gcc: recursive function quirk

Disruptor · 03-31-2004, 11:58 AM

Hi all you folks!! I'ld like to share with you the exotic piece of code following below, that I (accidentally) wrote and tripped uppon:

size_t
Vector_private__sizeofArrayCell (void)
{
Vector_private__sizeofArrayCell ();
}

Gcc doesn't complain. I think it poses an interesting (`academic') topic. Does anyone know whether gcc (3.2.2 here) rightfully:

1. Doesn't complain about the obvious infinite recursion??
and 2. Doesn't compain about the function not having a return statement to return something of `size_t'??

Any ideas/ thoughts??

Cheers,
Disruptor

DarrenDrapkin · 09-22-2014, 12:26 PM

Simple - its a bug - isnt it? A bug in gcc. Try it in clang or a proprietry C compiler

jlinkels · 09-22-2014, 12:57 PM

Now I don't code C every day anymore, but what is wrong with this code?

I am sure gcc doesn't complain about infinite recursion. If that is what you want, fine. Infinite recursion is an execution time property, not a compiler problem.

A return statement is not needed because it is a void function.

jlinkels

smallpond · 09-22-2014, 01:01 PM

To be correct it should be:

Code:

size_t
Vector_private__sizeofArrayCell (void)
{
    return Vector_private__sizeofArrayCell ();
}

Now it will return the correct value once forever elapses.

brianL · 09-23-2014, 05:45 AM

Original post is 10 years old.