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[bug-gsl] Re: array, vector indices out-of-bounds in "linalg/bidiag.c" (2008-04-20)

From: Julian Seward <jseward@.......>
Subject: Re: array, vector indices out-of-bounds in "linalg/bidiag.c"
Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2008 09:58:47 +0200
To: bug-gsl@gnu.org
Cc: Kort Travis <kat@..................>


> for (j = N; j > 0 && j--;)

This is an extremely strange for-loop header, and I wonder if
it is what the author(s) really intended. I _think_ it might
be equivalent to

for (j = N; j > 0 && j != 0; /*no step action*/) {
j--;
/* now the rest of the loop body */
}
j--; /* because the condition is consulted 1 more time than the
loop body runs */

so there isn't necessarily an overrun at j = N.

I wonder if it would not be cleaner to use a standard idiom:

for (j = N-1; j >= 0; j--)

IMO even a C language lawyer would have a hard time figuring out
what the exact behaviour is here, which doesn't bode well for
end-user understanding of the code.

You might want to try Valgrind's Memcheck tool to see if there
are in fact any overruns happening.

J