Re: Alignment

From:
James Kanze <james.kanze@gmail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Tue, 3 Mar 2009 02:18:31 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID:
<296fa5b9-f329-4fc3-8bca-49778523facd@q9g2000yqc.googlegroups.com>
On Mar 2, 4:13 pm, "Chris M. Thomasson" <n...@spam.invalid> wrote:

"James Kanze" <james.ka...@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:891084b3-ce7d-4a9a-b893-14499e22a2bc@j35g2000yqh.googlegroups.com...
On Feb 27, 4:15 am, "Chris M. Thomasson" <n...@spam.invalid>
wrote:

<better_cs_...@yahoo.com> wrote in message

news:eab8ea3f-5616-4fd8-b2b0-16f86fe0b7a8@q1g2000vbn.googlegroups.com.=

...

Please consider the two definitions below:
Foo foo;
unsigned char foo[sizeof(Foo)];
Are these guaranteed to have the same alignment, or will the
second definition have an alignment that is only modulo 1?

You can attempt to calculate alignment of `Foo' objects like this:

Which isn't what he needs, but...

___________________________________________________________________
#include <cstddef>
#include <cstdio>
struct Foo {
  char a;
  int b;
  double c;
  Foo(int b) {
    // [...];
  }
};
template<typename T>
size_t get_type_alignment() {
  struct aligner {
    char m_pad;
    T m_obj;
  };
  return offsetof(aligner, m_obj);

This is undefined behavior if T isn't a POD (and Foo isn't). It
won't compile with at least one compiler I use.


DOH!!! Yes, of course! My mistake. Thanks!

}


What about something like the following hack James?:
______________________________________________________________________
#include <cstddef>
#include <cstdio>
#include <climits>
#include <new>

template<typename T, std::size_t CUSTOM_ALIGN = 0U>
class alignment {
  struct aligner_1 {
    T m_obj;
  };

  struct aligner_2 {
    char m_pad;
    aligner_1 m_obj;
  };

public:
  enum constant {
    ALIGN_SIZE = (! CUSTOM_ALIGN)
      ? sizeof(aligner_2) - sizeof(aligner_1)
      : CUSTOM_ALIGN,
    BUFFER_SIZE = sizeof(aligner_1) + (size_t)ALIGN_SIZE - 1U
  };

  static void* align_ptr(void* ptr) {
    return ALIGN_SIZE > 1
      ? (void*)((((size_t)ptr) + ((size_t)ALIGN_SIZE - 1U))
        & ~((size_t)ALIGN_SIZE - 1U))
      : ptr;
  }

private:
  typedef char sassert[
    ALIGN_SIZE > 0 &&
    BUFFER_SIZE > 0 &&
    ALIGN_SIZE <= INT_MAX &&
    BUFFER_SIZE <= INT_MAX &&
    ALIGN_SIZE > 1 ? ! ((size_t)ALIGN_SIZE % 2U) : 1 &&
    sizeof(std::size_t) == sizeof(void*) ? 1 : -1
  ];
};


My basic question is why? It doesn't enforce the alignment of
the buffer; it allocates a slightly larger buffer, and then
determines the first aligned address in it. A solution using a
union will force the compiler to align correctly to begin with.

    [...]

Does that compile on all your compilers?


Probably.

Odd that the broken code which used `offsetof' macro on
non-POD type compiles file on Comeau without warning.


It's more or less a library issue. G++ can detect the problem
because offsetof is defined as something like:
    #define offsetof( a, b ) __buildin_offsetof( a, b )
and handled by the compiler. The library you're using with
Comeau probably exploits some other undefined behavior; the
classical implementation is something like:
    #define offsetof( a, b ) ((size_t)(&((a*)0)->b))
This dereferences a null pointer, but in a way such that most
compilers won't actually generate any code for it. So it never
causes a compiler error, nor a core dump (but in some cases
where virtual bases are involved, it might give a wrong answer).

--
James Kanze (GABI Software) email:james.kanze@gmail.com
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