------- Comment #16 from bangerth at dealii dot org 2007-08-20 16:21 ------- (In reply to comment #15)
> Of course, the output is '5' and not '0'. So yes, atoi() seems perfectly able > to initialize buf. (or perhaps, I am still confused). I think you are. This program here segfaults: --------------------- #include <cstdio> const int i=0; void use(const int *a) { int * b = (int *)a; b[0] = 5; } int main(void) { use(&i); printf("%d\n", i); return 0; } ---------------------------- Since use() (like atoi) can't know whether its argument is a local automatic or a global variable, there is no way for it to reliably initialize its argument. Casting away constness invokes undefined behavior if the static type of the object is const. W. -- http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=10138