Do ellipses in an function parameter use the same call layout as normal parameters

Question

I want to call an extern "C" function e.g. f1(int a, float f, double d, void* ptr) using an forward declaration with actual parameters but in the actual implementation I would like to to use va_list and friends to pop the args. Let's imagine for a second that I have a valid usecase for it, is it allowed?

main.cpp

extern "C" void f(int anchor, int a, float f, double d, void* ptr, char c);

int main(int, char*)
{
   f(0, 42, 1.08f, 3.14, reinterpret_cast<void*>(0xcafebabe), 'c');
   return 0;
}

impl.cpp

#include <cstdarg>
#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>

using namespace std;

void f(int anchor, ...)
{
  va_list args;
  va_start(args, anchor);

  int a = va_arg(args, int);
  float f = va_arg(args, float);
  double d = va_arg(args, double);
  void* ptr = va_arg(args, void*);
  char c = va_arg(args, char);

  cout << a << ' '
       << f << ' '
       << d << ' '
       << hex << (std::ptrdiff_t)ptr << ' '
       << (int)c << endl;

  va_end(args);
}

The code runs and prints the correct values on MSVC 2015 atleast, the question now is: is it guaranteed to work, if not: will it probably work on the most important platforms and compilers anyway?

"call layout" is not defined by the C++ Standard, it's up to individual implementations. Your code causes UB. — M.M, Nov 14 '15 at 01:00

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:51

2

Your code is, in theory, subject to undefined behavior. In fact, when I tried running the program after building with g++, I got

Illegal instruction (core dumped)

The reason is that when a function has the variable argument parameter, the only things it can deal with are ints, doubles, pointers. It can't deal with floats and chars.

Had the declaration been specified as:

extern "C" void f(int anchor, ...);

the float would be promoted to a double and the char would be promoted to an int.

On the implementation side, you'd need to use:

 float f = (float)va_arg(args, double);

and

 char c = (char)va_arg(args, int);

See Default argument promotions in C function calls for more info on the subject.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:51

Community

1
1

answered Nov 13 '15 at 15:54

R Sahu

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interesting, the fact that it cannot handle chars or floats is that in the standard or just part of the platform calling convention? what platform/arch did you try on? (also thanks for testing) – mauve Nov 13 '15 at 15:58
@mauve, It is specified in the standard. Let me look up the reference. – R Sahu Nov 13 '15 at 15:59
@mauve, I added a link to a related SO question. – R Sahu Nov 13 '15 at 16:20

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 14 '15 at 00:23

Some platforms require that every function must receive a fixed set of arguments. A C compiler for such a platform would likely handle something like:

printf("%d %f %s", 9, 23.7, "Fred");

with code equivalent to:

union long_or_double_or_ptr { unsigned long l; double d; void *p; };
union long_or_double_or_ptr INTERNAL_ARGS_92512[3];
__INTERNAL_ARGS_92512[0].l = 9;
__INTERNAL_ARGS_92512[1].d = 23.7;
__INTERNAL_ARGS_92512[2].p = "Fred";
printf("%d %f %s", INTERNAL_ARGS_92512);

The printf function would, from the standpoint of the machine running it, always accept two parameters: a "const restrict char *" and a "union long_or_double_or_ptr[]". The intrinsics defined in stdarg.h would know how to fetch data from that type, thus allowing the program to use it with no particular difficulty.

On such a platform, the calling convention for a variadic method would thus look nothing like the calling convention for a method accepting multiple discrete arguments, and no compatibility with such should be expected.

Note that your method had been written as:

void f(anchor, a, f, d, ptr, c)
  int anchor;
  int a;
  float f;
  double d;
  void* ptr;
  char c;
  {  /* Note parameters go before the brace! */
     /* code goes here */
  }

and not declared with a prototype, that might more likely get handled the same way as the variable-arguments scenario (since old C allowed callers to omit arguments if the called function never read them, and in the absence of a prototype a compiler would have no way of knowing how many arguments the function would need) but that syntax has been deprecated for decades now and I don't know how many compilers would even accept it.

Do ellipses in an function parameter use the same call layout as normal parameters

2 Answers2