This is an unofficial snapshot of the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC22 WG21 Core Issues List revision 115d. See http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/ for the official list.

2024-10-26

2583. Common initial sequence should consider over-alignment

Section: 11.4.1  [class.mem.general]     Status: C++23     Submitter: Brian Bi     Date: 2022-05-03

[Accepted as a DR at the November, 2022 meeting.]

Consider:

  struct A {
    int i;
    char c;
  };

  struct B {
    int i;
    alignas(8) char c;
  };

  union U { A a; B b; };

On a lot of platforms, A and B do not have the same layout, yet 11.4.1 [class.mem.general] paragraph 23 does not consider differences in alignment in the rules for "common initial sequence":

The common initial sequence of two standard-layout struct (11.2 [class.prop]) types is the longest sequence of non-static data members and bit-fields in declaration order, starting with the first such entity in each of the structs, such that corresponding entities have layout-compatible types (6.8 [basic.types]), either both entities are declared with the no_unique_address attribute (9.12.12 [dcl.attr.nouniqueaddr]) or neither is, and either both entities are bit-fields with the same width or neither is a bit-field.

In the following example,

  struct S0 {
    alignas(16) char x[128];
    int i;
  };
  struct alignas(16) S1 {
    char x[128];
    int i;
  };

S0 and S1 have the same alignment, yet per the suggested rules below, they will not be layout-compatible.

Suggested resolution [SUPERSEDED]:

Change in 11.4.1 [class.mem.general] paragraphs 23-25 as follows (also add bullets):

The common initial sequence of two standard-layout struct (11.2 [class.prop]) types is the longest sequence of non-static data members and bit-fields in declaration order, starting with the first such entity in each of the structs, such that

[...]

Two standard-layout struct (11.2 [class.prop]) types are layout-compatible classes if their common initial sequence comprises all members and bit-fields of both classes (6.8 [basic.types]) and either both types are declared with alignment-specifiers that specify equivalent alignment or neither type has an alignment-specifier.

Two standard-layout unions are layout-compatible if they have the same number of non-static data members and corresponding non-static data members (in any order)

Proposed resolution (approved by CWG telecon 2022-08-26):

Change in 11.4.1 [class.mem.general] paragraphs 23-25 as follows (also add bullets):

The common initial sequence of two standard-layout struct (11.2 [class.prop]) types is the longest sequence of non-static data members and bit-fields in declaration order, starting with the first such entity in each of the structs, such that

[...]