Strange execution errors in application

Question

I've got a unit test I'm writing which seems to have some kind of a pointer problem. Basically, it's testing a class that, once constructed, returns information about a file. If all the files expected are detected, then the test operates correctly. If there are more files expected than detected, then the routine correctly reports error. But if there are more files detected than expected, the executable crashes. This has been difficult to follow because when I try to step through with the debugger, the current code point jumps all over the method -- it doesn't follow line by line like you'd expect.

Any ideas as to what I'm doing incorrectly?

Here's my code:

#include "stdafx.h"
#include "boostUnitTest.h"

#include "../pevFind/fileData.h" //Header file for tested code.
#include "../pevFind/stringUtil.h" //convertUnicode()

struct fileDataLoadingFixture
{
    std::vector<fileData> testSuiteCandidates;
    fileDataLoadingFixture()
    {
     WIN32_FIND_DATA curFileData;
     HANDLE fData = FindFirstFile(L"testFiles\\*", &curFileData);
     if (fData == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
      throw std::runtime_error("Failed to load file list!");
     do {
      if(boost::algorithm::equals(curFileData.cFileName, L".")) continue;
      if(boost::algorithm::equals(curFileData.cFileName, L"..")) continue;
      fileData theFile(curFileData, L".\\testFiles\\");
      testSuiteCandidates.push_back(theFile);
     } while (FindNextFile(fData, &curFileData));
     FindClose(fData);
    };
};

BOOST_FIXTURE_TEST_SUITE( fileDataTests, fileDataLoadingFixture )

BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE( testPEData )
{
    std::vector<std::wstring> expectedResults;
    expectedResults.push_back(L"a.cfexe");
    expectedResults.push_back(L"b.cfexe");
    //More files.... 
    expectedResults.push_back(L"c.cfexe");
    std::sort(expectedResults.begin(), expectedResults.end());
    for (std::vector<fileData>::const_iterator it = testSuiteCandidates.begin(); it != testSuiteCandidates.end(); it++)
    {
     if (it->isPE())
     {
      std::wstring theFileString(it->getFileName().substr(it->getFileName().find_last_of(L'\\') + 1 ));
      std::vector<std::wstring>::const_iterator target = std::lower_bound(expectedResults.begin(), expectedResults.end(), theFileString);
      BOOST_REQUIRE_MESSAGE(*target == theFileString, std::string("The file ") + convertUnicode(theFileString) + " was unexpected." );
      if (*target == theFileString)
      {
       expectedResults.erase(target);
      }
     }
    }
    BOOST_CHECK_MESSAGE(expectedResults.size() == 0, "Some expected results were not found." );
}

BOOST_AUTO_TEST_SUITE_END()

Thanks!

Billy3

I solved the problem using the following code instead:

BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE( testPEData )
{
    std::vector<std::wstring> expectedResults;
    expectedResults.push_back(L"blah.cfexe");
    //files
    expectedResults.push_back(L"tail.cfexe");
    expectedResults.push_back(L"zip.cfexe");
    std::vector<std::wstring> actualResults;
    for(std::vector<fileData>::const_iterator it = testSuiteCandidates.begin(); it != testSuiteCandidates.end(); it++)
    {
     if (it->isPE()) actualResults.push_back(it->getFileName().substr(it->getFileName().find_last_of(L'\\') + 1 ));
    }

    std::sort(expectedResults.begin(), expectedResults.end());
    std::sort(actualResults.begin(), actualResults.end());

    std::vector<std::wstring> missed;
    std::set_difference(expectedResults.begin(), expectedResults.end(), actualResults.begin(), actualResults.end(), std::back_inserter(missed));

    std::vector<std::wstring> incorrect;
    std::set_difference(actualResults.begin(), actualResults.end(), expectedResults.begin(), expectedResults.end(), std::back_inserter(incorrect));

    for(std::vector<std::wstring>::const_iterator it = missed.begin(); it != missed.end(); it++)
    {
     BOOST_ERROR(std::string("The file ") + convertUnicode(*it) + " was expected but not returned.");
    }

    for(std::vector<std::wstring>::const_iterator it = incorrect.begin(); it != incorrect.end(); it++)
    {
     BOOST_ERROR(std::string("The file ") + convertUnicode(*it) + " was returned but not expected.");
    }

    BOOST_CHECK(true); //Suppress commandline "No assertions" warning

}

Answer 1

What do you think this will return, in the event that the file was unexpected? It looks like you expect it to be a valid file name.

std::vector<std::wstring>::const_iterator target = std::lower_bound(expectedResults.begin(), expectedResults.end(), theFileString);

It will in fact be an iterator at one past the end of the array - you cannot treat it as a valid pointer:

BOOST_REQUIRE_MESSAGE(*target == theFileString, std::string("The file ") + convertUnicode(theFileString) + " was unexpected." );

Normall, you compare the result with the value of end() (fixed):

BOOST_REQUIRE_MESSAGE(target != expectedResults.end() || *target == theFileString, std::string("The file ") + convertUnicode(theFileString) + " was unexpected." );
if (target != expectedResults.end() && *target == theFileString)
{
  expectedResults.erase(target);
}

See in this example here, lower_bound will return off-then-end values:

int main()
{
  int A[] = { 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 5, 8 };
  const int N = sizeof(A) / sizeof(int);

  for (int i = 1; i <= 10; ++i) {
    int* p = lower_bound(A, A + N, i);
    cout << "Searching for " << i << ".  ";
    cout << "Result: index = " << p - A << ", ";
    if (p != A + N)
      cout << "A[" << p - A << "] == " << *p << endl;
    else
      cout << "which is off-the-end." << endl;
  }
}

The output is:

Searching for 1.  Result: index = 0, A[0] == 1
Searching for 2.  Result: index = 1, A[1] == 2
Searching for 3.  Result: index = 2, A[2] == 3
Searching for 4.  Result: index = 5, A[5] == 5
Searching for 5.  Result: index = 5, A[5] == 5
Searching for 6.  Result: index = 6, A[6] == 8
Searching for 7.  Result: index = 6, A[6] == 8
Searching for 8.  Result: index = 6, A[6] == 8
Searching for 9.  Result: index = 7, which is off-the-end.
Searching for 10.  Result: index = 7, which is off-the-end.

You cannot safely dereference the off-the-end value, but you can use it for the purpose of comparison, or as an insertion point.

Why are you using lower_bound anyway? For the purposes of search, surely you should use find? If you are using lower_bound, it will return a position where the file name could be inserted, but not necessarily equal to the file name you are looking for. In other words, you not only need to compare with the off-the-end value, but also with the file name, in case it returned something valid.

Here is a version that uses find. As you can see it is simpler than the fixed version above.

std::vector<std::wstring>::const_iterator target = std::find(expectedResults.begin(), expectedResults.end(), theFileString);
BOOST_REQUIRE_MESSAGE(target != expectedResults.end(), std::string("The file ") + convertUnicode(theFileString) + " was unexpected." );
if (target != expectedResults.end())
{
  expectedResults.erase(target);
}

Answer 2

"the current code point jumps all over the method -- it doesn't follow line by line like you'd expect"

This usually means you have more than 1 thread hitting the method at a time. I usually see this when more than 1 object on my aspx page causes a postback at the same time.

Answer 3

"the current code point jumps all over the method -- it doesn't follow line by line like you'd expect"

Check your compiler options! Have you got debug on and optimise off?

Optimising compilers often completly "rewrite" your code changing the order of instructions, unrolling loops etc. etc. so that the debugger has difficulty in mapping an executable instruction to the original line of code.