4 The latest version of this document is always available at
5 [1]http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html.
6 _________________________________________________________________
12 + [4]What we DON'T want
14 + [6]Detailed bug reporting instructions
15 + [7]Detailed bug reporting instructions for GNAT
16 + [8]Detailed bug reporting instructions when using a precompiled
18 * [9]Frequently Reported Bugs in GCC
20 o [11]Missing features
21 o [12]Bugs fixed in the 3.4 series
27 o [18]Common problems when upgrading the compiler
28 _________________________________________________________________
32 The main purpose of a bug report is to enable us to fix the bug. The most
33 important prerequisite for this is that the report must be complete and
36 Before you report a bug, please check the [19]list of well-known bugs and,
37 if possible, try a current development snapshot. If you want to report a bug
38 with versions of GCC before 3.4 we strongly recommend upgrading to the
39 current release first.
41 Before reporting that GCC compiles your code incorrectly, please compile it
42 with gcc -Wall and see whether this shows anything wrong with your code that
43 could be the cause instead of a bug in GCC.
45 Summarized bug reporting instructions
47 After this summary, you'll find detailed bug reporting instructions, that
48 explain how to obtain some of the information requested in this summary.
52 Please include in your bug report all of the following items, the first
53 three of which can be obtained from the output of gcc -v:
54 * the exact version of GCC;
56 * the options given when GCC was configured/built;
57 * the complete command line that triggers the bug;
58 * the compiler output (error messages, warnings, etc.); and
59 * the preprocessed file (*.i*) that triggers the bug, generated by adding
60 -save-temps to the complete compilation command, or, in the case of a
61 bug report for the GNAT front end, a complete set of source files (see
66 * A source file that #includes header files that are left out of the bug
68 * That source file and a collection of header files.
69 * An attached archive (tar, zip, shar, whatever) containing all (or some
71 * A code snippet that won't cause the compiler to produce the exact output
72 mentioned in the bug report (e.g., a snippet with just a few lines
73 around the one that apparently triggers the bug, with some pieces
74 replaced with ellipses or comments for extra obfuscation :-)
75 * The location (URL) of the package that failed to build (we won't
76 download it, anyway, since you've already given us what we need to
77 duplicate the bug, haven't you? :-)
78 * An error that occurs only some of the times a certain file is compiled,
79 such that retrying a sufficient number of times results in a successful
80 compilation; this is a symptom of a hardware problem, not of a compiler
82 * Assembly files (*.s) produced by the compiler, or any binary files, such
83 as object files, executables, core files, or precompiled header files
84 * Duplicate bug reports, or reports of bugs already fixed in the
85 development tree, especially those that have already been reported as
87 * Bugs in the assembler, the linker or the C library. These are separate
88 projects, with separate mailing lists and different bug reporting
90 * Bugs in releases or snapshots of GCC not issued by the GNU Project.
91 Report them to whoever provided you with the release
92 * Questions about the correctness or the expected behavior of certain
93 constructs that are not GCC extensions. Ask them in forums dedicated to
94 the discussion of the programming language
98 Please submit your bug report directly to the [20]GCC bug database.
99 Alternatively, you can use the gccbug script that mails your bug report to
101 Only if all this is absolutely impossible, mail all information to
102 [21]gcc-bugs@gcc.gnu.org.
104 Detailed bug reporting instructions
106 Please refer to the [22]next section when reporting bugs in GNAT, the Ada
107 compiler, or to the [23]one after that when reporting bugs that appear when
108 using a precompiled header.
110 In general, all the information we need can be obtained by collecting the
111 command line below, as well as its output and the preprocessed file it
114 gcc -v -save-temps all-your-options source-file
116 The only excuses to not send us the preprocessed sources are (i) if you've
117 found a bug in the preprocessor, (ii) if you've reduced the testcase to a
118 small file that doesn't include any other file or (iii) if the bug appears
119 only when using precompiled headers. If you can't post the preprocessed
120 sources because they're proprietary code, then try to create a small file
121 that triggers the same problem.
123 Since we're supposed to be able to re-create the assembly output (extension
124 .s), you usually should not include it in the bug report, although you may
125 want to post parts of it to point out assembly code you consider to be
128 Please avoid posting an archive (.tar, .shar or .zip); we generally need
129 just a single file to reproduce the bug (the .i/.ii/.f preprocessed file),
130 and, by storing it in an archive, you're just making our volunteers' jobs
131 harder. Only when your bug report requires multiple source files to be
132 reproduced should you use an archive. This is, for example, the case if you
133 are using INCLUDE directives in Fortran code, which are not processed by the
134 preprocessor, but the compiler. In that case, we need the main file and all
135 INCLUDEd files. In any case, make sure the compiler version, error message,
136 etc, are included in the body of your bug report as plain text, even if
137 needlessly duplicated as part of an archive.
139 Detailed bug reporting instructions for GNAT
141 See the [24]previous section for bug reporting instructions for GCC language
142 implementations other than Ada.
144 Bug reports have to contain at least the following information in order to
146 * the exact version of GCC, as shown by "gcc -v";
148 * the options when GCC was configured/built;
149 * the exact command line passed to the gcc program triggering the bug (not
150 just the flags passed to gnatmake, but gnatmake prints the parameters it
152 * a collection of source files for reproducing the bug, preferably a
153 minimal set (see below);
154 * a description of the expected behavior;
155 * a description of actual behavior.
157 If your code depends on additional source files (usually package
158 specifications), submit the source code for these compilation units in a
159 single file that is acceptable input to gnatchop, i.e. contains no non-Ada
160 text. If the compilation terminated normally, you can usually obtain a list
161 of dependencies using the "gnatls -d main_unit" command, where main_unit is
162 the file name of the main compilation unit (which is also passed to gcc).
164 If you report a bug which causes the compiler to print a bug box, include
165 that bug box in your report, and do not forget to send all the source files
166 listed after the bug box along with your report.
168 If you use gnatprep, be sure to send in preprocessed sources (unless you
169 have to report a bug in gnatprep).
171 When you have checked that your report meets these criteria, please submit
172 it according to our [25]generic instructions. (If you use a mailing list for
173 reporting, please include an "[Ada]" tag in the subject.)
175 Detailed bug reporting instructions when using a precompiled header
177 If you're encountering a bug when using a precompiled header, the first
178 thing to do is to delete the precompiled header, and try running the same
179 GCC command again. If the bug happens again, the bug doesn't really involve
180 precompiled headers, please report it without using them by following the
181 instructions [26]above.
183 If you've found a bug while building a precompiled header (for instance, the
184 compiler crashes), follow the usual instructions [27]above.
186 If you've found a real precompiled header bug, what we'll need to reproduce
187 it is the sources to build the precompiled header (as a single .i file), the
188 source file that uses the precompiled header, any other headers that source
189 file includes, and the command lines that you used to build the precompiled
190 header and to use it.
192 Please don't send us the actual precompiled header. It is likely to be very
193 large and we can't use it to reproduce the problem.
194 _________________________________________________________________
196 Frequently Reported Bugs in GCC
198 This is a list of bugs in GCC that are reported very often, but not yet
199 fixed. While it is certainly better to fix bugs instead of documenting them,
200 this document might save people the effort of writing a bug report when the
201 bug is already well-known.
203 There are many reasons why a reported bug doesn't get fixed. It might be
204 difficult to fix, or fixing it might break compatibility. Often, reports get
205 a low priority when there is a simple work-around. In particular, bugs
206 caused by invalid code have a simple work-around: fix the code.
207 _________________________________________________________________
213 The export keyword is not implemented.
214 Most C++ compilers (G++ included) do not yet implement export, which
215 is necessary for separate compilation of template declarations and
216 definitions. Without export, a template definition must be in scope
217 to be used. The obvious workaround is simply to place all definitions
218 in the header itself. Alternatively, the compilation unit containing
219 template definitions may be included from the header.
221 Bugs fixed in the 3.4 series
223 The following bugs are present up to (and including) GCC 3.3.x. They have
226 Two-stage name-lookup.
227 GCC did not implement two-stage name-lookup (also see [28]below).
229 Covariant return types.
230 GCC did not implement non-trivial covariant returns.
232 Parse errors for "simple" code.
233 GCC gave parse errors for seemingly simple code, such as
250 B b(A(),A(1)); // Variable b, initialized with two temporaries
251 B(A(2)).foo(); // B temporary, initialized with A temporary
252 return (A()); // return A temporary
255 Although being valid code, each of the three lines with a comment was
256 rejected by GCC. The work-arounds for older compiler versions
257 proposed below do not change the semantics of the programs at all.
259 The problem in the first case was that GCC started to parse the
260 declaration of b as a function called b returning B, taking a
261 function returning A as an argument. When it encountered the 1, it
262 was too late. To show the compiler that this should be really an
263 expression, a comma operator with a dummy argument could be used:
267 The work-around for simpler cases like the second one was to add
268 additional parentheses around the expressions that were mistaken as
273 In the third case, however, additional parentheses were causing the
274 problems: The compiler interpreted A() as a function (taking no
275 arguments, returning A), and (A()) as a cast lacking an expression to
276 be casted, hence the parse error. The work-around was to omit the
281 This problem occurred in a number of variants; in throw statements,
282 people also frequently put the object in parentheses.
283 _________________________________________________________________
287 G77 bugs are documented in the G77 manual rather than explicitly listed
288 here. Please see [29]Known Causes of Trouble with GNU Fortran in the G77
290 _________________________________________________________________
294 The following are not actually bugs, but are reported often enough to
295 warrant a mention here.
297 It is not always a bug in the compiler, if code which "worked" in a previous
298 version, is now rejected. Earlier versions of GCC sometimes were less picky
299 about standard conformance and accepted invalid source code. In addition,
300 programming languages themselves change, rendering code invalid that used to
301 be conforming (this holds especially for C++). In either case, you should
302 update your code to match recent language standards.
303 _________________________________________________________________
307 Problems with floating point numbers - the [30]most often reported non-bug.
308 In a number of cases, GCC appears to perform floating point
309 computations incorrectly. For example, the C++ program
317 std::cout << (int)(a / b) << std::endl;
321 might print 50 on some systems and optimization levels, and 49 on
324 This is the result of rounding: The computer cannot represent all
325 real numbers exactly, so it has to use approximations. When computing
326 with approximation, the computer needs to round to the nearest
327 representable number.
329 This is not a bug in the compiler, but an inherent limitation of the
330 floating point types. Please study [31]this paper for more
332 _________________________________________________________________
336 Increment/decrement operator (++/--) not working as expected - a [32]problem
337 with many variations.
338 The following expressions have unpredictable results:
342 i*(++i) /* special case with foo=="operator*" */
343 std::cout << i << ++i /* foo(foo(std::cout,i),++i) */
345 since the i without increment can be evaluated before or after ++i.
347 The C and C++ standards have the notion of "sequence points".
348 Everything that happens between two sequence points happens in an
349 unspecified order, but it has to happen after the first and before
350 the second sequence point. The end of a statement and a function call
351 are examples for sequence points, whereas assignments and the comma
352 between function arguments are not.
354 Modifying a value twice between two sequence points as shown in the
355 following examples is even worse:
359 (++i)*(++i) /* special case with foo=="operator*" */
360 std::cout << ++i << ++i /* foo(foo(std::cout,++i),++i) */
362 This leads to undefined behavior (i.e. the compiler can do anything).
364 Casting does not work as expected when optimization is turned on.
365 This is often caused by a violation of aliasing rules, which are part
366 of the ISO C standard. These rules say that a program is invalid if
367 you try to access a variable through a pointer of an incompatible
368 type. This is happening in the following example where a short is
369 accessed through a pointer to integer (the code assumes 16-bit shorts
381 *(int *)a = 0x22222222; /* violation of aliasing rules */
383 printf("%x %x\n", a[0], a[1]);
387 The aliasing rules were designed to allow compilers more aggressive
388 optimization. Basically, a compiler can assume that all changes to
389 variables happen through pointers or references to variables of a
390 type compatible to the accessed variable. Dereferencing a pointer
391 that violates the aliasing rules results in undefined behavior.
393 In the case above, the compiler may assume that no access through an
394 integer pointer can change the array a, consisting of shorts. Thus,
395 printf may be called with the original values of a[0] and a[1]. What
396 really happens is up to the compiler and may change with architecture
397 and optimization level.
399 Recent versions of GCC turn on the option -fstrict-aliasing (which
400 allows alias-based optimizations) by default with -O2. And some
401 architectures then really print "1111 1111" as result. Without
402 optimization the executable will generate the "expected" output "2222
405 To disable optimizations based on alias-analysis for faulty legacy
406 code, the option -fno-strict-aliasing can be used as a work-around.
408 The option -Wstrict-aliasing (which is included in -Wall) warns about
409 some - but not all - cases of violation of aliasing rules when
410 -fstrict-aliasing is active.
412 To fix the code above, you can use a union instead of a cast (note
413 that this is a GCC extension which might not work with other
431 printf("%x %x\n", u.a[0], u.a[1]);
435 Now the result will always be "2222 2222".
437 For some more insight into the subject, please have a look at
440 Cannot use preprocessor directive in macro arguments.
441 Let me guess... you used an older version of GCC to compile code that
442 looks something like this:
452 and you got a whole pile of error messages:
454 test.c:11: warning: preprocessing directive not recognized within macro arg
455 test.c:11: warning: preprocessing directive not recognized within macro arg
456 test.c:11: warning: preprocessing directive not recognized within macro arg
457 test.c: In function `foo':
458 test.c:6: undefined or invalid # directive
459 test.c:8: undefined or invalid # directive
460 test.c:9: parse error before `24'
461 test.c:10: undefined or invalid # directive
463 This is because your C library's <string.h> happens to define memcpy
464 as a macro - which is perfectly legitimate. In recent versions of
465 glibc, for example, printf is among those functions which are
466 implemented as macros.
468 Versions of GCC prior to 3.3 did not allow you to put #ifdef (or any
469 other preprocessor directive) inside the arguments of a macro. The
470 code therefore would not compile.
472 As of GCC 3.3 this kind of construct is always accepted and the
473 preprocessor will probably do what you expect, but see the manual for
476 However, this kind of code is not portable. It is "undefined
477 behavior" according to the C standard; that means different compilers
478 may do different things with it. It is always possible to rewrite
479 code which uses conditionals inside macros so that it doesn't. You
480 could write the above example
483 memcpy(dest, src, 12);
485 memcpy(dest, src, 24);
488 This is a bit more typing, but I personally think it's better style
489 in addition to being more portable.
491 Cannot initialize a static variable with stdin.
492 This has nothing to do with GCC, but people ask us about it a lot.
499 will not compile with GNU libc, because stdin is not a constant. This
500 was done deliberately, to make it easier to maintain binary
501 compatibility when the type FILE needs to be changed. It is
502 surprising for people used to traditional Unix C libraries, but it is
503 permitted by the C standard.
505 This construct commonly occurs in code generated by old versions of
506 lex or yacc. We suggest you try regenerating the parser with a
507 current version of flex or bison, respectively. In your own code, the
508 appropriate fix is to move the initialization to the beginning of
511 There is a common misconception that the GCC developers are
512 responsible for GNU libc. These are in fact two entirely separate
513 projects; please check the [34]GNU libc web pages for details.
514 _________________________________________________________________
518 Nested classes can access private members and types of the containing class.
519 Defect report 45 clarifies that nested classes are members of the
520 class they are nested in, and so are granted access to private
521 members of that class.
523 G++ emits two copies of constructors and destructors.
524 In general there are three types of constructors (and destructors).
526 1. The complete object constructor/destructor.
527 2. The base object constructor/destructor.
528 3. The allocating constructor/deallocating destructor.
530 The first two are different, when virtual base classes are involved.
532 Global destructors are not run in the correct order.
533 Global destructors should be run in the reverse order of their
534 constructors completing. In most cases this is the same as the
535 reverse order of constructors starting, but sometimes it is
536 different, and that is important. You need to compile and link your
537 programs with --use-cxa-atexit. We have not turned this switch on by
538 default, as it requires a cxa aware runtime library (libc, glibc, or
541 Classes in exception specifiers must be complete types.
542 [15.4]/1 tells you that you cannot have an incomplete type, or
543 pointer to incomplete (other than cv void *) in an exception
546 Exceptions don't work in multithreaded applications.
547 You need to rebuild g++ and libstdc++ with --enable-threads.
548 Remember, C++ exceptions are not like hardware interrupts. You cannot
549 throw an exception in one thread and catch it in another. You cannot
550 throw an exception from a signal handler and catch it in the main
553 Templates, scoping, and digraphs.
554 If you have a class in the global namespace, say named X, and want to
555 give it as a template argument to some other class, say std::vector,
556 then std::vector<::X> fails with a parser error.
558 The reason is that the standard mandates that the sequence <: is
559 treated as if it were the token [. (There are several such
560 combinations of characters - they are called digraphs.) Depending on
561 the version, the compiler then reports a parse error before the
562 character : (the colon before X) or a missing closing bracket ].
564 The simplest way to avoid this is to write std::vector< ::X>, i.e.
565 place a space between the opening angle bracket and the scope
568 Copy constructor access check while initializing a reference.
577 A(const A&); // private copy ctor
585 foo(A()); // error, copy ctor is not accessible
586 foo(makeA()); // error, copy ctor is not accessible
589 foo(a1); // OK, a1 is a lvalue
592 Starting with GCC 3.4.0, binding an rvalue to a const reference
593 requires an accessible copy constructor. This might be surprising at
594 first sight, especially since most popular compilers do not correctly
597 The C++ Standard says that a temporary object should be created in
598 this context and its contents filled with a copy of the object we are
599 trying to bind to the reference; it also says that the temporary copy
600 can be elided, but the semantic constraints (eg. accessibility) of
601 the copy constructor still have to be checked.
603 For further information, you can consult the following paragraphs of
604 the C++ standard: [dcl.init.ref]/5, bullet 2, sub-bullet 1, and
607 Common problems when upgrading the compiler
611 The C++ application binary interface (ABI) consists of two components: the
612 first defines how the elements of classes are laid out, how functions are
613 called, how function names are mangled, etc; the second part deals with the
614 internals of the objects in libstdc++. Although we strive for a non-changing
615 ABI, so far we have had to modify it with each major release. If you change
616 your compiler to a different major release you must recompile all libraries
617 that contain C++ code. If you fail to do so you risk getting linker errors
618 or malfunctioning programs. Some of our Java support libraries also contain
619 C++ code, so you might want to recompile all libraries to be safe. It should
620 not be necessary to recompile if you have changed to a bug-fix release of
621 the same version of the compiler; bug-fix releases are careful to avoid ABI
622 changes. See also the [35]compatibility section of the GCC manual.
624 Remark: A major release is designated by a change to the first or second
625 component of the two- or three-part version number. A minor (bug-fix)
626 release is designated by a change to the third component only. Thus GCC 3.2
627 and 3.3 are major releases, while 3.3.1 and 3.3.2 are bug-fix releases for
628 GCC 3.3. With the 3.4 series we are introducing a new naming scheme; the
629 first release of this series is 3.4.0 instead of just 3.4.
633 With each release, we try to make G++ conform closer to the ISO C++ standard
634 (available at [36]http://www.ncits.org/cplusplus.htm). We have also
635 implemented some of the core and library defect reports (available at
636 [37]http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/cwg_defects.html &
637 [38]http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/lwg-defects.html
640 Non-conforming legacy code that worked with older versions of GCC may be
641 rejected by more recent compilers. There is no command-line switch to ensure
642 compatibility in general, because trying to parse standard-conforming and
643 old-style code at the same time would render the C++ frontend
644 unmaintainable. However, some non-conforming constructs are allowed when the
645 command-line option -fpermissive is used.
647 Two milestones in standard conformance are GCC 3.0 (including a major
648 overhaul of the standard library) and the 3.4.0 version (with its new C++
653 * The standard library is much more conformant, and uses the std::
654 namespace (which is now a real namespace, not an alias for ::).
655 * The standard header files for the c library don't end with .h, but begin
656 with c (i.e. <cstdlib> rather than <stdlib.h>). The .h names are still
657 available, but are deprecated.
658 * <strstream> is deprecated, use <sstream> instead.
659 * streambuf::seekoff & streambuf::seekpos are private, instead use
660 streambuf::pubseekoff & streambuf::pubseekpos respectively.
661 * If std::operator << (std::ostream &, long long) doesn't exist, you need
662 to recompile libstdc++ with --enable-long-long.
664 If you get lots of errors about things like cout not being found, you've
665 most likely forgotten to tell the compiler to look in the std:: namespace.
666 There are several ways to do this:
667 * Say std::cout at the call. This is the most explicit way of saying what
669 * Say using std::cout; somewhere before the call. You will need to do this
670 for each function or type you wish to use from the standard library.
671 * Say using namespace std; somewhere before the call. This is the
672 quick-but-dirty fix. This brings the whole of the std:: namespace into
673 scope. Never do this in a header file, as every user of your header file
674 will be affected by this decision.
678 The new parser brings a lot of improvements, especially concerning
680 * The "implicit typename" extension got removed (it was already deprecated
681 since GCC 3.1), so that the following code is now rejected, see [14.6]:
683 template <typename> struct A
688 template <typename T> struct B
691 typename A<T>::X y; // OK
696 * For similar reasons, the following code now requires the template
699 template <typename> struct A
701 template <int> struct X {};
704 template <typename T> struct B
706 typename A<T>::X<0> x; // error
707 typename A<T>::template X<0> y; // OK
712 * We now have two-stage name-lookup, so that the following code is
713 rejected, see [14.6]/9:
715 template <typename T> int foo()
720 * This also affects members of base classes, see [14.6.2]:
722 template <typename> struct A
727 template <typename T> struct B : A<T>
729 int foo1() { return i; } // error
730 int foo2() { return this->i; } // OK
731 int foo3() { return B<T>::i; } // OK
732 int foo4() { return A<T>::i; } // OK
735 int foo5() { return j; } // OK
738 In addition to the problems listed above, the manual contains a section on
739 [39]Common Misunderstandings with GNU C++.
743 1. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html
744 2. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html#report
745 3. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html#need
746 4. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html#dontwant
747 5. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html#where
748 6. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html#detailed
749 7. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html#gnat
750 8. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html#pch
751 9. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html#known
752 10. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html#cxx
753 11. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html#missing
754 12. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html#fixed34
755 13. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html#fortran
756 14. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html#nonbugs
757 15. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html#nonbugs_general
758 16. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html#nonbugs_c
759 17. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html#nonbugs_cxx
760 18. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html#upgrading
761 19. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html#known
762 20. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/
763 21. mailto:gcc-bugs@gcc.gnu.org
764 22. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html#gnat
765 23. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html#pch
766 24. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html#detailed
767 25. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html#where
768 26. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html#detailed
769 27. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html#detailed
770 28. http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html#new34
771 29. http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-3.4.6/g77/Trouble.html
772 30. http://gcc.gnu.org/PR323
773 31. http://www.validlab.com/goldberg/paper.ps
774 32. http://gcc.gnu.org/PR11751
775 33. http://mail-index.NetBSD.org/tech-kern/2003/08/11/0001.html
776 34. http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/
777 35. http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Compatibility.html
778 36. http://www.ncits.org/cplusplus.htm
779 37. http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/cwg_defects.html
780 38. http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/lwg-defects.html
781 39. http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/C_002b_002b-Misunderstandings.html