[Xorp-hackers] compiler brokes at EtherMac::valid

[Pavlin Radoslavov]

>    When porting mac.cc, my compiler broken at EtherMac::valid. 
> Is "buf[s.size() + 1]" definition valid ? Instead, when replace it with fixed size definition the 
> compiler doesn't complains.
>    Is it someting to do with my compiler? My compiler is g++ppc (gcc driver version 
> cygnus-2.7.2-960126 egcs-971225), below is the output of the compiler :

The variable-length automatic arrays are GCC-ism.
They are used in few places, because they help to make the code a
bit simpler.

It looks like your compiler is from the gcc family so I guess it
should be able to compile it, but from the compilation error below
the reason it fails is obvious: "Internal compiler error" (i.e., a
compiler bug).

Nevertheless, variable-length arrays make the code more difficult to
port (as you have noticed already), hence I think we should try to
get rid of them (especially given that I am probably the most
frequent user of variable-length arrays :)

In other words, your solution of using fixed-size definition is the
right one.

Thanks,
Pavlin

P.S. BTW, what OS are you trying to port XORP to? Please don't tell
me it is Windows :)

> 
> /* 
>  * ccppc -g -mcpu=860 -ansi -nostdinc -DRW_MULTI_THREAD -D_REENTRANT -fvolatile -fno-builtin	
>  * -fno-for-scope -I. -IC:\Tornado\target\h -DCPU=PPC860 -c E:\NIP\source\libxorp\mac.cc
>  * E:\NIP\source\libxorp\mac.cc: In function `static bool EtherMac::valid(const class basic_s 
>  * tring<char,string_char_traits<char>,__default_alloc_template<true,0> > &)':
>  * E:\NIP\source\libxorp\mac.cc:113: Internal compiler error.
>  * E:\NIP\source\libxorp\mac.cc:113: Please submit a full bug report to `egcs-bugs@cygnus.com 
>  * '.
>  * make: *** [mac.o] Error 0x1
>  */
> 
> 
> Edrt