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2 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>Design</title><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL-NS Stylesheets V1.78.1" /><meta name="keywords" content="C++, library, debug" /><meta name="keywords" content="ISO C++, library" /><meta name="keywords" content="ISO C++, runtime, library" /><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The GNU C++ Library" /><link rel="up" href="debug_mode.html" title="Chapter 17. Debug Mode" /><link rel="prev" href="debug_mode_using.html" title="Using" /><link rel="next" href="parallel_mode.html" title="Chapter 18. Parallel Mode" /></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">Design</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="debug_mode_using.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">Chapter 17. Debug Mode</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="parallel_mode.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr /></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="manual.ext.debug_mode.design"></a>Design</h2></div></div></div><p>
3 </p><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a id="debug_mode.design.goals"></a>Goals</h3></div></div></div><p>
4 </p><p> The libstdc++ debug mode replaces unsafe (but efficient) standard
5 containers and iterators with semantically equivalent safe standard
6 containers and iterators to aid in debugging user programs. The
7 following goals directed the design of the libstdc++ debug mode:</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><p><span class="emphasis"><em>Correctness</em></span>: the libstdc++ debug mode must not change
8 the semantics of the standard library for all cases specified in
9 the ANSI/ISO C++ standard. The essence of this constraint is that
10 any valid C++ program should behave in the same manner regardless
11 of whether it is compiled with debug mode or release mode. In
12 particular, entities that are defined in namespace std in release
13 mode should remain defined in namespace std in debug mode, so that
14 legal specializations of namespace std entities will remain
15 valid. A program that is not valid C++ (e.g., invokes undefined
16 behavior) is not required to behave similarly, although the debug
17 mode will abort with a diagnostic when it detects undefined
18 behavior.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><span class="emphasis"><em>Performance</em></span>: the additional of the libstdc++ debug mode
19 must not affect the performance of the library when it is compiled
20 in release mode. Performance of the libstdc++ debug mode is
21 secondary (and, in fact, will be worse than the release
22 mode).</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><span class="emphasis"><em>Usability</em></span>: the libstdc++ debug mode should be easy to
23 use. It should be easily incorporated into the user's development
24 environment (e.g., by requiring only a single new compiler switch)
25 and should produce reasonable diagnostics when it detects a
26 problem with the user program. Usability also involves detection
27 of errors when using the debug mode incorrectly, e.g., by linking
28 a release-compiled object against a debug-compiled object if in
29 fact the resulting program will not run correctly.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><span class="emphasis"><em>Minimize recompilation</em></span>: While it is expected that
30 users recompile at least part of their program to use debug
31 mode, the amount of recompilation affects the
32 detect-compile-debug turnaround time. This indirectly affects the
33 usefulness of the debug mode, because debugging some applications
34 may require rebuilding a large amount of code, which may not be
35 feasible when the suspect code may be very localized. There are
36 several levels of conformance to this requirement, each with its
37 own usability and implementation characteristics. In general, the
38 higher-numbered conformance levels are more usable (i.e., require
39 less recompilation) but are more complicated to implement than
40 the lower-numbered conformance levels.
41 </p><div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist" type="1"><li class="listitem"><p><span class="emphasis"><em>Full recompilation</em></span>: The user must recompile his or
42 her entire application and all C++ libraries it depends on,
43 including the C++ standard library that ships with the
44 compiler. This must be done even if only a small part of the
45 program can use debugging features.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><span class="emphasis"><em>Full user recompilation</em></span>: The user must recompile
46 his or her entire application and all C++ libraries it depends
47 on, but not the C++ standard library itself. This must be done
48 even if only a small part of the program can use debugging
49 features. This can be achieved given a full recompilation
50 system by compiling two versions of the standard library when
51 the compiler is installed and linking against the appropriate
52 one, e.g., a multilibs approach.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><span class="emphasis"><em>Partial recompilation</em></span>: The user must recompile the
53 parts of his or her application and the C++ libraries it
54 depends on that will use the debugging facilities
55 directly. This means that any code that uses the debuggable
56 standard containers would need to be recompiled, but code
57 that does not use them (but may, for instance, use IOStreams)
58 would not have to be recompiled.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><span class="emphasis"><em>Per-use recompilation</em></span>: The user must recompile the
59 parts of his or her application and the C++ libraries it
60 depends on where debugging should occur, and any other code
61 that interacts with those containers. This means that a set of
62 translation units that accesses a particular standard
63 container instance may either be compiled in release mode (no
64 checking) or debug mode (full checking), but must all be
65 compiled in the same way; a translation unit that does not see
66 that standard container instance need not be recompiled. This
67 also means that a translation unit <span class="emphasis"><em>A</em></span> that contains a
68 particular instantiation
69 (say, <code class="code">std::vector&lt;int&gt;</code>) compiled in release
70 mode can be linked against a translation unit <span class="emphasis"><em>B</em></span> that
71 contains the same instantiation compiled in debug mode (a
72 feature not present with partial recompilation). While this
73 behavior is technically a violation of the One Definition
74 Rule, this ability tends to be very important in
75 practice. The libstdc++ debug mode supports this level of
76 recompilation. </p></li><li class="listitem"><p><span class="emphasis"><em>Per-unit recompilation</em></span>: The user must only
77 recompile the translation units where checking should occur,
78 regardless of where debuggable standard containers are
79 used. This has also been dubbed "<code class="code">-g</code> mode",
80 because the <code class="code">-g</code> compiler switch works in this way,
81 emitting debugging information at a per--translation-unit
82 granularity. We believe that this level of recompilation is in
83 fact not possible if we intend to supply safe iterators, leave
84 the program semantics unchanged, and not regress in
85 performance under release mode because we cannot associate
86 extra information with an iterator (to form a safe iterator)
87 without either reserving that space in release mode
88 (performance regression) or allocating extra memory associated
89 with each iterator with <code class="code">new</code> (changes the program
90 semantics).</p></li></ol></div><p>
91 </p></li></ul></div></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a id="debug_mode.design.methods"></a>Methods</h3></div></div></div><p>
92 </p><p>This section provides an overall view of the design of the
93 libstdc++ debug mode and details the relationship between design
94 decisions and the stated design goals.</p><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a id="debug_mode.design.methods.wrappers"></a>The Wrapper Model</h4></div></div></div><p>The libstdc++ debug mode uses a wrapper model where the
95 debugging versions of library components (e.g., iterators and
96 containers) form a layer on top of the release versions of the
97 library components. The debugging components first verify that the
98 operation is correct (aborting with a diagnostic if an error is
99 found) and will then forward to the underlying release-mode
100 container that will perform the actual work. This design decision
101 ensures that we cannot regress release-mode performance (because the
102 release-mode containers are left untouched) and partially
103 enables <a class="link" href="debug_mode_design.html#methods.coexistence.link" title="Link- and run-time coexistence of release- and debug-mode components">mixing debug and
104 release code</a> at link time, although that will not be
105 discussed at this time.</p><p>Two types of wrappers are used in the implementation of the debug
106 mode: container wrappers and iterator wrappers. The two types of
107 wrappers interact to maintain relationships between iterators and
108 their associated containers, which are necessary to detect certain
109 types of standard library usage errors such as dereferencing
110 past-the-end iterators or inserting into a container using an
111 iterator from a different container.</p><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h5 class="title"><a id="debug_mode.design.methods.safe_iter"></a>Safe Iterators</h5></div></div></div><p>Iterator wrappers provide a debugging layer over any iterator that
112 is attached to a particular container, and will manage the
113 information detailing the iterator's state (singular,
114 dereferenceable, etc.) and tracking the container to which the
115 iterator is attached. Because iterators have a well-defined, common
116 interface the iterator wrapper is implemented with the iterator
117 adaptor class template <code class="code">__gnu_debug::_Safe_iterator</code>,
118 which takes two template parameters:</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><p><code class="code">Iterator</code>: The underlying iterator type, which must
119 be either the <code class="code">iterator</code> or <code class="code">const_iterator</code>
120 typedef from the sequence type this iterator can reference.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><code class="code">Sequence</code>: The type of sequence that this iterator
121 references. This sequence must be a safe sequence (discussed below)
122 whose <code class="code">iterator</code> or <code class="code">const_iterator</code> typedef
123 is the type of the safe iterator.</p></li></ul></div></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h5 class="title"><a id="debug_mode.design.methods.safe_seq"></a>Safe Sequences (Containers)</h5></div></div></div><p>Container wrappers provide a debugging layer over a particular
124 container type. Because containers vary greatly in the member
125 functions they support and the semantics of those member functions
126 (especially in the area of iterator invalidation), container
127 wrappers are tailored to the container they reference, e.g., the
128 debugging version of <code class="code">std::list</code> duplicates the entire
129 interface of <code class="code">std::list</code>, adding additional semantic
130 checks and then forwarding operations to the
131 real <code class="code">std::list</code> (a public base class of the debugging
132 version) as appropriate. However, all safe containers inherit from
133 the class template <code class="code">__gnu_debug::_Safe_sequence</code>,
134 instantiated with the type of the safe container itself (an instance
135 of the curiously recurring template pattern).</p><p>The iterators of a container wrapper will be
136 <a class="link" href="debug_mode_design.html#debug_mode.design.methods.safe_iter" title="Safe Iterators">safe
137 iterators</a> that reference sequences of this type and wrap the
138 iterators provided by the release-mode base class. The debugging
139 container will use only the safe iterators within its own interface
140 (therefore requiring the user to use safe iterators, although this
141 does not change correct user code) and will communicate with the
142 release-mode base class with only the underlying, unsafe,
143 release-mode iterators that the base class exports.</p><p> The debugging version of <code class="code">std::list</code> will have the
144 following basic structure:</p><pre class="programlisting">
145 template&lt;typename _Tp, typename _Allocator = allocator&lt;_Tp&gt;
146 class debug-list :
147 public release-list&lt;_Tp, _Allocator&gt;,
148 public __gnu_debug::_Safe_sequence&lt;debug-list&lt;_Tp, _Allocator&gt; &gt;
150 typedef release-list&lt;_Tp, _Allocator&gt; _Base;
151 typedef debug-list&lt;_Tp, _Allocator&gt; _Self;
153 public:
154 typedef __gnu_debug::_Safe_iterator&lt;typename _Base::iterator, _Self&gt; iterator;
155 typedef __gnu_debug::_Safe_iterator&lt;typename _Base::const_iterator, _Self&gt; const_iterator;
157 // duplicate std::list interface with debugging semantics
159 </pre></div></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a id="debug_mode.design.methods.precond"></a>Precondition Checking</h4></div></div></div><p>The debug mode operates primarily by checking the preconditions of
160 all standard library operations that it supports. Preconditions that
161 are always checked (regardless of whether or not we are in debug
162 mode) are checked via the <code class="code">__check_xxx</code> macros defined
163 and documented in the source
164 file <code class="code">include/debug/debug.h</code>. Preconditions that may or
165 may not be checked, depending on the debug-mode
166 macro <code class="code">_GLIBCXX_DEBUG</code>, are checked via
167 the <code class="code">__requires_xxx</code> macros defined and documented in the
168 same source file. Preconditions are validated using any additional
169 information available at run-time, e.g., the containers that are
170 associated with a particular iterator, the position of the iterator
171 within those containers, the distance between two iterators that may
172 form a valid range, etc. In the absence of suitable information,
173 e.g., an input iterator that is not a safe iterator, these
174 precondition checks will silently succeed.</p><p>The majority of precondition checks use the aforementioned macros,
175 which have the secondary benefit of having prewritten debug
176 messages that use information about the current status of the
177 objects involved (e.g., whether an iterator is singular or what
178 sequence it is attached to) along with some static information
179 (e.g., the names of the function parameters corresponding to the
180 objects involved). When not using these macros, the debug mode uses
181 either the debug-mode assertion
182 macro <code class="code">_GLIBCXX_DEBUG_ASSERT</code> , its pedantic
183 cousin <code class="code">_GLIBCXX_DEBUG_PEDASSERT</code>, or the assertion
184 check macro that supports more advance formulation of error
185 messages, <code class="code">_GLIBCXX_DEBUG_VERIFY</code>. These macros are
186 documented more thoroughly in the debug mode source code.</p></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a id="debug_mode.design.methods.coexistence"></a>Release- and debug-mode coexistence</h4></div></div></div><p>The libstdc++ debug mode is the first debug mode we know of that
187 is able to provide the "Per-use recompilation" (4) guarantee, that
188 allows release-compiled and debug-compiled code to be linked and
189 executed together without causing unpredictable behavior. This
190 guarantee minimizes the recompilation that users are required to
191 perform, shortening the detect-compile-debug bug hunting cycle
192 and making the debug mode easier to incorporate into development
193 environments by minimizing dependencies.</p><p>Achieving link- and run-time coexistence is not a trivial
194 implementation task. To achieve this goal we required a small
195 extension to the GNU C++ compiler (since incorporated into the C++11 language specification, described in the GCC Manual for the C++ language as
196 <a class="link" href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Namespace-Association.html#Namespace-Association" target="_top">namespace
197 association</a>), and a complex organization of debug- and
198 release-modes. The end result is that we have achieved per-use
199 recompilation but have had to give up some checking of the
200 <code class="code">std::basic_string</code> class template (namely, safe
201 iterators).
202 </p><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h5 class="title"><a id="methods.coexistence.compile"></a>Compile-time coexistence of release- and debug-mode components</h5></div></div></div><p>Both the release-mode components and the debug-mode
203 components need to exist within a single translation unit so that
204 the debug versions can wrap the release versions. However, only one
205 of these components should be user-visible at any particular
206 time with the standard name, e.g., <code class="code">std::list</code>. </p><p>In release mode, we define only the release-mode version of the
207 component with its standard name and do not include the debugging
208 component at all. The release mode version is defined within the
209 namespace <code class="code">std</code>. Minus the namespace associations, this
210 method leaves the behavior of release mode completely unchanged from
211 its behavior prior to the introduction of the libstdc++ debug
212 mode. Here's an example of what this ends up looking like, in
213 C++.</p><pre class="programlisting">
214 namespace std
216 template&lt;typename _Tp, typename _Alloc = allocator&lt;_Tp&gt; &gt;
217 class list
219 // ...
221 } // namespace std
222 </pre><p>In debug mode we include the release-mode container (which is now
223 defined in the namespace <code class="code">__cxx1998</code>) and also the
224 debug-mode container. The debug-mode container is defined within the
225 namespace <code class="code">__debug</code>, which is associated with namespace
226 <code class="code">std</code> via the C++11 namespace association language feature. This
227 method allows the debug and release versions of the same component to
228 coexist at compile-time and link-time without causing an unreasonable
229 maintenance burden, while minimizing confusion. Again, this boils down
230 to C++ code as follows:</p><pre class="programlisting">
231 namespace std
233 namespace __cxx1998
235 template&lt;typename _Tp, typename _Alloc = allocator&lt;_Tp&gt; &gt;
236 class list
238 // ...
240 } // namespace __gnu_norm
242 namespace __debug
244 template&lt;typename _Tp, typename _Alloc = allocator&lt;_Tp&gt; &gt;
245 class list
246 : public __cxx1998::list&lt;_Tp, _Alloc&gt;,
247 public __gnu_debug::_Safe_sequence&lt;list&lt;_Tp, _Alloc&gt; &gt;
249 // ...
251 } // namespace __cxx1998
253 // namespace __debug __attribute__ ((strong));
254 inline namespace __debug { }
256 </pre></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h5 class="title"><a id="methods.coexistence.link"></a>Link- and run-time coexistence of release- and
257 debug-mode components</h5></div></div></div><p>Because each component has a distinct and separate release and
258 debug implementation, there is no issue with link-time
259 coexistence: the separate namespaces result in different mangled
260 names, and thus unique linkage.</p><p>However, components that are defined and used within the C++
261 standard library itself face additional constraints. For instance,
262 some of the member functions of <code class="code"> std::moneypunct</code> return
263 <code class="code">std::basic_string</code>. Normally, this is not a problem, but
264 with a mixed mode standard library that could be using either
265 debug-mode or release-mode <code class="code"> basic_string</code> objects, things
266 get more complicated. As the return value of a function is not
267 encoded into the mangled name, there is no way to specify a
268 release-mode or a debug-mode string. In practice, this results in
269 runtime errors. A simplified example of this problem is as follows.
270 </p><p> Take this translation unit, compiled in debug-mode: </p><pre class="programlisting">
271 // -D_GLIBCXX_DEBUG
272 #include &lt;string&gt;
274 std::string test02();
276 std::string test01()
278 return test02();
281 int main()
283 test01();
284 return 0;
286 </pre><p> ... and linked to this translation unit, compiled in release mode:</p><pre class="programlisting">
287 #include &lt;string&gt;
289 std::string
290 test02()
292 return std::string("toast");
294 </pre><p> For this reason we cannot easily provide safe iterators for
295 the <code class="code">std::basic_string</code> class template, as it is present
296 throughout the C++ standard library. For instance, locale facets
297 define typedefs that include <code class="code">basic_string</code>: in a mixed
298 debug/release program, should that typedef be based on the
299 debug-mode <code class="code">basic_string</code> or the
300 release-mode <code class="code">basic_string</code>? While the answer could be
301 "both", and the difference hidden via renaming a la the
302 debug/release containers, we must note two things about locale
303 facets:</p><div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist" type="1"><li class="listitem"><p>They exist as shared state: one can create a facet in one
304 translation unit and access the facet via the same type name in a
305 different translation unit. This means that we cannot have two
306 different versions of locale facets, because the types would not be
307 the same across debug/release-mode translation unit barriers.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>They have virtual functions returning strings: these functions
308 mangle in the same way regardless of the mangling of their return
309 types (see above), and their precise signatures can be relied upon
310 by users because they may be overridden in derived classes.</p></li></ol></div><p>With the design of libstdc++ debug mode, we cannot effectively hide
311 the differences between debug and release-mode strings from the
312 user. Failure to hide the differences may result in unpredictable
313 behavior, and for this reason we have opted to only
314 perform <code class="code">basic_string</code> changes that do not require ABI
315 changes. The effect on users is expected to be minimal, as there are
316 simple alternatives (e.g., <code class="code">__gnu_debug::basic_string</code>),
317 and the usability benefit we gain from the ability to mix debug- and
318 release-compiled translation units is enormous.</p></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h5 class="title"><a id="methods.coexistence.alt"></a>Alternatives for Coexistence</h5></div></div></div><p>The coexistence scheme above was chosen over many alternatives,
319 including language-only solutions and solutions that also required
320 extensions to the C++ front end. The following is a partial list of
321 solutions, with justifications for our rejection of each.</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><p><span class="emphasis"><em>Completely separate debug/release libraries</em></span>: This is by
322 far the simplest implementation option, where we do not allow any
323 coexistence of debug- and release-compiled translation units in a
324 program. This solution has an extreme negative affect on usability,
325 because it is quite likely that some libraries an application
326 depends on cannot be recompiled easily. This would not meet
327 our <span class="emphasis"><em>usability</em></span> or <span class="emphasis"><em>minimize recompilation</em></span> criteria
328 well.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><span class="emphasis"><em>Add a <code class="code">Debug</code> boolean template parameter</em></span>:
329 Partial specialization could be used to select the debug
330 implementation when <code class="code">Debug == true</code>, and the state
331 of <code class="code">_GLIBCXX_DEBUG</code> could decide whether the
332 default <code class="code">Debug</code> argument is <code class="code">true</code>
333 or <code class="code">false</code>. This option would break conformance with the
334 C++ standard in both debug <span class="emphasis"><em>and</em></span> release modes. This would
335 not meet our <span class="emphasis"><em>correctness</em></span> criteria. </p></li><li class="listitem"><p><span class="emphasis"><em>Packaging a debug flag in the allocators</em></span>: We could
336 reuse the <code class="code">Allocator</code> template parameter of containers
337 by adding a sentinel wrapper <code class="code">debug&lt;&gt;</code> that
338 signals the user's intention to use debugging, and pick up
339 the <code class="code">debug&lt;&gt;</code> allocator wrapper in a partial
340 specialization. However, this has two drawbacks: first, there is a
341 conformance issue because the default allocator would not be the
342 standard-specified <code class="code">std::allocator&lt;T&gt;</code>. Secondly
343 (and more importantly), users that specify allocators instead of
344 implicitly using the default allocator would not get debugging
345 containers. Thus this solution fails the <span class="emphasis"><em>correctness</em></span>
346 criteria.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><span class="emphasis"><em>Define debug containers in another namespace, and employ
347 a <code class="code">using</code> declaration (or directive)</em></span>: This is an
348 enticing option, because it would eliminate the need for
349 the <code class="code">link_name</code> extension by aliasing the
350 templates. However, there is no true template aliasing mechanism
351 in C++, because both <code class="code">using</code> directives and using
352 declarations disallow specialization. This method fails
353 the <span class="emphasis"><em>correctness</em></span> criteria.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><span class="emphasis"><em> Use implementation-specific properties of anonymous
354 namespaces. </em></span>
355 See <a class="link" href="http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/libstdc++/2003-08/msg00004.html" target="_top"> this post
356 </a>
357 This method fails the <span class="emphasis"><em>correctness</em></span> criteria.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><span class="emphasis"><em>Extension: allow reopening on namespaces</em></span>: This would
358 allow the debug mode to effectively alias the
359 namespace <code class="code">std</code> to an internal namespace, such
360 as <code class="code">__gnu_std_debug</code>, so that it is completely
361 separate from the release-mode <code class="code">std</code> namespace. While
362 this will solve some renaming problems and ensure that
363 debug- and release-compiled code cannot be mixed unsafely, it ensures that
364 debug- and release-compiled code cannot be mixed at all. For
365 instance, the program would have two <code class="code">std::cout</code>
366 objects! This solution would fails the <span class="emphasis"><em>minimize
367 recompilation</em></span> requirement, because we would only be able to
368 support option (1) or (2).</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><span class="emphasis"><em>Extension: use link name</em></span>: This option involves
369 complicated re-naming between debug-mode and release-mode
370 components at compile time, and then a g++ extension called <span class="emphasis"><em>
371 link name </em></span> to recover the original names at link time. There
372 are two drawbacks to this approach. One, it's very verbose,
373 relying on macro renaming at compile time and several levels of
374 include ordering. Two, ODR issues remained with container member
375 functions taking no arguments in mixed-mode settings resulting in
376 equivalent link names, <code class="code"> vector::push_back() </code> being
377 one example.
378 See <a class="link" href="http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/libstdc++/2003-08/msg00177.html" target="_top">link
379 name</a> </p></li></ul></div><p>Other options may exist for implementing the debug mode, many of
380 which have probably been considered and others that may still be
381 lurking. This list may be expanded over time to include other
382 options that we could have implemented, but in all cases the full
383 ramifications of the approach (as measured against the design goals
384 for a libstdc++ debug mode) should be considered first. The DejaGNU
385 testsuite includes some testcases that check for known problems with
386 some solutions (e.g., the <code class="code">using</code> declaration solution
387 that breaks user specialization), and additional testcases will be
388 added as we are able to identify other typical problem cases. These
389 test cases will serve as a benchmark by which we can compare debug
390 mode implementations.</p></div></div></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a id="debug_mode.design.other"></a>Other Implementations</h3></div></div></div><p>
391 </p><p> There are several existing implementations of debug modes for C++
392 standard library implementations, although none of them directly
393 supports debugging for programs using libstdc++. The existing
394 implementations include:</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><p><a class="link" href="http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/faculty/horstman/safestl.html" target="_top">SafeSTL</a>:
395 SafeSTL was the original debugging version of the Standard Template
396 Library (STL), implemented by Cay S. Horstmann on top of the
397 Hewlett-Packard STL. Though it inspired much work in this area, it
398 has not been kept up-to-date for use with modern compilers or C++
399 standard library implementations.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><a class="link" href="http://www.stlport.org/" target="_top">STLport</a>: STLport is a free
400 implementation of the C++ standard library derived from the <a class="link" href="http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/" target="_top">SGI implementation</a>, and
401 ported to many other platforms. It includes a debug mode that uses a
402 wrapper model (that in some ways inspired the libstdc++ debug mode
403 design), although at the time of this writing the debug mode is
404 somewhat incomplete and meets only the "Full user recompilation" (2)
405 recompilation guarantee by requiring the user to link against a
406 different library in debug mode vs. release mode.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Metrowerks CodeWarrior: The C++ standard library
407 that ships with Metrowerks CodeWarrior includes a debug mode. It is
408 a full debug-mode implementation (including debugging for
409 CodeWarrior extensions) and is easy to use, although it meets only
410 the "Full recompilation" (1) recompilation
411 guarantee.</p></li></ul></div></div></div><div class="navfooter"><hr /><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="debug_mode_using.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="debug_mode.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="parallel_mode.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">Using </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> Chapter 18. Parallel Mode</td></tr></table></div></body></html>