-Wimplicit-fallthrough in GCC 7

rhpolacek
By Marek Polacek

In C and C++, the cases of a switch statement are in fact labels, and the switch is essentially a go to that jumps to the desired label. Since labels do not change the flow of control, one case block falls through to the following case block, unless terminated by a return, a break, a no return call or similar. In the example below, “case 1” falls through to “case 2“:

switch (cond)
   {
   case 1:
     a = 1;
   case 2:
     a = 2;
     break;
   /* ... */
   }

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Memory Error Detection Using GCC

msebor
By Martin Sebor

Introduction

GCC has a rich set of features designed to help detect many kinds of programming errors. Of particular interest are those that corrupt the memory of a running program and, in some cases, makes it vulnerable to security threats. Since 2006, GCC has provided a solution to detect and prevent a subset of buffer overflows in C and C++ programs. Although it is based on compiler technology, it’s best known under the name Fortify Source derived from the synonymous GNU C Library macro that controls the feature: _FORTIFY_SOURCE. GCC has changed and improved considerably since its 4.1 release in 2006, and with its ability to detect these sorts of errors. GCC 7, in particular, contains a number of enhancements that help detect several new kinds of programming errors in this area. This article provides a brief overview of these new features. For a comprehensive list of all major improvements in GCC 7, please see GCC 7 Changes document.

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