cl has its own warning flags, of which the mapping can be found on its documentation