Hi, (FAM below refers to Flexible Array Members):
I need inputs on how to handle the combination of -fstrict-flex-arrays + -Warray-bounds. Our initial goal is to update -Warray-bounds with multiple levels of -fstrict-flex-arrays=N to issue warnings according to the different levels of “N”. However, after detailed study, I found that this goal was very hard to be achieved. 1. -fstrict-flex-arrays and its levels The new option -fstrict-flex-arrays has 4 levels: level trailing arrays treated as FAM 0 [],[0],[1],[n] the default without option 1 [],[0],[1] 2 [],[0] 3 [] the default when option specified without value 2. -Warray-bounds and its levels The option -Warray-bounds currently has 2 levels: level trailing arrays treated as FAM 1 [],[0],[1] the default when option specified without value 2 [] i.e, When -Warray-bounds=1, it treats [],[0],[1] as FAM, the same level as -fstrict-flex-arrays=1; When -Warray-bounds=2, it only treat [] as FAM, the same level as -fstrict-flex-arrays=3; 3. How to handle the combination of -fstrict-flex-arrays and -Warray-bounds? Question 1: when -fstrict-flex-arrays does not present, the default is -strict-flex-arrays=0, which treats [],[0],[1],[n] as FAM, so should we update the default behavior of -Warray-bounds to treat any trailing array [n] as FAMs? My immediate answer to Q1 is NO, we shouldn’t, that will be a big regression on -Warray-bounds, right? Question 2: when -fstrict-flex-arrays=N1 and -Warray-bounds=N2 present at the same time, Which one has higher priority? N1 or N2? -fstrict-flex-arrays=N1 controls how the compiler code generation treats the trailing arrays as FAMs, it seems reasonable to give higher priority to N1, However, then should we completely disable the level of -Warray-bounds N2 under such situation? I really don’t know what’s the best way to handle the conflict between N1 and N2. Can we completely cancel the 2 levels of -Warray-bounds, and always honor the level of -fstrict-flex-arrays? Any comments or suggestion will be helpful. thanks. Qing