[Boost-users] Receiving a segfault from the variables_map destructor

From: Stephen Torri (storri_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-01-21 14:29:43

In the user interface program I created for a personal library I used
the boost program options to provide two command line options to the
user. The first is to report a help menu and the second is input used
with the library's API. What I am getting is that there is a segfault in
destructor for the variable map. Here is the backtrace:

#0  0xb7469099 in __gnu_cxx::__exchange_and_add () from /usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.1.1/libstdc++.so.6
#1  0xb744e039 in std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> >::~basic_string ()
   from /usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.1.1/libstdc++.so.6
#2  0x0804d7c2 in ~pair (this=0x8054dc8) at /usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.1.1/include/g++-v4/bits/stl_pair.h:69
#3  0x0804d801 in __gnu_cxx::new_allocator<std::pair<std::string const, boost::program_options::variable_value> >::destroy
    (this=0xbfa75d93, __p=0x8054dc8) at /usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.1.1/include/g++-v4/ext/new_allocator.h:109
#4  0x0804e1ad in std::_Rb_tree<std::string, std::pair<std::string const, boost::program_options::variable_value>, std::_Select1st<std::pair<std::string const, boost::program_options::variable_value> >, std::less<std::string>, std::allocator<std::pair<std::string const, boost::program_options::variable_value> > >::destroy_node (this=0xbfa75e98, __p=0x8054db8)
    at /usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.1.1/include/g++-v4/bits/stl_tree.h:391
#5  0x0804e232 in std::_Rb_tree<std::string, std::pair<std::string const, boost::program_options::variable_value>, std::_Select1st<std::pair<std::string const, boost::program_options::variable_value> >, std::less<std::string>, std::allocator<std::pair<std::string const, boost::program_options::variable_value> > >::_M_erase (this=0xbfa75e98, __x=0x8054db8)
    at /usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.1.1/include/g++-v4/bits/stl_tree.h:1266
#6  0x0804e261 in ~_Rb_tree (this=0xbfa75e98) at /usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.1.1/include/g++-v4/bits/stl_tree.h:578
#7  0x0804e2b1 in ~map (this=0xbfa75e98) at /usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.1.1/include/g++-v4/bits/stl_map.h:93
#8  0x0804e31a in ~variables_map (this=0xbfa75e90) at /usr/include/boost/program_options/variables_map.hpp:110
#9  0x0804bec6 in main (ac=2, av=0xbfa75ff4) at pe_reverse.cpp:48

My system information is:

gcc-4.1.1-r3 (Gentoo x86)
boost-1.33.1-r1 (compiled with debug flag on and no symbols stripped)

My user interface program is below. Now you will notice that I am not
using the value retrieve from the "file" command line option. What I
noticed was that regardless what value "file" contained it was the
presence of the --file command line option which triggered the
segmentation fault. So I just hardwired my program so that I could check
to see if I could track down the segfault.

#include <Reverse.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <Parsing_Exception.hpp>
#include <boost/program_options.hpp>

int main ( int ac, char** av )
{
        // Declare the supported options.

        boost::program_options::options_description desc("Allowed options");
        desc.add_options()
                ("help", "produce help message")
                ("file", boost::program_options::value<std::string>(), "file to reverse");

    boost::program_options::variables_map vm;
    boost::program_options::store(boost::program_options::parse_command_line(ac, av, desc), vm);
    boost::program_options::notify(vm);

    if (vm.count("help")) {
        std::cout << desc << std::endl;
        return 1;
    }

    if (vm.count("file")) {
        std::cout << "File to analyze was set to "
                  << vm["file"].as<std::string>() << "." << std::endl;
    }
    /*
      else {
        std::cout << "File to analyze was not set." << std::endl;
        return 0;
    }
    */

    try
        {
            libreverse::api::Reverse r_obj;
            r_obj.execute ( "kernel32.dll", //vm["file"].as<std::string>(),
                            libreverse::api::Input_Types::BINARY,
                            libreverse::api::Output_Types::CPLUSPLUS );
        }
    catch ( errors::Parsing_Exception& pe )
        {
            std::cerr << "Exception: " << pe.name() << std::endl;
            std::cerr << pe.what() << std::endl;
        }

    return 0;
}

I cannot see what is wrong. Now GCC had a minor revision update lately
from 4.1.1-r2. Perhaps what I am running into is a non-boost library
which is called by the program options and giving back a bad value.

Stephen