Quadruple Precision in C++ (GCC) - c++

Just recently, the GCC 4.6.0 came out along with libquadmath. Unfortunately, GNU has supported Fortran, but not C or C++ (all that is included is a .so). I have not found a way to use these new features in C++, however, GNU C does support the __float128 type for guaranteed quadruple-precision floats. GNU C does not seem to support the math functions in libquadmath, such fabsq (absolute value, q being the suffix for quad).
Is there any way to get these functions working in C++, or is there some alternative library that I could use for math functions with __float128? What is the best method for getting quadruple-precision floats working in the GCC? Right now, I can add, subtract, and multiply them, but this is useless to me, considering how I have no way to convert them to strings or use functions such as truncq and fabsq to create my own string function.

Apparently, this seems to have been an installation error on my part.
While the core C/C++ portion of the GCC includes libquadmath.so, the Fortran version supplies libquadmath.a and quadmath.h, which can be included to access the functions.
#include <quadmath.h>
#include <iostream>
int main()
{
char* y = new char[1000];
quadmath_snprintf(y, 1000, "%Qf", 1.0q);
std::cout << y << std::endl;
return 0;
}

nm the .so file, and see what function names really are. IIRC, fortran routines have an _ at end of name. In C++, you'll need to extern "C" {} prototypes. If this is a fortran interface, then all args are passed by reference, so proto might be something like
extern "C" { long double fabsq_(long double* x); }

Related

C equivalent of IOMemoryDescriptor class

I'm writing some C code using IOKit, and need to use IOMemoryDescriptor methods. Unfortunately, I can only compile pure C sources, and that is a C++ class. So, I'm asking if there is some C interface that lets me perform the same operations.
Specifically, I want a function that does pretty much this, but that can be compiled as C:
#include <IOKit/IOMemoryDescriptor.h>
extern "C" void CopyOut(mach_vm_address_t src, void *dst, size_t size)
{
IOMemoryDescriptor *memDesc;
memDesc = IOMemoryDescriptor::withAddressRange(src, size, kIODirectionOut, current_task());
// Error checking removed for brevity
memDesc->prepare();
memDesc->readBytes(0, dst, size);
memDesc->complete();
memDesc->release();
}
Being based on BSD, xnu has inherited some of BSD's kernel APIs, including the copyin and copyout functions. They are declared in libkern.h, and they do pretty much what you're using an IOMemoryDescriptor for, but nothing else.
You do mention you're using IOKit - if you need anything beyond this out of IOKit's functionality, you'll pretty much have to go with a C++ compiler, or use C to call mangled names directly.
If you're new to using a weird compiler for building kexts, I'll just warn you that kernel code for x86_64 must not use the red zone of the stack, as that can't exist due to interrupt handling. If your compiler assumes a red zone is present, you'll get bizarre crashes. Clang and gcc have corresponding flags for disabling the red zone. (-mno-red-zone, if I remember correctly, automatically activated via the kernel mode flag) Even if you're using a non-official compiler, linking against an object file built with clang's C++ compiler at the last stage should work fine for wrapping any other C++ APIs.

GNU Fortran and C interoperability

I have a large, mixed C/Fortran, code base, currently compiled using the Intel tools on Windows. I've been asked to port it to the GNU tools, on Linux. More or less at random, I've selected version 4.8.
Where a C function is called from Fortran, the interoperability often looks like this:
// C code:
void PRINTSTR(char *str, size_t len) {
for(int ii = 0; ii < len; ii++) {
putchar(str[ii]);
}
putchar('\n');
}
!Fortran code:
program test
implicit none
call printstr("Hello, world.")
end
The Intel Fortran compiler always generates upper-case symbols, so this works fine. But the GNU Fortran compiler always generates lower-case symbols and so there is a linker error.
The GNU Fortran compiler used to have an option called -fcase-upper which made it generate upper-case symbols, but it seems this was too configurable for everyone's good and it has been removed (I'm not exactly sure when).
It's possible to use the ISO_C_BINDING facility to force the compiler to generate a case-sensitive name:
program test
interface
subroutine printstr(str) bind(C, name='PRINTSTR')
character :: str(*)
end subroutine
end interface
call printstr("Hello, world.")
end
This resolves the linker error but it changes how string parameters are handled; the length parameter is no longer provided. So to use this method, I'd not only have to add interface definitions for every function that currently works this way, but I'd also have to change how strings are handled in every call to such a function, making sure that all strings are null-terminated.
I could go through and make all such functions lower-case, but of course the Intel compiler still generates upper-case symbols, so that would break the existing build.
Since there are ~2,000 such functions, that seems an infeasible amount of work. So, my question is this: How can I resolve the link errors without changing the function call semantics and without breaking the existing build using the Intel compilers?
To solve the linker error you can do it other way around. Use Intel compiler option names to convert external names to lowercase to match the default GNU Fortran option. And convert name in c to lowercase too:
void printstr(char *str, size_t len) {...}
Personally I would recommend using -funderscoring and Intel's /assume:underscore to distinguish functions that are intended for interoperability.
// C code:
void printstr_(char *str, size_t len) {...}
!Fortran code:
program test
implicit none
call printstr("Hello, world.")
end

Cython in C/C++

I have been using Cython on a couple of projects. I see a lot of documentation on including C++ and C into your cython code. Sometimes when I am extending an existing C/C++ project I feel the urge to code it Python style taking advantage of all the nice features and datatypes. It would be really nice if there was an easy way to ie. call a cython compiled function from C++ or C. Is there an easy way to do this, cause I can't seem to find it in the docs. Or maybe I shouldn't use Cython for this??
Best regards Jakob
I had a more constrained version of your problem and #fabrizioM's answer should work for you:
The trick with cython is in using the keyword public
cdef public double cython_function( double value, double value2 ):
return value + value2
In this way you can link it directly
as a normal C library:
#ifdef __cplusplus {
extern "C"
#endif
double cython_function( double value, double value2 );
#ifdef __cplusplus {
}
#endif

How to Bypass a Standard C++ Function While Maintaining Its Functionality

I am looking for a way to be able to redefine a set of POSIX functions but then end the redefinition with a call to the original function. The idea is that I am trying to create a layer that can restrict what OS API's can be called depending on which "profile" is active. This "profile" determines what set of functions are allowed and any not specified should not be used.
For example, if in one profile I am not allowed to use strcpy, I would like to be able to either cause a compile time error (via static_assert) or print something to the screen saying "strcpy is not allowed in this profile" such as below:
MY_string.h
#include <string.h>
char *strcpy(char *restrict s1, const char *restrict s2)
{
#if defined(PROFILE_PASS_THROUGH)
printf("strcpy is not allowed in this profile\n");
return strcpy(s1, s2);
#elif defined(PROFILE_ERROR)
static_assesrt(0, "strcpy is not allowed in this profile\n");
return 0;
#else
return strcpy(s1, s2);
#endif
}
So that way within main.cpp I can use MY_string.h
#define PROFILE_PASS_THROUGH
#include "MY_string.h"
int main()
{
char temp1[10];
char temp2[10];
sprintf(temp2, "Testing");
if (0 = strcpy(temp1, temp2))
{
printf("temp1 is %s\n", temp1);
}
return 0;
}
Now I realize that the code I have written above will not compile properly due to the redefinition of strcpy, but is there a way to allow this sort of functionality without playing around with macros or creating my own standard c and c++ libraries?
You can write a preprocessor that changes calls to the standard routine to calls to your own routine. Such a preprocessor might be complicated, depending whether you need to recognize the full C++ grammar to distinguish calls using name spaces and so on or you can get away with more casual recognition of the calls.
You can link with your own library, producing a relocatable object module with resolved names stripped. Your library would contain routines with the standard names, such as strcpy, that execute whatever code you desire and call other names, such as Mystrcpy. The object module produced by this is then linked with a second library and with the standard library. The second library contains routines with those names, such as Mystrcpy, that call the original library names strcpy. The details for doing this are of course dependent on your linker. The goal is to have a chain like this: Original code calls strcpy. This is resolved to the version of strcpy in the first library. That version calls Mystrcpy. Mystrcpy calls the standard library strcpy.
You can compile to assembly and edit the names in the assembly so that your routines are called instead of the standard library routines.
On some systems, you can use dlsym and other functions defined in <dlfcn.h> to load the dynamic library that contains the standard implementations and to call them via pointers returned by dlsym instead of by the usual names in source code.
The GCC linker has a --wrap switch that resolves calls to foo to your routine __wrap_foo and resolves calls to __real_foo (which you would use in your implementation) to the real foo.
See also Intercepting Arbitrary Functions on Windows, UNIX, and Macintosh OS X Platforms.
No, cannot be done in C++. What you want is more akin to a LISP (or derivative) language, where you can grab the slot for an existing function and 'override it in place', potentially punting back to the original implementation.
Typical way of doing is on Unix is via LD_PRELOAD, example (Unix) below proxies a function call, malloc in particular (full example):
/**
* malloc() direct call
*/
inline void * libc_malloc(size_t size)
{
typedef void* (*malloc_func_t)(size_t);
static malloc_func_t malloc_func = (malloc_func_t) dlsym(RTLD_NEXT, "malloc");
return malloc_func(size);
}
In your MY_String.h:
... blah blah
using mynamespace::strcpy;
#endif // header guard or maybe not there if using pragma
then all strcpys that are not prefixed with std:: will use yours. If you REALLY want to ban them, grep and take a shotgun with you when you find the person who used it.
If using some recent GCC (e.g. version 4.7 or newer) you could also write a GCC plugin or a GCC extension in MELT to replace every call to strcpy to your own mystrcpy. This probably will take you some work (perhaps days, not hours) but has the enormous advantage to work inside the compiler, on the GCC compiler's internal representations (Gimple). So it will be done even after inlining, etc. And since you extend the compiler, you can tailor its behavior to what you want.
MELT is a domain specific language to extend GCC. It is designed for such tasks.
You cannot avoid these functions to be called.
A C++ program can do anything it wants, it could have some code that loads the strcpy symbol from libc and runs it. If a malicious developer want to call that function, you have no way to avoid it. To do that you'd need to run the C++ code in some special environment (in a sandbox, or virtual machine), but I'm afraid such technology is not available.
If you trust the developers, and you're just looking for a way to remind them not to call certain functions, then there could be some solution.
One solution could be avoiding to #include libc headers (like cstring), and only include your own header files where you only declared the desired functions.
Another solution could be that of looking to the compiled executable in order to find out what functions are called, or to LD_PRELOAD a library that redefines (and thus overrides) standard functions to make them print a warning at runtime.
Here is how you would you change MY_string.h
#include <cstring>
namespace my_functions{
char *strcpy(char *s1, const char *s2)
{
#if defined(PROFILE_PASS_THROUGH)
printf("strcpy is not allowed in this profile\n");
return std::strcpy(s1, s2);
#elif defined(PROFILE_ERROR)
static_assert(0, "strcpy is not allowed in this profile\n");
return 0;
#else
return std::strcpy(s1, s2);
#endif
}
}
using namespace my_functions;
For this to work you cannot include or have using namespace std;

Is there a standardised way to get type sizes in bytes in C++ Compilers?

I was wondering if there is some standardized way of getting type sizes in memory at the pre-processor stage - so in macro form, sizeof() does not cut it.
If their isn't a standardized method are their conventional methods that most IDE's use anyway?
Are there any other methods that anyone can think of to get such data?
I suppose I could do a two stage build kind of thing, get the output of a test program and feed it back into the IDE, but that's not really any easier than #defining them in myself.
Thoughts?
EDIT:
I just want to be able to swap code around with
#ifdef / #endif
Was it naive of me to think that an IDE or underlying compiler might define that information under some macro? Sure the pre-processor doesn't get information on any actual machine code generation functions, but the IDE and the Compiler do, and they call the pre-processor and declare stuff to it in advance.
EDIT FURTHER
What I imagined as a conceivable concept was this:
The C++ Committee has a standard that says for every type (perhaps only those native to C++) the compiler has to give to the IDE a header file, included by default that declares the size in memory that ever native type uses, like so:
#define CHAR_SIZE 8
#define INT_SIZE 32
#define SHORT_INT_SIZE 16
#define FLOAT_SIZE 32
// etc
Is there a flaw in this process somewhere?
EDIT EVEN FURTHER
In order to get across the multi-platform build stage problem, perhaps this standard could mandate that a simple program like the one shown by lacqui would be required to compile and run be run by default, this way, whatever that gets type sizes will be the same machine that compiles the code in the second or 'normal' build stage.
Apologies:
I've been using 'Variable' instead of 'Type'
Depending on your build environment, you may be able to write a utility program that generates a header that is included by other files:
int main(void) {
out = make_header_file(); // defined by you
fprintf(out, "#ifndef VARTYPES_H\n#define VARTYPES_H\n");
size_t intsize = sizeof(int);
if (intsize == 4)
fprintf(out, "#define INTSIZE_32\n");
else if (intsize == 8)
fprintf(out, "#define INTSIZE_64\n");
// .....
else fprintf(out, "$define INTSIZE_UNKNOWN\n");
}
Of course, edit it as appropriate. Then include "vartypes.h" everywhere you need these definitions.
EDIT: Alternatively:
fprintf(out, "#define INTSIZE_%d\n", (sizeof(int) / 8));
fprintf(out, "#define INTSIZE %d\n", (sizeof(int) / 8));
Note the lack of underscore in the second one - the first creates INTSIZE_32 which can be used in #ifdef. The second creates INTSIZE, which can be used, for example char bits[INTSIZE];
WARNING: This will only work with an 8-bit char. Most modern home and server computers will follow this pattern; however, some computers may use different sizes of char
Sorry, this information isn't available at the preprocessor stage. To compute the size of a variable you have to do just about all the work of parsing and abstract evaluation - not quite code generation, but you have to be able to evaluate constant-expressions and substitute template parameters, for instance. And you have to know considerably more about the code generation target than the preprocessor usually does.
The two-stage build thing is what most people do in practice, I think. Some IDEs have an entire compiler built into them as a library, which lets them do things more efficiently.
Why do you need this anyway?
The cstdint include provides typedefs and #defines that describe all of the standard integer types, including typedefs for exact-width int types and #defines for the full value range for them.
No, it's not possible. Just for example, it's entirely possible to run the preprocessor on one machine, and do the compilation entirely separately on a completely different machine with (potentially) different sizes for (at least some) types.
For a concrete example, consider that the normal distribution of SQLite is what they call an "amalgamation" -- a single already-preprocessed source code file that you actually compile on your computer.
You want to generate different code based on the sizes of some type? maybe you can do this with template specializations:
#include <iostream>
template <int Tsize>
struct dosomething{
void doit() { std::cout << "generic version" << std::endl; }
};
template <>
void dosomething<sizeof(int)>::doit()
{ std::cout << "int version" << std::endl; }
template <>
void dosomething<sizeof(char)>::doit()
{ std::cout << "char version" << std::endl; }
int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
typedef int foo;
dosomething<sizeof(foo)> myfoo;
myfoo.doit();
}
How would that work? The size isn't known at the preprocessing stage. At that point, you only have the source code. The only way to find the size of a type is to compile its definition.
You might as well ask for a way to get the result of running a program at the compilation stage. The answer is "you can't, you have to run the program to get its output". Just like you need to compile the program in order to get the output from the compiler.
What are you trying to do?
Regarding your edit, it still seems confused.
Such a header could conceivably exist for built-in types, but never for variables. A macro could perhaps be written to replace known type names with a hardcoded number, but it wouldn't know what to do if you gave it a variable name.
Once again, what are you trying to do? What is the problem you're trying to solve? There may be a sane solution to it if you give us a bit more context.
For common build environments, many frameworks have this set up manually. For instance,
http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/php/tjuerges/ALMA/ACE-5.5.2/html/ace/Basic__Types_8h-source.html
defines things like ACE_SIZEOF_CHAR. Another library described in a book I bought called POSH does this too, in a very includable way: http://www.hookatooka.com/wpc/
The term "standardized" is the problem. There's not standard way of doing it, but it's not very difficult to set some pre-processor symbols using a configuration utility of some sort. A real simple one would be compile and run a small program that checks sizes with sizeof and then outputs an include file with some symbols set.