Re: Zero-size array as struct member

From:
Vladimir Jovic <vladaspams@gmail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Wed, 18 Aug 2010 17:32:26 +0200
Message-ID:
<i4gueb$vqv$1@news.albasani.net>
Juha Nieminen wrote:

Vladimir Jovic <vladaspams@gmail.com> wrote:

thomas wrote:

Hi, I need your help.

----------
struct SvrList{
    unsigned int uNum;
    GameSvr svr[0]; //line A
};
---------

Once I declared a struct like this to store server list info.
It's supposed to be used like this.

----------
SvrList* pList = (SvrList*)malloc(sizeof(
SvrList) + svrNum*sizeof(GameSvr));
pList->uNum, pList->svr[0], pList->svr[1].... blabla..

I wouldn't call this fine. Even
pList->svr[0]
is accessing the element that is out of array's bounds, and that is UB.
How come your program is not crashing, or at least going crazy?


  pList->svr[0] is accessing memory allocated by the malloc() call,
hence it can't crash (well, at least if 'GameSvr' is a POD type).


If the array's size is zero, how can you access even one element?
The example similar to the original example, except this one compiles :

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
struct A
{
     int a;
     int b[0];
};
int main()
{
     A *p = new A;

     p->a = 5;
     p->b[0] = 6;
     p->b[1] = 7;
     p->b[2] = 8;

     std::cout << "p->a="<<p->a << std::endl
               << "p->b[0]="<<p->b[0] << std::endl
               << "p->b[1]="<<p->b[1] << std::endl
               << "p->b[2]="<<p->b[2] << std::endl;

     delete( p );
}

And the output :

../a.out
p->a=5

p->b[0]=6

p->b[1]=7

p->b[2]=8
*** glibc detected *** ./a.out: free(): invalid next size (fast):
0x087b8008 ***
======= Backtrace: =========
/lib/libc.so.6[0x260874]
/lib/libc.so.6(cfree+0x96)[0x2628d6]
/usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6(_ZdlPv+0x21)[0x1ba461]
../a.out(__gxx_personality_v0+0x24a)[0x8048886]
/lib/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xe6)[0x2095d6]
../a.out(__gxx_personality_v0+0x35)[0x8048671]
======= Memory map: ========
00101000-001e8000 r-xp 00000000 fd:07 442834
/usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6.0.10
001e8000-001ec000 r--p 000e6000 fd:07 442834
/usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6.0.10
001ec000-001ee000 rw-p 000ea000 fd:07 442834
/usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6.0.10
001ee000-001f3000 rw-p 001ee000 00:00 0
001f3000-00356000 r-xp 00000000 fd:00 58475 /lib/libc-2.8.so
00356000-00358000 r--p 00163000 fd:00 58475 /lib/libc-2.8.so
00358000-00359000 rw-p 00165000 fd:00 58475 /lib/libc-2.8.so
00359000-0035c000 rw-p 00359000 00:00 0
00821000-0083d000 r-xp 00000000 fd:00 58474 /lib/ld-2.8.so
0083d000-0083e000 r--p 0001c000 fd:00 58474 /lib/ld-2.8.so
0083e000-0083f000 rw-p 0001d000 fd:00 58474 /lib/ld-2.8.so
00848000-00849000 r-xp 00848000 00:00 0 [vdso]
009ac000-009d3000 r-xp 00000000 fd:00 58481 /lib/libm-2.8.so
009d3000-009d4000 r--p 00026000 fd:00 58481 /lib/libm-2.8.so
009d4000-009d5000 rw-p 00027000 fd:00 58481 /lib/libm-2.8.so
00db3000-00dc0000 r-xp 00000000 fd:00 58490
/lib/libgcc_s-4.3.0-20080428.so.1
00dc0000-00dc1000 rw-p 0000c000 fd:00 58490
/lib/libgcc_s-4.3.0-20080428.so.1
08048000-08049000 r-xp 00000000 fd:09 4555963
/sandbox/vladimir/data_create/a.out
08049000-0804a000 rw-p 00000000 fd:09 4555963
/sandbox/vladimir/data_create/a.out
087b8000-087d9000 rw-p 087b8000 00:00 0 [heap]
b7f00000-b7f21000 rw-p b7f00000 00:00 0
b7f21000-b8000000 ---p b7f21000 00:00 0
b80a5000-b80a8000 rw-p b80a5000 00:00 0
b80c7000-b80c8000 rw-p b80c7000 00:00 0
bfe96000-bfeab000 rw-p bffeb000 00:00 0 [stack]
Aborted

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