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Re: {PATCH] New C++ warning -Wcatch-value
On 05/07/2017 02:03 PM, Volker Reichelt wrote:
On 2 May, Martin Sebor wrote:
On 05/01/2017 02:38 AM, Volker Reichelt wrote:
Hi,
catching exceptions by value is a bad thing, as it may cause slicing, i.e.
a) a superfluous copy
b) which is only partial.
See also https://github.com/isocpp/CppCoreGuidelines/blob/master/CppCoreGuidelines.md#e15-catch-exceptions-from-a-hierarchy-by-reference
To warn the user about catch handlers of non-reference type,
the following patch adds a new C++/ObjC++ warning option "-Wcatch-value".
I think the problems related to catching exceptions by value
apply to (a subset of) class types but not so much to fundamental
types. I would expect indiscriminately warning on every type to
be overly restrictive.
The Enforcement section of the C++ guideline suggests to
Flag by-value exceptions if their types are part of a hierarchy
(could require whole-program analysis to be perfect).
The corresponding CERT C++ Coding Standard guideline offers
a similar suggestion here:
https://www.securecoding.cert.org/confluence/x/TAD5CQ
so I would suggest to model the warning on that approach (within
limits of a single translation unit, of course). I.e., warn only
for catching by value objects of non-trivial types, or perhaps even
only polymorphic types?
Martin
I've never seen anybody throw integers in real-world code, so I didn't
want to complicate things for this case. But maybe I should only warn
about class-types.
IMHO it makes sense to warn about non-polymorphic class types
(although slicing is not a problem there), because you still have to
deal with redundant copies.
Another thing would be pointers. I've never seen pointers in catch
handlers (except some 'catch (const char*)' which I would consider
bad practice). Therefore I'd like to warn about 'catch (const A*)'
which might be a typo that should read 'catch (const A&)' instead.
Would that be OK?
To my knowledge, catch by value of non-polymorphic types (and
certainly fundamental types) is not a cause of common bugs.
It's part of the recommended practice to throw by value, catch
by reference, which is grounded in avoiding the slicing problem.
It's also sometimes recommended for non-trivial class types to
avoid creating a copy of the object (which, for non-trivial types,
may need to allocate resource and could throw). Otherwise, it's
not dissimilar to pass-by value vs pass-by-reference (or even
pass-by-pointer). Both may be good practices for some types or
in some situations but neither is necessary to avoid bugs or
universally applicable to achieve superior performance.
The pointer case is interesting. In C++ Coding Standards,
Sutter and Alexandrescu recommend to throw (and catch) smart
pointers over plain pointers because it obviates having to deal
with memory management issues. That's sound advice but it seems
more like a design guideline than a coding rule aimed at directly
preventing bugs. I also think that the memory management bugs
that it might find might be more easily detected at the throw
site instead. E.g., warning on the throw expression below:
{
Exception e;
throw &e;
}
or perhaps even on
{
throw *new Exception ();
}
A more sophisticated (and less restrictive) checker could detect
and warn on "throw <T*>" if it found a catch (T) or catch (T&)
in the same file and no catch (T*) (but not warn otherwise).
Martin
PS After re-reading some of the coding guidelines on this topic
it occurs to me that (if your patch doesn't handle this case yet)
it might be worth considering to enhance it to also warn on
rethrowing caught polymorphic objects (i.e., warn on
catch (E &e) { throw e; }
and suggest to use "throw;" instead, for the same reason: to
help avoid slicing.
PPS It may be a useful feature to implement some of other ideas
you mentioned (e.g., throw by value rather than pointer) but it
feels like a separate and more ambitious project than detecting
the relatively common and narrow slicing problem.
Regards,
Volker
Bootstrapped and regtested on x86_64-pc-linux-gnu.
OK for trunk?
Regards,
Volker
2017-05-01 Volker Reichelt <v.reichelt@netcologne.de>
* doc/invoke.texi (-Wcatch-value): Document new warning option.
Index: gcc/doc/invoke.texi
===================================================================
--- gcc/doc/invoke.texi (revision 247416)
+++ gcc/doc/invoke.texi (working copy)
@@ -265,7 +265,7 @@
-Wno-builtin-declaration-mismatch @gol
-Wno-builtin-macro-redefined -Wc90-c99-compat -Wc99-c11-compat @gol
-Wc++-compat -Wc++11-compat -Wc++14-compat -Wcast-align -Wcast-qual @gol
--Wchar-subscripts -Wchkp -Wclobbered -Wcomment @gol
+-Wchar-subscripts -Wchkp -Wcatch-value -Wclobbered -Wcomment @gol
-Wconditionally-supported @gol
-Wconversion -Wcoverage-mismatch -Wno-cpp -Wdangling-else -Wdate-time @gol
-Wdelete-incomplete @gol
@@ -5827,6 +5827,11 @@
literals to @code{char *}. This warning is enabled by default for C++
programs.
+@item -Wcatch-value @r{(C++ and Objective-C++ only)}
+@opindex Wcatch-value
+@opindex Wno-catch-value
+Warn about catch handler of non-reference type.
+
@item -Wclobbered
@opindex Wclobbered
@opindex Wno-clobbered
===================================================================
2017-05-01 Volker Reichelt <v.reichelt@netcologne.de>
* c.opt (Wcatch-value): New C++ warning flag.
Index: gcc/c-family/c.opt
===================================================================
--- gcc/c-family/c.opt (revision 247416)
+++ gcc/c-family/c.opt (working copy)
@@ -388,6 +388,10 @@
C ObjC C++ ObjC++ Var(warn_cast_qual) Warning
Warn about casts which discard qualifiers.
+Wcatch-value
+C++ ObjC++ Var(warn_catch_value) Warning
+Warn about catch handlers of non-reference type.
+
Wchar-subscripts
C ObjC C++ ObjC++ Var(warn_char_subscripts) Warning LangEnabledBy(C ObjC C++ ObjC++,Wall)
Warn about subscripts whose type is \"char\".
===================================================================
2017-05-01 Volker Reichelt <v.reichelt@netcologne.de>
* semantics.c (finish_handler_parms): Warn about non-reference type
catch handlers.
Index: gcc/cp/semantics.c
===================================================================
--- gcc/cp/semantics.c (revision 247416)
+++ gcc/cp/semantics.c (working copy)
@@ -1321,7 +1321,15 @@
}
}
else
- type = expand_start_catch_block (decl);
+ {
+ type = expand_start_catch_block (decl);
+ if (warn_catch_value
+ && type != NULL_TREE
+ && type != error_mark_node
+ && TREE_CODE (TREE_TYPE (decl)) != REFERENCE_TYPE)
+ warning (OPT_Wcatch_value,
+ "catching non-reference type %qT", TREE_TYPE (decl));
+ }
HANDLER_TYPE (handler) = type;
}
===================================================================
2017-05-01 Volker Reichelt <v.reichelt@netcologne.de>
* g++.dg/warn/Wcatch-value-1.C: New test.
Index: gcc/testsuite/g++.dg/warn/Wcatch-value-1.C
===================================================================
--- gcc/testsuite/g++.dg/warn/Wcatch-value-1.C 2017-05-01
+++ gcc/testsuite/g++.dg/warn/Wcatch-value-1.C 2017-05-01
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+// { dg-options "-Wcatch-value" }
+
+struct A {};
+struct B {};
+struct C {};
+
+void foo()
+{
+ try {}
+ catch (int) {} // { dg-warning "catching non-reference type" }
+ catch (double*) {} // { dg-warning "catching non-reference type" }
+ catch (float&) {}
+ catch (A) {} // { dg-warning "catching non-reference type" }
+ catch (A[2]) {} // { dg-warning "catching non-reference type" }
+ catch (B*) {} // { dg-warning "catching non-reference type" }
+ catch (B&) {}
+ catch (const C&) {}
+}
+
+template<typename T> void foo1()
+{
+ try {}
+ catch (T) {}
+}
+
+void bar1()
+{
+ foo1<int&>();
+ foo1<const A&>();
+}
+
+template<typename T> void foo2()
+{
+ try {}
+ catch (T) {} // { dg-warning "catching non-reference type" }
+
+ try {}
+ catch (T&) {}
+}
+
+void bar2()
+{
+ foo2<int*>(); // { dg-message "required" }
+ foo2<A>(); // { dg-message "required" }
+}
===================================================================