C++
library
debug
Debug ModeIntro
By default, libstdc++ is built with efficiency in mind, and
therefore performs little or no error checking that is not
required by the C++ standard. This means that programs that
incorrectly use the C++ standard library will exhibit behavior
that is not portable and may not even be predictable, because they
tread into implementation-specific or undefined behavior. To
detect some of these errors before they can become problematic,
libstdc++ offers a debug mode that provides additional checking of
library facilities, and will report errors in the use of libstdc++
as soon as they can be detected by emitting a description of the
problem to standard error and aborting the program. This debug
mode is available with GCC 3.4.0 and later versions.
The libstdc++ debug mode performs checking for many areas of the
C++ standard, but the focus is on checking interactions among
standard iterators, containers, and algorithms, including:
Safe iterators: Iterators keep track of the
container whose elements they reference, so errors such as
incrementing a past-the-end iterator or dereferencing an iterator
that points to a container that has been destructed are diagnosed
immediately.Algorithm preconditions: Algorithms attempt to
validate their input parameters to detect errors as early as
possible. For instance, the set_intersection
algorithm requires that its iterator
parameters first1 and last1 form a valid
iterator range, and that the sequence
[first1, last1) is sorted according to
the same predicate that was passed
to set_intersection; the libstdc++ debug mode will
detect an error if the sequence is not sorted or was sorted by a
different predicate.SemanticsA program that uses the C++ standard library correctly
will maintain the same semantics under debug mode as it had with
the normal (release) library. All functional and exception-handling
guarantees made by the normal library also hold for the debug mode
library, with one exception: performance guarantees made by the
normal library may not hold in the debug mode library. For
instance, erasing an element in a std::list is a
constant-time operation in normal library, but in debug mode it is
linear in the number of iterators that reference that particular
list. So while your (correct) program won't change its results, it
is likely to execute more slowly.libstdc++ includes many extensions to the C++ standard library. In
some cases the extensions are obvious, such as the hashed
associative containers, whereas other extensions give predictable
results to behavior that would otherwise be undefined, such as
throwing an exception when a std::basic_string is
constructed from a NULL character pointer. This latter category also
includes implementation-defined and unspecified semantics, such as
the growth rate of a vector. Use of these extensions is not
considered incorrect, so code that relies on them will not be
rejected by debug mode. However, use of these extensions may affect
the portability of code to other implementations of the C++ standard
library, and is therefore somewhat hazardous. For this reason, the
libstdc++ debug mode offers a "pedantic" mode (similar to
GCC's -pedantic compiler flag) that attempts to emulate
the semantics guaranteed by the C++ standard. For
instance, constructing a std::basic_string with a NULL
character pointer would result in an exception under normal mode or
non-pedantic debug mode (this is a libstdc++ extension), whereas
under pedantic debug mode libstdc++ would signal an error. To enable
the pedantic debug mode, compile your program with
both -D_GLIBCXX_DEBUG
and -D_GLIBCXX_DEBUG_PEDANTIC .
(N.B. In GCC 3.4.x and 4.0.0, due to a bug,
-D_GLIBXX_DEBUG_PEDANTIC was also needed. The problem has
been fixed in GCC 4.0.1 and later versions.) The following library components provide extra debugging
capabilities in debug mode:std::basic_string (no safe iterators and see note below)std::bitsetstd::dequestd::liststd::mapstd::multimapstd::multisetstd::setstd::vectorstd::unordered_mapstd::unordered_multimapstd::unordered_setstd::unordered_multisetN.B. although there are precondition checks for some string operations,
e.g. operator[],
they will not always be run when using the char and
wchar_t specialisations (std::string and
std::wstring). This is because libstdc++ uses GCC's
extern template extension to provide explicit instantiations
of std::string and std::wstring, and those
explicit instantiations don't include the debug-mode checks. If the
containing functions are inlined then the checks will run, so compiling
with -O1 might be enough to enable them. Alternatively
-D_GLIBCXX_EXTERN_TEMPLATE=0 will suppress the declarations
of the explicit instantiations and cause the functions to be instantiated
with the debug-mode checks included, but this is unsupported and not
guaranteed to work. For full debug-mode support you can use the
__gnu_debug::basic_string debugging container directly,
which always works correctly.
UsingUsing the Debug ModeTo use the libstdc++ debug mode, compile your application with the
compiler flag -D_GLIBCXX_DEBUG. Note that this flag
changes the sizes and behavior of standard class templates such
as std::vector, and therefore you can only link code
compiled with debug mode and code compiled without debug mode if no
instantiation of a container is passed between the two translation
units.By default, error messages are formatted to fit on lines of about
78 characters. The environment variable
GLIBCXX_DEBUG_MESSAGE_LENGTH can be used to request a
different length.Using a Specific Debug ContainerWhen it is not feasible to recompile your entire application, or
only specific containers need checking, debugging containers are
available as GNU extensions. These debugging containers are
functionally equivalent to the standard drop-in containers used in
debug mode, but they are available in a separate namespace as GNU
extensions and may be used in programs compiled with either release
mode or with debug mode. The
following table provides the names and headers of the debugging
containers:
DesignGoals The libstdc++ debug mode replaces unsafe (but efficient) standard
containers and iterators with semantically equivalent safe standard
containers and iterators to aid in debugging user programs. The
following goals directed the design of the libstdc++ debug mode:Correctness: the libstdc++ debug mode must not change
the semantics of the standard library for all cases specified in
the ANSI/ISO C++ standard. The essence of this constraint is that
any valid C++ program should behave in the same manner regardless
of whether it is compiled with debug mode or release mode. In
particular, entities that are defined in namespace std in release
mode should remain defined in namespace std in debug mode, so that
legal specializations of namespace std entities will remain
valid. A program that is not valid C++ (e.g., invokes undefined
behavior) is not required to behave similarly, although the debug
mode will abort with a diagnostic when it detects undefined
behavior.Performance: the additional of the libstdc++ debug mode
must not affect the performance of the library when it is compiled
in release mode. Performance of the libstdc++ debug mode is
secondary (and, in fact, will be worse than the release
mode).Usability: the libstdc++ debug mode should be easy to
use. It should be easily incorporated into the user's development
environment (e.g., by requiring only a single new compiler switch)
and should produce reasonable diagnostics when it detects a
problem with the user program. Usability also involves detection
of errors when using the debug mode incorrectly, e.g., by linking
a release-compiled object against a debug-compiled object if in
fact the resulting program will not run correctly.Minimize recompilation: While it is expected that
users recompile at least part of their program to use debug
mode, the amount of recompilation affects the
detect-compile-debug turnaround time. This indirectly affects the
usefulness of the debug mode, because debugging some applications
may require rebuilding a large amount of code, which may not be
feasible when the suspect code may be very localized. There are
several levels of conformance to this requirement, each with its
own usability and implementation characteristics. In general, the
higher-numbered conformance levels are more usable (i.e., require
less recompilation) but are more complicated to implement than
the lower-numbered conformance levels.
Full recompilation: The user must recompile his or
her entire application and all C++ libraries it depends on,
including the C++ standard library that ships with the
compiler. This must be done even if only a small part of the
program can use debugging features.Full user recompilation: The user must recompile
his or her entire application and all C++ libraries it depends
on, but not the C++ standard library itself. This must be done
even if only a small part of the program can use debugging
features. This can be achieved given a full recompilation
system by compiling two versions of the standard library when
the compiler is installed and linking against the appropriate
one, e.g., a multilibs approach.Partial recompilation: The user must recompile the
parts of his or her application and the C++ libraries it
depends on that will use the debugging facilities
directly. This means that any code that uses the debuggable
standard containers would need to be recompiled, but code
that does not use them (but may, for instance, use IOStreams)
would not have to be recompiled.Per-use recompilation: The user must recompile the
parts of his or her application and the C++ libraries it
depends on where debugging should occur, and any other code
that interacts with those containers. This means that a set of
translation units that accesses a particular standard
container instance may either be compiled in release mode (no
checking) or debug mode (full checking), but must all be
compiled in the same way; a translation unit that does not see
that standard container instance need not be recompiled. This
also means that a translation unit A that contains a
particular instantiation
(say, std::vector<int>) compiled in release
mode can be linked against a translation unit B that
contains the same instantiation compiled in debug mode (a
feature not present with partial recompilation). While this
behavior is technically a violation of the One Definition
Rule, this ability tends to be very important in
practice. The libstdc++ debug mode supports this level of
recompilation. Per-unit recompilation: The user must only
recompile the translation units where checking should occur,
regardless of where debuggable standard containers are
used. This has also been dubbed "-g mode",
because the -g compiler switch works in this way,
emitting debugging information at a per--translation-unit
granularity. We believe that this level of recompilation is in
fact not possible if we intend to supply safe iterators, leave
the program semantics unchanged, and not regress in
performance under release mode because we cannot associate
extra information with an iterator (to form a safe iterator)
without either reserving that space in release mode
(performance regression) or allocating extra memory associated
with each iterator with new (changes the program
semantics).MethodsThis section provides an overall view of the design of the
libstdc++ debug mode and details the relationship between design
decisions and the stated design goals.The Wrapper ModelThe libstdc++ debug mode uses a wrapper model where the
debugging versions of library components (e.g., iterators and
containers) form a layer on top of the release versions of the
library components. The debugging components first verify that the
operation is correct (aborting with a diagnostic if an error is
found) and will then forward to the underlying release-mode
container that will perform the actual work. This design decision
ensures that we cannot regress release-mode performance (because the
release-mode containers are left untouched) and partially
enables mixing debug and
release code at link time, although that will not be
discussed at this time.Two types of wrappers are used in the implementation of the debug
mode: container wrappers and iterator wrappers. The two types of
wrappers interact to maintain relationships between iterators and
their associated containers, which are necessary to detect certain
types of standard library usage errors such as dereferencing
past-the-end iterators or inserting into a container using an
iterator from a different container.Safe IteratorsIterator wrappers provide a debugging layer over any iterator that
is attached to a particular container, and will manage the
information detailing the iterator's state (singular,
dereferenceable, etc.) and tracking the container to which the
iterator is attached. Because iterators have a well-defined, common
interface the iterator wrapper is implemented with the iterator
adaptor class template __gnu_debug::_Safe_iterator,
which takes two template parameters:Iterator: The underlying iterator type, which must
be either the iterator or const_iterator
typedef from the sequence type this iterator can reference.Sequence: The type of sequence that this iterator
references. This sequence must be a safe sequence (discussed below)
whose iterator or const_iterator typedef
is the type of the safe iterator.Safe Sequences (Containers)Container wrappers provide a debugging layer over a particular
container type. Because containers vary greatly in the member
functions they support and the semantics of those member functions
(especially in the area of iterator invalidation), container
wrappers are tailored to the container they reference, e.g., the
debugging version of std::list duplicates the entire
interface of std::list, adding additional semantic
checks and then forwarding operations to the
real std::list (a public base class of the debugging
version) as appropriate. However, all safe containers inherit from
the class template __gnu_debug::_Safe_sequence,
instantiated with the type of the safe container itself (an instance
of the curiously recurring template pattern).The iterators of a container wrapper will be
safe
iterators that reference sequences of this type and wrap the
iterators provided by the release-mode base class. The debugging
container will use only the safe iterators within its own interface
(therefore requiring the user to use safe iterators, although this
does not change correct user code) and will communicate with the
release-mode base class with only the underlying, unsafe,
release-mode iterators that the base class exports. The debugging version of std::list will have the
following basic structure:
template<typename _Tp, typename _Allocator = allocator<_Tp>
class debug-list :
public release-list<_Tp, _Allocator>,
public __gnu_debug::_Safe_sequence<debug-list<_Tp, _Allocator> >
{
typedef release-list<_Tp, _Allocator> _Base;
typedef debug-list<_Tp, _Allocator> _Self;
public:
typedef __gnu_debug::_Safe_iterator<typename _Base::iterator, _Self> iterator;
typedef __gnu_debug::_Safe_iterator<typename _Base::const_iterator, _Self> const_iterator;
// duplicate std::list interface with debugging semantics
};
Precondition CheckingThe debug mode operates primarily by checking the preconditions of
all standard library operations that it supports. Preconditions that
are always checked (regardless of whether or not we are in debug
mode) are checked via the __check_xxx macros defined
and documented in the source
file include/debug/debug.h. Preconditions that may or
may not be checked, depending on the debug-mode
macro _GLIBCXX_DEBUG, are checked via
the __requires_xxx macros defined and documented in the
same source file. Preconditions are validated using any additional
information available at run-time, e.g., the containers that are
associated with a particular iterator, the position of the iterator
within those containers, the distance between two iterators that may
form a valid range, etc. In the absence of suitable information,
e.g., an input iterator that is not a safe iterator, these
precondition checks will silently succeed.The majority of precondition checks use the aforementioned macros,
which have the secondary benefit of having prewritten debug
messages that use information about the current status of the
objects involved (e.g., whether an iterator is singular or what
sequence it is attached to) along with some static information
(e.g., the names of the function parameters corresponding to the
objects involved). When not using these macros, the debug mode uses
either the debug-mode assertion
macro _GLIBCXX_DEBUG_ASSERT , its pedantic
cousin _GLIBCXX_DEBUG_PEDASSERT, or the assertion
check macro that supports more advance formulation of error
messages, _GLIBCXX_DEBUG_VERIFY. These macros are
documented more thoroughly in the debug mode source code.Release- and debug-mode coexistenceThe libstdc++ debug mode is the first debug mode we know of that
is able to provide the "Per-use recompilation" (4) guarantee, that
allows release-compiled and debug-compiled code to be linked and
executed together without causing unpredictable behavior. This
guarantee minimizes the recompilation that users are required to
perform, shortening the detect-compile-debug bug hunting cycle
and making the debug mode easier to incorporate into development
environments by minimizing dependencies.Achieving link- and run-time coexistence is not a trivial
implementation task. To achieve this goal we required a small
extension to the GNU C++ compiler (since incorporated into the C++0x language specification, described in the GCC Manual for the C++ language as
namespace
association), and a complex organization of debug- and
release-modes. The end result is that we have achieved per-use
recompilation but have had to give up some checking of the
std::basic_string class template (namely, safe
iterators).
Compile-time coexistence of release- and debug-mode componentsBoth the release-mode components and the debug-mode
components need to exist within a single translation unit so that
the debug versions can wrap the release versions. However, only one
of these components should be user-visible at any particular
time with the standard name, e.g., std::list. In release mode, we define only the release-mode version of the
component with its standard name and do not include the debugging
component at all. The release mode version is defined within the
namespace std. Minus the namespace associations, this
method leaves the behavior of release mode completely unchanged from
its behavior prior to the introduction of the libstdc++ debug
mode. Here's an example of what this ends up looking like, in
C++.
namespace std
{
template<typename _Tp, typename _Alloc = allocator<_Tp> >
class list
{
// ...
};
} // namespace std
In debug mode we include the release-mode container (which is now
defined in the namespace __norm) and also the
debug-mode container. The debug-mode container is defined within the
namespace __debug, which is associated with namespace
std via the C++0x namespace association language feature. This
method allows the debug and release versions of the same component to
coexist at compile-time and link-time without causing an unreasonable
maintenance burden, while minimizing confusion. Again, this boils down
to C++ code as follows:
namespace std
{
namespace __norm
{
template<typename _Tp, typename _Alloc = allocator<_Tp> >
class list
{
// ...
};
} // namespace __gnu_norm
namespace __debug
{
template<typename _Tp, typename _Alloc = allocator<_Tp> >
class list
: public __norm::list<_Tp, _Alloc>,
public __gnu_debug::_Safe_sequence<list<_Tp, _Alloc> >
{
// ...
};
} // namespace __norm
// namespace __debug __attribute__ ((strong));
inline namespace __debug { }
}
Link- and run-time coexistence of release- and
debug-mode componentsBecause each component has a distinct and separate release and
debug implementation, there is no issue with link-time
coexistence: the separate namespaces result in different mangled
names, and thus unique linkage.However, components that are defined and used within the C++
standard library itself face additional constraints. For instance,
some of the member functions of std::moneypunct return
std::basic_string. Normally, this is not a problem, but
with a mixed mode standard library that could be using either
debug-mode or release-mode basic_string objects, things
get more complicated. As the return value of a function is not
encoded into the mangled name, there is no way to specify a
release-mode or a debug-mode string. In practice, this results in
runtime errors. A simplified example of this problem is as follows.
Take this translation unit, compiled in debug-mode:
// -D_GLIBCXX_DEBUG
#include <string>
std::string test02();
std::string test01()
{
return test02();
}
int main()
{
test01();
return 0;
}
... and linked to this translation unit, compiled in release mode:
#include <string>
std::string
test02()
{
return std::string("toast");
}
For this reason we cannot easily provide safe iterators for
the std::basic_string class template, as it is present
throughout the C++ standard library. For instance, locale facets
define typedefs that include basic_string: in a mixed
debug/release program, should that typedef be based on the
debug-mode basic_string or the
release-mode basic_string? While the answer could be
"both", and the difference hidden via renaming a la the
debug/release containers, we must note two things about locale
facets:They exist as shared state: one can create a facet in one
translation unit and access the facet via the same type name in a
different translation unit. This means that we cannot have two
different versions of locale facets, because the types would not be
the same across debug/release-mode translation unit barriers.They have virtual functions returning strings: these functions
mangle in the same way regardless of the mangling of their return
types (see above), and their precise signatures can be relied upon
by users because they may be overridden in derived classes.With the design of libstdc++ debug mode, we cannot effectively hide
the differences between debug and release-mode strings from the
user. Failure to hide the differences may result in unpredictable
behavior, and for this reason we have opted to only
perform basic_string changes that do not require ABI
changes. The effect on users is expected to be minimal, as there are
simple alternatives (e.g., __gnu_debug::basic_string),
and the usability benefit we gain from the ability to mix debug- and
release-compiled translation units is enormous.Alternatives for CoexistenceThe coexistence scheme above was chosen over many alternatives,
including language-only solutions and solutions that also required
extensions to the C++ front end. The following is a partial list of
solutions, with justifications for our rejection of each.Completely separate debug/release libraries: This is by
far the simplest implementation option, where we do not allow any
coexistence of debug- and release-compiled translation units in a
program. This solution has an extreme negative affect on usability,
because it is quite likely that some libraries an application
depends on cannot be recompiled easily. This would not meet
our usability or minimize recompilation criteria
well.Add a Debug boolean template parameter:
Partial specialization could be used to select the debug
implementation when Debug == true, and the state
of _GLIBCXX_DEBUG could decide whether the
default Debug argument is true
or false. This option would break conformance with the
C++ standard in both debug and release modes. This would
not meet our correctness criteria. Packaging a debug flag in the allocators: We could
reuse the Allocator template parameter of containers
by adding a sentinel wrapper debug<> that
signals the user's intention to use debugging, and pick up
the debug<> allocator wrapper in a partial
specialization. However, this has two drawbacks: first, there is a
conformance issue because the default allocator would not be the
standard-specified std::allocator<T>. Secondly
(and more importantly), users that specify allocators instead of
implicitly using the default allocator would not get debugging
containers. Thus this solution fails the correctness
criteria.Define debug containers in another namespace, and employ
a using declaration (or directive): This is an
enticing option, because it would eliminate the need for
the link_name extension by aliasing the
templates. However, there is no true template aliasing mechanism
in C++, because both using directives and using
declarations disallow specialization. This method fails
the correctness criteria. Use implementation-specific properties of anonymous
namespaces.
See this post
This method fails the correctness criteria.Extension: allow reopening on namespaces: This would
allow the debug mode to effectively alias the
namespace std to an internal namespace, such
as __gnu_std_debug, so that it is completely
separate from the release-mode std namespace. While
this will solve some renaming problems and ensure that
debug- and release-compiled code cannot be mixed unsafely, it ensures that
debug- and release-compiled code cannot be mixed at all. For
instance, the program would have two std::cout
objects! This solution would fails the minimize
recompilation requirement, because we would only be able to
support option (1) or (2).Extension: use link name: This option involves
complicated re-naming between debug-mode and release-mode
components at compile time, and then a g++ extension called
link name to recover the original names at link time. There
are two drawbacks to this approach. One, it's very verbose,
relying on macro renaming at compile time and several levels of
include ordering. Two, ODR issues remained with container member
functions taking no arguments in mixed-mode settings resulting in
equivalent link names, vector::push_back() being
one example.
See link
nameOther options may exist for implementing the debug mode, many of
which have probably been considered and others that may still be
lurking. This list may be expanded over time to include other
options that we could have implemented, but in all cases the full
ramifications of the approach (as measured against the design goals
for a libstdc++ debug mode) should be considered first. The DejaGNU
testsuite includes some testcases that check for known problems with
some solutions (e.g., the using declaration solution
that breaks user specialization), and additional testcases will be
added as we are able to identify other typical problem cases. These
test cases will serve as a benchmark by which we can compare debug
mode implementations.Other Implementations There are several existing implementations of debug modes for C++
standard library implementations, although none of them directly
supports debugging for programs using libstdc++. The existing
implementations include:SafeSTL:
SafeSTL was the original debugging version of the Standard Template
Library (STL), implemented by Cay S. Horstmann on top of the
Hewlett-Packard STL. Though it inspired much work in this area, it
has not been kept up-to-date for use with modern compilers or C++
standard library implementations.STLport: STLport is a free
implementation of the C++ standard library derived from the SGI implementation, and
ported to many other platforms. It includes a debug mode that uses a
wrapper model (that in some ways inspired the libstdc++ debug mode
design), although at the time of this writing the debug mode is
somewhat incomplete and meets only the "Full user recompilation" (2)
recompilation guarantee by requiring the user to link against a
different library in debug mode vs. release mode.Metrowerks CodeWarrior: The C++ standard library
that ships with Metrowerks CodeWarrior includes a debug mode. It is
a full debug-mode implementation (including debugging for
CodeWarrior extensions) and is easy to use, although it meets only
the "Full recompilation" (1) recompilation
guarantee.