1 <chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0"
2 xml:id="manual.intro.using" xreflabel="Using">
3 <info><title>Using</title></info>
4 <?dbhtml filename="using.html"?>
6 <section xml:id="manual.intro.using.flags" xreflabel="Flags"><info><title>Command Options</title></info>
9 The set of features available in the GNU C++ library is shaped by
10 several <link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-4.3.2/gcc/Invoking-GCC.html">GCC
11 Command Options</link>. Options that impact libstdc++ are
12 enumerated and detailed in the table below.
16 The standard library conforms to the dialect of C++ specified by the
17 <option>-std</option> option passed to the compiler.
18 By default, <command>g++</command> is equivalent to
19 <command>g++ -std=gnu++14</command> since GCC 6, and
20 <command>g++ -std=gnu++98</command> for older releases.
23 <table frame="all" xml:id="table.cmd_options">
24 <title>C++ Command Options</title>
26 <tgroup cols="2" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
27 <colspec colname="c1"/>
28 <colspec colname="c2"/>
32 <entry>Option Flags</entry>
33 <entry>Description</entry>
39 <entry><literal>-std=c++98</literal> or <literal>-std=c++03</literal>
41 <entry>Use the 1998 ISO C++ standard plus amendments.</entry>
45 <entry><literal>-std=gnu++98</literal> or <literal>-std=gnu++03</literal>
47 <entry>As directly above, with GNU extensions.</entry>
51 <entry><literal>-std=c++11</literal></entry>
52 <entry>Use the 2011 ISO C++ standard.</entry>
56 <entry><literal>-std=gnu++11</literal></entry>
57 <entry>As directly above, with GNU extensions.</entry>
61 <entry><literal>-std=c++14</literal></entry>
62 <entry>Use the 2014 ISO C++ standard.</entry>
66 <entry><literal>-std=gnu++14</literal></entry>
67 <entry>As directly above, with GNU extensions.</entry>
71 <entry><literal>-fexceptions</literal></entry>
72 <entry>See <link linkend="intro.using.exception.no">exception-free dialect</link></entry>
76 <entry><literal>-frtti</literal></entry>
77 <entry>As above, but RTTI-free dialect.</entry>
81 <entry><literal>-pthread</literal></entry>
83 <filename class="headerfile"><thread></filename>,
84 <filename class="headerfile"><future></filename>,
85 <filename class="headerfile"><mutex></filename>,
86 or <filename class="headerfile"><condition_variable></filename>.
91 <entry><literal>-latomic</literal></entry>
92 <entry>Linking to <filename class="libraryfile">libatomic</filename>
93 is required for some uses of ISO C++11
94 <filename class="headerfile"><atomic></filename>.
99 <entry><literal>-lstdc++fs</literal></entry>
100 <entry>Linking to <filename class="libraryfile">libstdc++fs</filename>
101 is required for use of the Filesystem library extensions in
102 <filename class="headerfile"><experimental/filesystem></filename>.
107 <entry><literal>-fopenmp</literal></entry>
108 <entry>For <link linkend="manual.ext.parallel_mode">parallel</link> mode.</entry>
117 <section xml:id="manual.intro.using.headers" xreflabel="Headers"><info><title>Headers</title></info>
118 <?dbhtml filename="using_headers.html"?>
121 <section xml:id="manual.intro.using.headers.all" xreflabel="Header Files"><info><title>Header Files</title></info>
125 The C++ standard specifies the entire set of header files that
126 must be available to all hosted implementations. Actually, the
127 word "files" is a misnomer, since the contents of the
128 headers don't necessarily have to be in any kind of external
129 file. The only rule is that when one <code>#include</code>'s a
130 header, the contents of that header become available, no matter
135 That said, in practice files are used.
139 There are two main types of include files: header files related
140 to a specific version of the ISO C++ standard (called Standard
141 Headers), and all others (TR1, C++ ABI, and Extensions).
145 Two dialects of standard headers are supported, corresponding to
146 the 1998 standard as updated for 2003, and the current 2011 standard.
150 C++98/03 include files. These are available in the default compilation mode, i.e. <code>-std=c++98</code> or <code>-std=gnu++98</code>.
153 <table frame="all" xml:id="table.cxx98_headers">
154 <title>C++ 1998 Library Headers</title>
156 <tgroup cols="5" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
157 <colspec colname="c1"/>
158 <colspec colname="c2"/>
159 <colspec colname="c3"/>
160 <colspec colname="c4"/>
161 <colspec colname="c5"/>
164 <entry><filename class="headerfile">algorithm</filename></entry>
165 <entry><filename class="headerfile">bitset</filename></entry>
166 <entry><filename class="headerfile">complex</filename></entry>
167 <entry><filename class="headerfile">deque</filename></entry>
168 <entry><filename class="headerfile">exception</filename></entry>
171 <entry><filename class="headerfile">fstream</filename></entry>
172 <entry><filename class="headerfile">functional</filename></entry>
173 <entry><filename class="headerfile">iomanip</filename></entry>
174 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ios</filename></entry>
175 <entry><filename class="headerfile">iosfwd</filename></entry>
178 <entry><filename class="headerfile">iostream</filename></entry>
179 <entry><filename class="headerfile">istream</filename></entry>
180 <entry><filename class="headerfile">iterator</filename></entry>
181 <entry><filename class="headerfile">limits</filename></entry>
182 <entry><filename class="headerfile">list</filename></entry>
185 <entry><filename class="headerfile">locale</filename></entry>
186 <entry><filename class="headerfile">map</filename></entry>
187 <entry><filename class="headerfile">memory</filename></entry>
188 <entry><filename class="headerfile">new</filename></entry>
189 <entry><filename class="headerfile">numeric</filename></entry>
192 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ostream</filename></entry>
193 <entry><filename class="headerfile">queue</filename></entry>
194 <entry><filename class="headerfile">set</filename></entry>
195 <entry><filename class="headerfile">sstream</filename></entry>
196 <entry><filename class="headerfile">stack</filename></entry>
199 <entry><filename class="headerfile">stdexcept</filename></entry>
200 <entry><filename class="headerfile">streambuf</filename></entry>
201 <entry><filename class="headerfile">string</filename></entry>
202 <entry><filename class="headerfile">utility</filename></entry>
203 <entry><filename class="headerfile">typeinfo</filename></entry>
206 <entry><filename class="headerfile">valarray</filename></entry>
207 <entry><filename class="headerfile">vector</filename></entry>
214 <table frame="all" xml:id="table.cxx98_cheaders">
215 <title>C++ 1998 Library Headers for C Library Facilities</title>
217 <tgroup cols="5" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
218 <colspec colname="c1"/>
219 <colspec colname="c2"/>
220 <colspec colname="c3"/>
221 <colspec colname="c4"/>
222 <colspec colname="c5"/>
225 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cassert</filename></entry>
226 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cerrno</filename></entry>
227 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cctype</filename></entry>
228 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cfloat</filename></entry>
229 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ciso646</filename></entry>
232 <entry><filename class="headerfile">climits</filename></entry>
233 <entry><filename class="headerfile">clocale</filename></entry>
234 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cmath</filename></entry>
235 <entry><filename class="headerfile">csetjmp</filename></entry>
236 <entry><filename class="headerfile">csignal</filename></entry>
239 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cstdarg</filename></entry>
240 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cstddef</filename></entry>
241 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cstdio</filename></entry>
242 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cstdlib</filename></entry>
243 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cstring</filename></entry>
246 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ctime</filename></entry>
247 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cwchar</filename></entry>
248 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cwctype</filename></entry>
255 C++11 include files. These are only available in C++11 compilation
256 mode, i.e. <literal>-std=c++11</literal> or <literal>-std=gnu++11</literal>.
260 <table frame="all" xml:id="table.cxx11_headers">
261 <title>C++ 2011 Library Headers</title>
263 <tgroup cols="5" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
264 <colspec colname="c1"/>
265 <colspec colname="c2"/>
266 <colspec colname="c3"/>
267 <colspec colname="c4"/>
268 <colspec colname="c5"/>
272 <entry><filename class="headerfile">algorithm</filename></entry>
273 <entry><filename class="headerfile">array</filename></entry>
274 <entry><filename class="headerfile">bitset</filename></entry>
275 <entry><filename class="headerfile">chrono</filename></entry>
276 <entry><filename class="headerfile">complex</filename></entry>
279 <entry><filename class="headerfile">condition_variable</filename></entry>
280 <entry><filename class="headerfile">deque</filename></entry>
281 <entry><filename class="headerfile">exception</filename></entry>
282 <entry><filename class="headerfile">forward_list</filename></entry>
283 <entry><filename class="headerfile">fstream</filename></entry>
286 <entry><filename class="headerfile">functional</filename></entry>
287 <entry><filename class="headerfile">future</filename></entry>
288 <entry><filename class="headerfile">initalizer_list</filename></entry>
289 <entry><filename class="headerfile">iomanip</filename></entry>
290 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ios</filename></entry>
293 <entry><filename class="headerfile">iosfwd</filename></entry>
294 <entry><filename class="headerfile">iostream</filename></entry>
295 <entry><filename class="headerfile">istream</filename></entry>
296 <entry><filename class="headerfile">iterator</filename></entry>
297 <entry><filename class="headerfile">limits</filename></entry>
300 <entry><filename class="headerfile">list</filename></entry>
301 <entry><filename class="headerfile">locale</filename></entry>
302 <entry><filename class="headerfile">map</filename></entry>
303 <entry><filename class="headerfile">memory</filename></entry>
304 <entry><filename class="headerfile">mutex</filename></entry>
307 <entry><filename class="headerfile">new</filename></entry>
308 <entry><filename class="headerfile">numeric</filename></entry>
309 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ostream</filename></entry>
310 <entry><filename class="headerfile">queue</filename></entry>
311 <entry><filename class="headerfile">random</filename></entry>
314 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ratio</filename></entry>
315 <entry><filename class="headerfile">regex</filename></entry>
316 <entry><filename class="headerfile">set</filename></entry>
317 <entry><filename class="headerfile">sstream</filename></entry>
318 <entry><filename class="headerfile">stack</filename></entry>
321 <entry><filename class="headerfile">stdexcept</filename></entry>
322 <entry><filename class="headerfile">streambuf</filename></entry>
323 <entry><filename class="headerfile">string</filename></entry>
324 <entry><filename class="headerfile">system_error</filename></entry>
325 <entry><filename class="headerfile">thread</filename></entry>
328 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tuple</filename></entry>
329 <entry><filename class="headerfile">type_traits</filename></entry>
330 <entry><filename class="headerfile">typeinfo</filename></entry>
331 <entry><filename class="headerfile">unordered_map</filename></entry>
332 <entry><filename class="headerfile">unordered_set</filename></entry>
335 <entry><filename class="headerfile">utility</filename></entry>
336 <entry><filename class="headerfile">valarray</filename></entry>
337 <entry><filename class="headerfile">vector</filename></entry>
346 <table frame="all" xml:id="table.cxx11_cheaders">
347 <title>C++ 2011 Library Headers for C Library Facilities</title>
349 <tgroup cols="5" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
350 <colspec colname="c1"/>
351 <colspec colname="c2"/>
352 <colspec colname="c3"/>
353 <colspec colname="c4"/>
354 <colspec colname="c5"/>
357 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cassert</filename></entry>
358 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ccomplex</filename></entry>
359 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cctype</filename></entry>
360 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cerrno</filename></entry>
361 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cfenv</filename></entry>
364 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cfloat</filename></entry>
365 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cinttypes</filename></entry>
366 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ciso646</filename></entry>
367 <entry><filename class="headerfile">climits</filename></entry>
368 <entry><filename class="headerfile">clocale</filename></entry>
371 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cmath</filename></entry>
372 <entry><filename class="headerfile">csetjmp</filename></entry>
373 <entry><filename class="headerfile">csignal</filename></entry>
374 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cstdarg</filename></entry>
375 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cstdbool</filename></entry>
378 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cstddef</filename></entry>
379 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cstdint</filename></entry>
380 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cstdlib</filename></entry>
381 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cstdio</filename></entry>
382 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cstring</filename></entry>
385 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ctgmath</filename></entry>
386 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ctime</filename></entry>
387 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cuchar</filename></entry>
388 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cwchar</filename></entry>
389 <entry><filename class="headerfile">cwctype</filename></entry>
397 In addition, TR1 includes as:
400 <table frame="all" xml:id="table.tr1_headers">
401 <title>C++ TR 1 Library Headers</title>
403 <tgroup cols="5" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
404 <colspec colname="c1"/>
405 <colspec colname="c2"/>
406 <colspec colname="c3"/>
407 <colspec colname="c4"/>
408 <colspec colname="c5"/>
412 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tr1/array</filename></entry>
413 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tr1/complex</filename></entry>
414 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tr1/memory</filename></entry>
415 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tr1/functional</filename></entry>
416 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tr1/random</filename></entry>
419 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tr1/regex</filename></entry>
420 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tr1/tuple</filename></entry>
421 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tr1/type_traits</filename></entry>
422 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tr1/unordered_map</filename></entry>
423 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tr1/unordered_set</filename></entry>
426 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tr1/utility</filename></entry>
436 <table frame="all" xml:id="table.tr1_cheaders">
437 <title>C++ TR 1 Library Headers for C Library Facilities</title>
439 <tgroup cols="5" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
440 <colspec colname="c1"/>
441 <colspec colname="c2"/>
442 <colspec colname="c3"/>
443 <colspec colname="c4"/>
444 <colspec colname="c5"/>
448 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tr1/ccomplex</filename></entry>
449 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tr1/cfenv</filename></entry>
450 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tr1/cfloat</filename></entry>
451 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tr1/cmath</filename></entry>
452 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tr1/cinttypes</filename></entry>
455 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tr1/climits</filename></entry>
456 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tr1/cstdarg</filename></entry>
457 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tr1/cstdbool</filename></entry>
458 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tr1/cstdint</filename></entry>
459 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tr1/cstdio</filename></entry>
462 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tr1/cstdlib</filename></entry>
463 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tr1/ctgmath</filename></entry>
464 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tr1/ctime</filename></entry>
465 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tr1/cwchar</filename></entry>
466 <entry><filename class="headerfile">tr1/cwctype</filename></entry>
474 <para>Decimal floating-point arithmetic is available if the C++
475 compiler supports scalar decimal floating-point types defined via
476 <code>__attribute__((mode(SD|DD|LD)))</code>.
479 <table frame="all" xml:id="table.decfp_headers">
480 <title>C++ TR 24733 Decimal Floating-Point Header</title>
482 <tgroup cols="1" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
483 <colspec colname="c1"/>
486 <entry><filename class="headerfile">decimal/decimal</filename></entry>
493 Also included are files for the C++ ABI interface:
496 <table frame="all" xml:id="table.abi_headers">
497 <title>C++ ABI Headers</title>
499 <tgroup cols="2" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
500 <colspec colname="c1"/>
501 <colspec colname="c2"/>
503 <row><entry><filename class="headerfile">cxxabi.h</filename></entry><entry><filename class="headerfile">cxxabi_forced.h</filename></entry></row>
509 And a large variety of extensions.
512 <table frame="all" xml:id="table.ext_headers">
513 <title>Extension Headers</title>
515 <tgroup cols="5" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
516 <colspec colname="c1"/>
517 <colspec colname="c2"/>
518 <colspec colname="c3"/>
519 <colspec colname="c4"/>
520 <colspec colname="c5"/>
524 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/algorithm</filename></entry>
525 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/atomicity.h</filename></entry>
526 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/array_allocator.h</filename></entry>
527 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/bitmap_allocator.h</filename></entry>
528 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/cast.h</filename></entry>
531 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/codecvt_specializations.h</filename></entry>
532 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/concurrence.h</filename></entry>
533 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/debug_allocator.h</filename></entry>
534 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/enc_filebuf.h</filename></entry>
535 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/extptr_allocator.h</filename></entry>
538 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/functional</filename></entry>
539 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/iterator</filename></entry>
540 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/malloc_allocator.h</filename></entry>
541 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/memory</filename></entry>
542 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/mt_allocator.h</filename></entry>
545 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/new_allocator.h</filename></entry>
546 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/numeric</filename></entry>
547 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/numeric_traits.h</filename></entry>
548 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/pb_ds/assoc_container.h</filename></entry>
549 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/pb_ds/priority_queue.h</filename></entry>
552 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/pod_char_traits.h</filename></entry>
553 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/pool_allocator.h</filename></entry>
554 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/rb_tree</filename></entry>
555 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/rope</filename></entry>
556 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/slist</filename></entry>
559 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/stdio_filebuf.h</filename></entry>
560 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/stdio_sync_filebuf.h</filename></entry>
561 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/throw_allocator.h</filename></entry>
562 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/typelist.h</filename></entry>
563 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/type_traits.h</filename></entry>
566 <entry><filename class="headerfile">ext/vstring.h</filename></entry>
575 <table frame="all" xml:id="table.debug_headers">
576 <title>Extension Debug Headers</title>
578 <tgroup cols="5" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
579 <colspec colname="c1"/>
580 <colspec colname="c2"/>
581 <colspec colname="c3"/>
582 <colspec colname="c4"/>
583 <colspec colname="c5"/>
587 <entry><filename class="headerfile">debug/bitset</filename></entry>
588 <entry><filename class="headerfile">debug/deque</filename></entry>
589 <entry><filename class="headerfile">debug/list</filename></entry>
590 <entry><filename class="headerfile">debug/map</filename></entry>
591 <entry><filename class="headerfile">debug/set</filename></entry>
595 <entry><filename class="headerfile">debug/string</filename></entry>
596 <entry><filename class="headerfile">debug/unordered_map</filename></entry>
597 <entry><filename class="headerfile">debug/unordered_set</filename></entry>
598 <entry><filename class="headerfile">debug/vector</filename></entry>
607 <table frame="all" xml:id="table.profile_headers">
608 <title>Extension Profile Headers</title>
610 <tgroup cols="4" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
611 <colspec colname="c1"/>
612 <colspec colname="c2"/>
613 <colspec colname="c3"/>
614 <colspec colname="c4"/>
618 <entry><filename class="headerfile">profile/bitset</filename></entry>
619 <entry><filename class="headerfile">profile/deque</filename></entry>
620 <entry><filename class="headerfile">profile/list</filename></entry>
621 <entry><filename class="headerfile">profile/map</filename></entry>
625 <entry><filename class="headerfile">profile/set</filename></entry>
626 <entry><filename class="headerfile">profile/unordered_map</filename></entry>
627 <entry><filename class="headerfile">profile/unordered_set</filename></entry>
628 <entry><filename class="headerfile">profile/vector</filename></entry>
637 <table frame="all" xml:id="table.parallel_headers">
638 <title>Extension Parallel Headers</title>
640 <tgroup cols="2" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
641 <colspec colname="c1"/>
642 <colspec colname="c2"/>
645 <entry><filename class="headerfile">parallel/algorithm</filename></entry>
646 <entry><filename class="headerfile">parallel/numeric</filename></entry>
654 <section xml:id="manual.intro.using.headers.mixing" xreflabel="Mixing Headers"><info><title>Mixing Headers</title></info>
657 <para> A few simple rules.
660 <para>First, mixing different dialects of the standard headers is not
661 possible. It's an all-or-nothing affair. Thus, code like
665 #include <array>
666 #include <functional>
669 <para>Implies C++11 mode. To use the entities in <array>, the C++11
670 compilation mode must be used, which implies the C++11 functionality
671 (and deprecations) in <functional> will be present.
674 <para>Second, the other headers can be included with either dialect of
675 the standard headers, although features and types specific to C++11
676 are still only enabled when in C++11 compilation mode. So, to use
677 rvalue references with <code>__gnu_cxx::vstring</code>, or to use the
678 debug-mode versions of <code>std::unordered_map</code>, one must use
679 the <code>std=gnu++11</code> compiler flag. (Or <code>std=c++11</code>, of course.)
682 <para>A special case of the second rule is the mixing of TR1 and C++11
683 facilities. It is possible (although not especially prudent) to
684 include both the TR1 version and the C++11 version of header in the
685 same translation unit:
689 #include <tr1/type_traits>
690 #include <type_traits>
693 <para> Several parts of C++11 diverge quite substantially from TR1 predecessors.
697 <section xml:id="manual.intro.using.headers.cheaders" xreflabel="C Headers and"><info><title>The C Headers and <code>namespace std</code></title></info>
701 The standard specifies that if one includes the C-style header
702 (<math.h> in this case), the symbols will be available
703 in the global namespace and perhaps in
704 namespace <code>std::</code> (but this is no longer a firm
705 requirement.) On the other hand, including the C++-style
706 header (<cmath>) guarantees that the entities will be
707 found in namespace std and perhaps in the global namespace.
711 Usage of C++-style headers is recommended, as then
712 C-linkage names can be disambiguated by explicit qualification, such
713 as by <code>std::abort</code>. In addition, the C++-style headers can
714 use function overloading to provide a simpler interface to certain
715 families of C-functions. For instance in <cmath>, the
716 function <code>std::sin</code> has overloads for all the builtin
717 floating-point types. This means that <code>std::sin</code> can be
718 used uniformly, instead of a combination
719 of <code>std::sinf</code>, <code>std::sin</code>,
720 and <code>std::sinl</code>.
724 <section xml:id="manual.intro.using.headers.pre" xreflabel="Precompiled Headers"><info><title>Precompiled Headers</title></info>
728 <para>There are three base header files that are provided. They can be
729 used to precompile the standard headers and extensions into binary
730 files that may then be used to speed up compilations that use these headers.
736 <para>stdc++.h</para>
737 <para>Includes all standard headers. Actual content varies depending on
738 <link linkend="manual.intro.using.flags">language dialect</link>.
743 <para>stdtr1c++.h</para>
744 <para>Includes all of <stdc++.h>, and adds all the TR1 headers.
748 <listitem><para>extc++.h</para>
749 <para>Includes all of <stdc++.h>, and adds all the Extension headers
750 (and in C++98 mode also adds all the TR1 headers by including all of
751 <stdtr1c++.h>).
755 <para>To construct a .gch file from one of these base header files,
756 first find the include directory for the compiler. One way to do
762 #include <...> search starts here:
763 /mnt/share/bld/H-x86-gcc.20071201/include/c++/4.3.0
769 <para>Then, create a precompiled header file with the same flags that
770 will be used to compile other projects.</para>
773 g++ -Winvalid-pch -x c++-header -g -O2 -o ./stdc++.h.gch /mnt/share/bld/H-x86-gcc.20071201/include/c++/4.3.0/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/bits/stdc++.h
776 <para>The resulting file will be quite large: the current size is around
777 thirty megabytes. </para>
779 <para>How to use the resulting file.</para>
782 g++ -I. -include stdc++.h -H -g -O2 hello.cc
785 <para>Verification that the PCH file is being used is easy:</para>
788 g++ -Winvalid-pch -I. -include stdc++.h -H -g -O2 hello.cc -o test.exe
790 . /mnt/share/bld/H-x86-gcc.20071201/include/c++/4.3.0/iostream
791 . /mnt/share/bld/H-x86-gcc.20071201include/c++/4.3.0/string
794 <para>The exclamation point to the left of the <code>stdc++.h.gch</code> listing means that the generated PCH file was used.</para>
797 <para> Detailed information about creating precompiled header files can be found in the GCC <link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Precompiled-Headers.html">documentation</link>.
804 <section xml:id="manual.intro.using.macros" xreflabel="Macros"><info><title>Macros</title></info>
805 <?dbhtml filename="using_macros.html"?>
809 All library macros begin with <code>_GLIBCXX_</code>.
813 Furthermore, all pre-processor macros, switches, and
814 configuration options are gathered in the
815 file <filename class="headerfile">c++config.h</filename>, which
816 is generated during the libstdc++ configuration and build
817 process. This file is then included when needed by files part of
818 the public libstdc++ API, like
819 <filename class="headerfile"><ios></filename>. Most of these
820 macros should not be used by consumers of libstdc++, and are reserved
821 for internal implementation use. <emphasis>These macros cannot
822 be redefined</emphasis>.
826 A select handful of macros control libstdc++ extensions and extra
827 features, or provide versioning information for the API. Only
828 those macros listed below are offered for consideration by the
832 <para>Below are the macros which users may check for library version
837 <term><code>_GLIBCXX_RELEASE</code></term>
839 <para>The major release number for libstdc++. This macro is defined
840 to the GCC major version that the libstdc++ headers belong to,
841 as an integer constant.
842 When compiling with GCC it has the same value as GCC's pre-defined
843 macro <symbol>__GNUC__</symbol>.
844 This macro can be used when libstdc++ is used with a non-GNU
845 compiler where <symbol>__GNUC__</symbol> is not defined, or has a
846 different value that doesn't correspond to the libstdc++ version.
847 This macro first appeared in the GCC 7.1 release and is not defined
848 for GCC 6.x or older releases.
853 <term><code>__GLIBCXX__</code></term>
855 <para>The revision date of the libstdc++ source code,
856 in compressed ISO date format, as an unsigned
857 long. For notes about using this macro and details on the value of
858 this macro for a particular release, please consult the
859 <link linkend="abi.versioning.__GLIBCXX__">ABI History</link>
866 <para>Below are the macros which users may change with #define/#undef or
867 with -D/-U compiler flags. The default state of the symbol is
870 <para><quote>Configurable</quote> (or <quote>Not configurable</quote>) means
871 that the symbol is initially chosen (or not) based on
872 --enable/--disable options at library build and configure time
874 <link linkend="manual.intro.setup.configure">Configure</link>),
875 with the various --enable/--disable choices being translated to
879 <para> <acronym>ABI</acronym> means that changing from the default value may
880 mean changing the <acronym>ABI</acronym> of compiled code. In other words,
881 these choices control code which has already been compiled (i.e., in a
882 binary such as libstdc++.a/.so). If you explicitly #define or
883 #undef these macros, the <emphasis>headers</emphasis> may see different code
884 paths, but the <emphasis>libraries</emphasis> which you link against will not.
885 Experimenting with different values with the expectation of
886 consistent linkage requires changing the config headers before
887 building/installing the library.
891 <varlistentry><term><code>_GLIBCXX_USE_DEPRECATED</code></term>
894 Defined by default. Not configurable. ABI-changing. Turning this off
895 removes older ARM-style iostreams code, and other anachronisms
896 from the API. This macro is dependent on the version of the
897 standard being tracked, and as a result may give different results for
898 <code>-std=c++98</code> and <code>-std=c++11</code>. This may
899 be useful in updating old C++ code which no longer meet the
900 requirements of the language, or for checking current code
901 against new language standards.
903 </listitem></varlistentry>
905 <varlistentry><term><code>_GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI</code></term>
908 Defined to the value <literal>1</literal> by default.
909 Configurable via <code>--disable-libstdcxx-dual-abi</code>
910 and/or <code>--with-default-libstdcxx-abi</code>.
912 When defined to a non-zero value the library headers will use the
913 new C++11-conforming ABI introduced in GCC 5, rather than the older
914 ABI introduced in GCC 3.4. This changes the definition of several
915 class templates, including <classname>std:string</classname>,
916 <classname>std::list</classname> and some locale facets.
917 For more details see <xref linkend="manual.intro.using.abi"/>.
919 </listitem></varlistentry>
921 <varlistentry><term><code>_GLIBCXX_CONCEPT_CHECKS</code></term>
924 Undefined by default. Configurable via
925 <code>--enable-concept-checks</code>. When defined, performs
926 compile-time checking on certain template instantiations to
927 detect violations of the requirements of the standard. This
928 macro has no effect for freestanding implementations.
929 This is described in more detail in
930 <link linkend="manual.ext.compile_checks">Compile Time Checks</link>.
932 </listitem></varlistentry>
934 <varlistentry><term><code>_GLIBCXX_ASSERTIONS</code></term>
937 Undefined by default. When defined, enables extra error checking in
938 the form of precondition assertions, such as bounds checking in
939 strings and null pointer checks when dereferencing smart pointers.
941 </listitem></varlistentry>
942 <varlistentry><term><code>_GLIBCXX_DEBUG</code></term>
945 Undefined by default. When defined, compiles user code using
946 the <link linkend="manual.ext.debug_mode">debug mode</link>.
947 When defined, <code>_GLIBCXX_ASSERTIONS</code> is defined
948 automatically, so all the assertions enabled by that macro are also
949 enabled in debug mode.
951 </listitem></varlistentry>
952 <varlistentry><term><code>_GLIBCXX_DEBUG_PEDANTIC</code></term>
955 Undefined by default. When defined while compiling with
956 the <link linkend="manual.ext.debug_mode">debug mode</link>, makes
957 the debug mode extremely picky by making the use of libstdc++
958 extensions and libstdc++-specific behavior into errors.
960 </listitem></varlistentry>
961 <varlistentry><term><code>_GLIBCXX_PARALLEL</code></term>
963 <para>Undefined by default. When defined, compiles user code
964 using the <link linkend="manual.ext.parallel_mode">parallel
967 </listitem></varlistentry>
968 <varlistentry><term><code>_GLIBCXX_PARALLEL_ASSERTIONS</code></term>
970 <para>Undefined by default, but when any parallel mode header is included
971 this macro will be defined to a non-zero value if
972 <code>_GLIBCXX_ASSERTIONS</code> has a non-zero value, otherwise to zero.
973 When defined to a non-zero value, it enables extra error checking and
974 assertions in the parallel mode.
976 </listitem></varlistentry>
978 <varlistentry><term><code>_GLIBCXX_PROFILE</code></term>
980 <para>Undefined by default. When defined, compiles user code
981 using the <link linkend="manual.ext.profile_mode">profile
984 </listitem></varlistentry>
986 <varlistentry><term><code>__STDCPP_WANT_MATH_SPEC_FUNCS__</code></term>
988 <para>Undefined by default. When defined to a non-zero integer constant,
989 enables support for ISO/IEC 29124 Special Math Functions.
991 </listitem></varlistentry>
993 <varlistentry><term><code>_GLIBCXX_SANITIZE_VECTOR</code></term>
996 Undefined by default. When defined, <classname>std::vector</classname>
997 operations will be annotated so that AddressSanitizer can detect
998 invalid accesses to the unused capacity of a
999 <classname>std::vector</classname>. These annotations are only
1001 <classname>std::vector<T, std::allocator<T>></classname>
1002 and only when <classname>std::allocator</classname> is derived from
1003 <xref linkend="allocator.impl"><classname>new_allocator</classname>
1004 or <classname>malloc_allocator</classname></xref>. The annotations
1005 must be present on all vector operations or none, so this macro must
1006 be defined to the same value for all translation units that create,
1007 destroy or modify vectors.
1009 </listitem></varlistentry>
1014 <section xml:id="manual.intro.using.abi" xreflabel="Dual ABI">
1015 <info><title>Dual ABI</title></info>
1016 <?dbhtml filename="using_dual_abi.html"?>
1018 <para> In the GCC 5.1 release libstdc++ introduced a new library ABI that
1019 includes new implementations of <classname>std::string</classname> and
1020 <classname>std::list</classname>. These changes were necessary to conform
1021 to the 2011 C++ standard which forbids Copy-On-Write strings and requires
1022 lists to keep track of their size.
1025 <para> In order to maintain backwards compatibility for existing code linked
1026 to libstdc++ the library's soname has not changed and the old
1027 implementations are still supported in parallel with the new ones.
1028 This is achieved by defining the new implementations in an inline namespace
1029 so they have different names for linkage purposes, e.g. the new version of
1030 <classname>std::list<int></classname> is actually defined as
1031 <classname>std::__cxx11::list<int></classname>. Because the symbols
1032 for the new implementations have different names the definitions for both
1033 versions can be present in the same library.
1036 <para> The <symbol>_GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI</symbol> macro (see
1037 <xref linkend="manual.intro.using.macros"/>) controls whether
1038 the declarations in the library headers use the old or new ABI.
1039 So the decision of which ABI to use can be made separately for each
1040 source file being compiled.
1041 Using the default configuration options for GCC the default value
1042 of the macro is <literal>1</literal> which causes the new ABI to be active,
1043 so to use the old ABI you must explicitly define the macro to
1044 <literal>0</literal> before including any library headers.
1045 (Be aware that some GNU/Linux distributions configure GCC 5 differently so
1046 that the default value of the macro is <literal>0</literal> and users must
1047 define it to <literal>1</literal> to enable the new ABI.)
1050 <para> Although the changes were made for C++11 conformance, the choice of ABI
1051 to use is independent of the <option>-std</option> option used to compile
1052 your code, i.e. for a given GCC build the default value of the
1053 <symbol>_GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI</symbol> macro is the same for all dialects.
1054 This ensures that the <option>-std</option> does not change the ABI, so
1055 that it is straightforward to link C++03 and C++11 code together.
1058 <para> Because <classname>std::string</classname> is used extensively
1059 throughout the library a number of other types are also defined twice,
1060 including the stringstream classes and several facets used by
1061 <classname>std::locale</classname>. The standard facets which are always
1062 installed in a locale may be present twice, with both ABIs, to ensure that
1064 <code>std::use_facet<std::time_get<char>>(locale);</code>
1065 will work correctly for both <classname>std::time_get</classname> and
1066 <classname>std::__cxx11::time_get</classname> (even if a user-defined
1067 facet that derives from one or other version of
1068 <classname>time_get</classname> is installed in the locale).
1071 <para> Although the standard exception types defined in
1072 <filename class="headerfile"><stdexcept></filename> use strings, they
1073 are not defined twice, so that a <classname>std::out_of_range</classname>
1074 exception thrown in one file can always be caught by a suitable handler in
1075 another file, even if the two files are compiled with different ABIs.
1078 <section xml:id="manual.intro.using.abi.trouble" xreflabel="Dual ABI Troubleshooting"><info><title>Troubleshooting</title></info>
1080 <para> If you get linker errors about undefined references to symbols
1081 that involve types in the <code>std::__cxx11</code> namespace or the tag
1082 <code>[abi:cxx11]</code> then it probably indicates that you are trying to
1083 link together object files that were compiled with different values for the
1084 <symbol>_GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI</symbol> macro. This commonly happens when
1085 linking to a third-party library that was compiled with an older version
1086 of GCC. If the third-party library cannot be rebuilt with the new ABI then
1087 you will need to recompile your code with the old ABI.
1090 <para> Not all uses of the new ABI will cause changes in symbol names, for
1091 example a class with a <classname>std::string</classname> member variable
1092 will have the same mangled name whether compiled with the old or new ABI.
1093 In order to detect such problems the new types and functions are
1094 annotated with the <property>abi_tag</property> attribute, allowing the
1095 compiler to warn about potential ABI incompatibilities in code using them.
1096 Those warnings can be enabled with the <option>-Wabi-tag</option> option.
1102 <section xml:id="manual.intro.using.namespaces" xreflabel="Namespaces"><info><title>Namespaces</title></info>
1103 <?dbhtml filename="using_namespaces.html"?>
1106 <section xml:id="manual.intro.using.namespaces.all" xreflabel="Available Namespaces"><info><title>Available Namespaces</title></info>
1111 <para> There are three main namespaces.
1115 <listitem><para>std</para>
1116 <para>The ISO C++ standards specify that "all library entities are defined
1117 within namespace std." This includes namespaces nested
1118 within namespace <code>std</code>, such as namespace
1119 <code>std::chrono</code>.
1122 <listitem><para>abi</para>
1123 <para>Specified by the C++ ABI. This ABI specifies a number of type and
1124 function APIs supplemental to those required by the ISO C++ Standard,
1125 but necessary for interoperability.
1129 <listitem><para>__gnu_</para>
1130 <para>Indicating one of several GNU extensions. Choices
1131 include <code>__gnu_cxx</code>, <code>__gnu_debug</code>, <code>__gnu_parallel</code>,
1132 and <code>__gnu_pbds</code>.
1136 <para> The library uses a number of inline namespaces as implementation
1137 details that are not intended for users to refer to directly, these include
1138 <code>std::__detail</code>, <code>std::__cxx11</code> and <code>std::_V2</code>.
1141 <para> A complete list of implementation namespaces (including namespace contents) is available in the generated source <link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/libstdc++/latest-doxygen/namespaces.html">documentation</link>.
1147 <section xml:id="manual.intro.using.namespaces.std" xreflabel="namespace std"><info><title>namespace std</title></info>
1152 One standard requirement is that the library components are defined
1153 in <code>namespace std::</code>. Thus, in order to use these types or
1154 functions, one must do one of two things:
1158 <listitem><para>put a kind of <emphasis>using-declaration</emphasis> in your source
1159 (either <code>using namespace std;</code> or i.e. <code>using
1160 std::string;</code>) This approach works well for individual source files, but
1161 should not be used in a global context, like header files.
1162 </para></listitem> <listitem><para>use a <emphasis>fully
1163 qualified name</emphasis> for each library symbol
1164 (i.e. <code>std::string</code>, <code>std::cout</code>) Always can be
1165 used, and usually enhanced, by strategic use of typedefs. (In the
1166 cases where the qualified verbiage becomes unwieldy.)
1173 <section xml:id="manual.intro.using.namespaces.comp" xreflabel="Using Namespace Composition"><info><title>Using Namespace Composition</title></info>
1177 Best practice in programming suggests sequestering new data or
1178 functionality in a sanely-named, unique namespace whenever
1179 possible. This is considered an advantage over dumping everything in
1180 the global namespace, as then name look-up can be explicitly enabled or
1181 disabled as above, symbols are consistently mangled without repetitive
1182 naming prefixes or macros, etc.
1185 <para>For instance, consider a project that defines most of its classes in <code>namespace gtk</code>. It is possible to
1186 adapt <code>namespace gtk</code> to <code>namespace std</code> by using a C++-feature called
1187 <emphasis>namespace composition</emphasis>. This is what happens if
1188 a <emphasis>using</emphasis>-declaration is put into a
1189 namespace-definition: the imported symbol(s) gets imported into the
1190 currently active namespace(s). For example:
1196 using std::tr1::array;
1198 class Window { ... };
1202 In this example, <code>std::string</code> gets imported into
1203 <code>namespace gtk</code>. The result is that use of
1204 <code>std::string</code> inside namespace gtk can just use <code>string</code>, without the explicit qualification.
1206 <code>std::string</code> does not get imported into
1207 the global namespace. Additionally, a more elaborate arrangement can be made for backwards compatibility and portability, whereby the
1208 <code>using</code>-declarations can wrapped in macros that
1209 are set based on autoconf-tests to either "" or i.e. <code>using
1210 std::string;</code> (depending on whether the system has
1211 libstdc++ in <code>std::</code> or not). (ideas from
1212 Llewelly and Karl Nelson)
1219 <section xml:id="manual.intro.using.linkage" xreflabel="Linkage"><info><title>Linking</title></info>
1220 <?dbhtml filename="using_dynamic_or_shared.html"?>
1223 <section xml:id="manual.intro.using.linkage.freestanding" xreflabel="Freestanding"><info><title>Almost Nothing</title></info>
1226 Or as close as it gets: freestanding. This is a minimal
1227 configuration, with only partial support for the standard
1228 library. Assume only the following header files can be used:
1234 <filename class="headerfile">cstdarg</filename>
1240 <filename class="headerfile">cstddef</filename>
1246 <filename class="headerfile">cstdlib</filename>
1252 <filename class="headerfile">exception</filename>
1258 <filename class="headerfile">limits</filename>
1264 <filename class="headerfile">new</filename>
1270 <filename class="headerfile">exception</filename>
1276 <filename class="headerfile">typeinfo</filename>
1282 In addition, throw in
1288 <filename class="headerfile">cxxabi.h</filename>.
1295 C++11 <link linkend="manual.intro.using.flags">dialect</link> add
1301 <filename class="headerfile">initializer_list</filename>
1306 <filename class="headerfile">type_traits</filename>
1311 <para> There exists a library that offers runtime support for
1312 just these headers, and it is called
1313 <filename class="libraryfile">libsupc++.a</filename>. To use it, compile with <command>gcc</command> instead of <command>g++</command>, like so:
1317 <command>gcc foo.cc -lsupc++</command>
1321 No attempt is made to verify that only the minimal subset
1322 identified above is actually used at compile time. Violations
1323 are diagnosed as undefined symbols at link time.
1327 <section xml:id="manual.intro.using.linkage.dynamic" xreflabel="Dynamic and Shared"><info><title>Finding Dynamic or Shared Libraries</title></info>
1331 If the only library built is the static library
1332 (<filename class="libraryfile">libstdc++.a</filename>), or if
1333 specifying static linking, this section is can be skipped. But
1334 if building or using a shared library
1335 (<filename class="libraryfile">libstdc++.so</filename>), then
1336 additional location information will need to be provided.
1342 A quick read of the relevant part of the GCC
1343 manual, <link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Invoking-G_002b_002b.html#Invoking-G_002b_002b">Compiling
1344 C++ Programs</link>, specifies linking against a C++
1345 library. More details from the
1346 GCC <link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="http://gcc.gnu.org/faq.html#rpath">FAQ</link>,
1347 which states <emphasis>GCC does not, by default, specify a
1348 location so that the dynamic linker can find dynamic libraries at
1352 Users will have to provide this information.
1355 Methods vary for different platforms and different styles, and
1356 are printed to the screen during installation. To summarize:
1361 At runtime set <literal>LD_LIBRARY_PATH</literal> in your
1362 environment correctly, so that the shared library for
1363 libstdc++ can be found and loaded. Be certain that you
1364 understand all of the other implications and behavior
1365 of <literal>LD_LIBRARY_PATH</literal> first.
1371 Compile the path to find the library at runtime into the
1372 program. This can be done by passing certain options to
1373 <command>g++</command>, which will in turn pass them on to
1374 the linker. The exact format of the options is dependent on
1375 which linker you use:
1380 GNU ld (default on GNU/Linux):
1381 <literal>-Wl,-rpath,</literal><filename class="directory">destdir/lib</filename>
1387 <literal>-Wl,-R</literal><filename class="directory">destdir/lib</filename>
1394 Some linkers allow you to specify the path to the library by
1395 setting <literal>LD_RUN_PATH</literal> in your environment
1401 On some platforms the system administrator can configure the
1402 dynamic linker to always look for libraries in
1403 <filename class="directory">destdir/lib</filename>, for example
1404 by using the <command>ldconfig</command> utility on GNU/Linux
1405 or the <command>crle</command> utility on Solaris. This is a
1406 system-wide change which can make the system unusable so if you
1407 are unsure then use one of the other methods described above.
1412 Use the <command>ldd</command> utility on the linked executable
1414 which <filename class="libraryfile">libstdc++.so</filename>
1415 library the system will get at runtime.
1418 A <filename class="libraryfile">libstdc++.la</filename> file is
1419 also installed, for use with Libtool. If you use Libtool to
1420 create your executables, these details are taken care of for
1425 <section xml:id="manual.intro.using.linkage.experimental" xreflabel="Library Extensions"><info><title>Experimental Library Extensions</title></info>
1428 GCC 5.3 includes an implementation of the Filesystem library defined
1429 by the technical specification ISO/IEC TS 18822:2015. Because this is
1430 an experimental library extension, not part of the C++ standard, it
1431 is implemented in a separate library,
1432 <filename class="libraryfile">libstdc++fs.a</filename>, and there is
1433 no shared library for it. To use the library you should include
1434 <filename class="headerfile"><experimental/filesystem></filename>
1435 and link with <option>-lstdc++fs</option>. The library implementation
1436 is incomplete on non-POSIX platforms, specifically Windows support is
1441 Due to the experimental nature of the Filesystem library the usual
1442 guarantees about ABI stability and backwards compatibility do not apply
1443 to it. There is no guarantee that the components in any
1444 <filename class="headerfile"><experimental/xxx></filename>
1445 header will remain compatible between different GCC releases.
1450 <section xml:id="manual.intro.using.concurrency" xreflabel="Concurrency"><info><title>Concurrency</title></info>
1451 <?dbhtml filename="using_concurrency.html"?>
1454 <para>This section discusses issues surrounding the proper compilation
1455 of multithreaded applications which use the Standard C++
1456 library. This information is GCC-specific since the C++
1457 standard does not address matters of multithreaded applications.
1460 <section xml:id="manual.intro.using.concurrency.prereq" xreflabel="Thread Prereq"><info><title>Prerequisites</title></info>
1463 <para>All normal disclaimers aside, multithreaded C++ application are
1464 only supported when libstdc++ and all user code was built with
1465 compilers which report (via <code> gcc/g++ -v </code>) the same thread
1466 model and that model is not <emphasis>single</emphasis>. As long as your
1467 final application is actually single-threaded, then it should be
1468 safe to mix user code built with a thread model of
1469 <emphasis>single</emphasis> with a libstdc++ and other C++ libraries built
1470 with another thread model useful on the platform. Other mixes
1471 may or may not work but are not considered supported. (Thus, if
1472 you distribute a shared C++ library in binary form only, it may
1473 be best to compile it with a GCC configured with
1474 --enable-threads for maximal interchangeability and usefulness
1475 with a user population that may have built GCC with either
1476 --enable-threads or --disable-threads.)
1478 <para>When you link a multithreaded application, you will probably
1479 need to add a library or flag to g++. This is a very
1480 non-standardized area of GCC across ports. Some ports support a
1481 special flag (the spelling isn't even standardized yet) to add
1482 all required macros to a compilation (if any such flags are
1483 required then you must provide the flag for all compilations not
1484 just linking) and link-library additions and/or replacements at
1485 link time. The documentation is weak. On several targets (including
1486 GNU/Linux, Solaris and various BSDs) -pthread is honored.
1487 Some other ports use other switches.
1488 This is not well documented anywhere other than
1489 in "gcc -dumpspecs" (look at the 'lib' and 'cpp' entries).
1493 Some uses of <classname>std::atomic</classname> also require linking
1494 to <filename class="libraryfile">libatomic</filename>.
1499 <section xml:id="manual.intro.using.concurrency.thread_safety" xreflabel="Thread Safety"><info><title>Thread Safety</title></info>
1503 In the terms of the 2011 C++ standard a thread-safe program is one which
1504 does not perform any conflicting non-atomic operations on memory locations
1505 and so does not contain any data races.
1506 The standard places requirements on the library to ensure that no data
1507 races are caused by the library itself or by programs which use the
1508 library correctly (as described below).
1509 The C++11 memory model and library requirements are a more formal version
1510 of the <link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/thread_safety.html">SGI STL</link> definition of thread safety, which the library used
1511 prior to the 2011 standard.
1515 <para>The library strives to be thread-safe when all of the following
1520 <para>The system's libc is itself thread-safe,
1525 The compiler in use reports a thread model other than
1526 'single'. This can be tested via output from <code>gcc
1527 -v</code>. Multi-thread capable versions of gcc output
1528 something like this:
1532 Using built-in specs.
1535 gcc version 4.1.2 20070925 (Red Hat 4.1.2-33)
1538 <para>Look for "Thread model" lines that aren't equal to "single."</para>
1542 Requisite command-line flags are used for atomic operations
1543 and threading. Examples of this include <code>-pthread</code>
1544 and <code>-march=native</code>, although specifics vary
1545 depending on the host environment. See
1546 <link linkend="manual.intro.using.flags">Command Options</link> and
1547 <link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Option-Summary.html">Machine
1548 Dependent Options</link>.
1553 An implementation of the
1554 <filename class="headerfile">atomicity.h</filename> functions
1555 exists for the architecture in question. See the
1556 <link linkend="internals.thread_safety">internals
1557 documentation</link> for more details.
1563 <para>The user code must guard against concurrent function calls which
1564 access any particular library object's state when one or more of
1565 those accesses modifies the state. An object will be modified by
1566 invoking a non-const member function on it or passing it as a
1567 non-const argument to a library function. An object will not be
1568 modified by invoking a const member function on it or passing it to
1569 a function as a pointer- or reference-to-const.
1570 Typically, the application
1571 programmer may infer what object locks must be held based on the
1572 objects referenced in a function call and whether the objects are
1573 accessed as const or non-const. Without getting
1574 into great detail, here is an example which requires user-level
1578 library_class_a shared_object_a;
1580 void thread_main () {
1581 library_class_b *object_b = new library_class_b;
1582 shared_object_a.add_b (object_b); // must hold lock for shared_object_a
1583 shared_object_a.mutate (); // must hold lock for shared_object_a
1586 // Multiple copies of thread_main() are started in independent threads.</programlisting>
1587 <para>Under the assumption that object_a and object_b are never exposed to
1588 another thread, here is an example that does not require any
1592 void thread_main () {
1593 library_class_a object_a;
1594 library_class_b *object_b = new library_class_b;
1595 object_a.add_b (object_b);
1599 <para>All library types are safe to use in a multithreaded program
1600 if objects are not shared between threads or as
1601 long each thread carefully locks out access by any other
1602 thread while it modifies any object visible to another thread.
1603 Unless otherwise documented, the only exceptions to these rules
1604 are atomic operations on the types in
1605 <filename class="headerfile"><atomic></filename>
1606 and lock/unlock operations on the standard mutex types in
1607 <filename class="headerfile"><mutex></filename>. These
1608 atomic operations allow concurrent accesses to the same object
1609 without introducing data races.
1612 <para>The following member functions of standard containers can be
1613 considered to be const for the purposes of avoiding data races:
1614 <code>begin</code>, <code>end</code>, <code>rbegin</code>, <code>rend</code>,
1615 <code>front</code>, <code>back</code>, <code>data</code>,
1616 <code>find</code>, <code>lower_bound</code>, <code>upper_bound</code>,
1617 <code>equal_range</code>, <code>at</code>
1618 and, except in associative or unordered associative containers,
1619 <code>operator[]</code>. In other words, although they are non-const
1620 so that they can return mutable iterators, those member functions
1621 will not modify the container.
1622 Accessing an iterator might cause a non-modifying access to
1623 the container the iterator refers to (for example incrementing a
1624 list iterator must access the pointers between nodes, which are part
1625 of the container and so conflict with other accesses to the container).
1628 <para>Programs which follow the rules above will not encounter data
1629 races in library code, even when using library types which share
1630 state between distinct objects. In the example below the
1631 <code>shared_ptr</code> objects share a reference count, but
1632 because the code does not perform any non-const operations on the
1633 globally-visible object, the library ensures that the reference
1634 count updates are atomic and do not introduce data races:
1637 std::shared_ptr<int> global_sp;
1639 void thread_main() {
1640 auto local_sp = global_sp; // OK, copy constructor's parameter is reference-to-const
1642 int i = *global_sp; // OK, operator* is const
1643 int j = *local_sp; // OK, does not operate on global_sp
1645 // *global_sp = 2; // NOT OK, modifies int visible to other threads
1646 // *local_sp = 2; // NOT OK, modifies int visible to other threads
1648 // global_sp.reset(); // NOT OK, reset is non-const
1649 local_sp.reset(); // OK, does not operate on global_sp
1653 global_sp.reset(new int(1));
1654 std::thread t1(thread_main);
1655 std::thread t2(thread_main);
1661 <para>For further details of the C++11 memory model see Hans-J. Boehm's
1662 <link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="https://www.hboehm.info/c++mm/">Threads
1663 and memory model for C++</link> pages, particularly the <link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="http://www.hboehm.info/c++mm/threadsintro.html">introduction</link>
1664 and <link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="https://www.hboehm.info/c++mm/user-faq.html">FAQ</link>.
1668 <section xml:id="manual.intro.using.concurrency.atomics" xreflabel="Atomics"><info><title>Atomics</title></info>
1674 <section xml:id="manual.intro.using.concurrency.io" xreflabel="IO"><info><title>IO</title></info>
1676 <para>This gets a bit tricky. Please read carefully, and bear with me.
1679 <section xml:id="concurrency.io.structure" xreflabel="Structure"><info><title>Structure</title></info>
1682 type called <code>__basic_file</code> provides our abstraction layer
1683 for the <code>std::filebuf</code> classes. Nearly all decisions dealing
1684 with actual input and output must be made in <code>__basic_file</code>.
1686 <para>A generic locking mechanism is somewhat in place at the filebuf layer,
1687 but is not used in the current code. Providing locking at any higher
1688 level is akin to providing locking within containers, and is not done
1689 for the same reasons (see the links above).
1693 <section xml:id="concurrency.io.defaults" xreflabel="Defaults"><info><title>Defaults</title></info>
1695 <para>The __basic_file type is simply a collection of small wrappers around
1696 the C stdio layer (again, see the link under Structure). We do no
1697 locking ourselves, but simply pass through to calls to <code>fopen</code>,
1698 <code>fwrite</code>, and so forth.
1700 <para>So, for 3.0, the question of "is multithreading safe for I/O"
1701 must be answered with, "is your platform's C library threadsafe
1702 for I/O?" Some are by default, some are not; many offer multiple
1703 implementations of the C library with varying tradeoffs of threadsafety
1704 and efficiency. You, the programmer, are always required to take care
1705 with multiple threads.
1707 <para>(As an example, the POSIX standard requires that C stdio
1708 <code>FILE*</code> operations are atomic. POSIX-conforming C libraries
1709 (e.g, on Solaris and GNU/Linux) have an internal mutex to serialize
1710 operations on <code>FILE*</code>s.
1711 However, you still need to not do stupid things like calling
1712 <code>fclose(fs)</code> in one thread followed by an access of
1713 <code>fs</code> in another.)
1715 <para>So, if your platform's C library is threadsafe, then your
1716 <code>fstream</code> I/O operations will be threadsafe at the lowest
1717 level. For higher-level operations, such as manipulating the data
1718 contained in the stream formatting classes (e.g., setting up callbacks
1719 inside an <code>std::ofstream</code>), you need to guard such accesses
1720 like any other critical shared resource.
1724 <section xml:id="concurrency.io.future" xreflabel="Future"><info><title>Future</title></info>
1727 second choice may be available for I/O implementations: libio. This is
1728 disabled by default, and in fact will not currently work due to other
1729 issues. It will be revisited, however.
1731 <para>The libio code is a subset of the guts of the GNU libc (glibc) I/O
1732 implementation. When libio is in use, the <code>__basic_file</code>
1733 type is basically derived from FILE. (The real situation is more
1734 complex than that... it's derived from an internal type used to
1735 implement FILE. See libio/libioP.h to see scary things done with
1736 vtbls.) The result is that there is no "layer" of C stdio
1737 to go through; the filebuf makes calls directly into the same
1738 functions used to implement <code>fread</code>, <code>fwrite</code>,
1739 and so forth, using internal data structures. (And when I say
1740 "makes calls directly," I mean the function is literally
1741 replaced by a jump into an internal function. Fast but frightening.
1744 <para>Also, the libio internal locks are used. This requires pulling in
1745 large chunks of glibc, such as a pthreads implementation, and is one
1746 of the issues preventing widespread use of libio as the libstdc++
1747 cstdio implementation.
1749 <para>But we plan to make this work, at least as an option if not a future
1750 default. Platforms running a copy of glibc with a recent-enough
1751 version will see calls from libstdc++ directly into the glibc already
1752 installed. For other platforms, a copy of the libio subsection will
1753 be built and included in libstdc++.
1757 <section xml:id="concurrency.io.alt" xreflabel="Alt"><info><title>Alternatives</title></info>
1759 <para>Don't forget that other cstdio implementations are possible. You could
1760 easily write one to perform your own forms of locking, to solve your
1761 "interesting" problems.
1767 <section xml:id="manual.intro.using.concurrency.containers" xreflabel="Containers"><info><title>Containers</title></info>
1770 <para>This section discusses issues surrounding the design of
1771 multithreaded applications which use Standard C++ containers.
1772 All information in this section is current as of the gcc 3.0
1773 release and all later point releases. Although earlier gcc
1774 releases had a different approach to threading configuration and
1775 proper compilation, the basic code design rules presented here
1776 were similar. For information on all other aspects of
1777 multithreading as it relates to libstdc++, including details on
1778 the proper compilation of threaded code (and compatibility between
1779 threaded and non-threaded code), see Chapter 17.
1781 <para>Two excellent pages to read when working with the Standard C++
1782 containers and threads are
1783 <link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/thread_safety.html">SGI's
1784 http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/thread_safety.html</link> and
1785 <link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/Allocators.html">SGI's
1786 http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/Allocators.html</link>.
1788 <para><emphasis>However, please ignore all discussions about the user-level
1789 configuration of the lock implementation inside the STL
1790 container-memory allocator on those pages. For the sake of this
1791 discussion, libstdc++ configures the SGI STL implementation,
1792 not you. This is quite different from how gcc pre-3.0 worked.
1793 In particular, past advice was for people using g++ to
1794 explicitly define _PTHREADS or other macros or port-specific
1795 compilation options on the command line to get a thread-safe
1796 STL. This is no longer required for any port and should no
1797 longer be done unless you really know what you are doing and
1798 assume all responsibility.</emphasis>
1800 <para>Since the container implementation of libstdc++ uses the SGI
1801 code, we use the same definition of thread safety as SGI when
1802 discussing design. A key point that beginners may miss is the
1803 fourth major paragraph of the first page mentioned above
1804 (<emphasis>For most clients...</emphasis>), which points out that
1805 locking must nearly always be done outside the container, by
1806 client code (that'd be you, not us). There is a notable
1807 exceptions to this rule. Allocators called while a container or
1808 element is constructed uses an internal lock obtained and
1809 released solely within libstdc++ code (in fact, this is the
1810 reason STL requires any knowledge of the thread configuration).
1812 <para>For implementing a container which does its own locking, it is
1813 trivial to provide a wrapper class which obtains the lock (as
1814 SGI suggests), performs the container operation, and then
1815 releases the lock. This could be templatized <emphasis>to a certain
1816 extent</emphasis>, on the underlying container and/or a locking
1817 mechanism. Trying to provide a catch-all general template
1818 solution would probably be more trouble than it's worth.
1820 <para>The library implementation may be configured to use the
1821 high-speed caching memory allocator, which complicates thread
1822 safety issues. For all details about how to globally override
1823 this at application run-time
1824 see <link linkend="manual.intro.using.macros">here</link>. Also
1826 on <link linkend="std.util.memory.allocator">allocator</link>
1827 options and capabilities.
1833 <!-- Section 0x : Exception policies, expectations, topics -->
1834 <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" parse="xml" href="using_exceptions.xml">
1837 <!-- Section 0x : Debug -->
1838 <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" parse="xml" href="debug.xml">