Method to test a program against different C implementations

From	pozz <pozzugno@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.c
Subject	Method to test a program against different C implementations
Date	2012-03-11 12:27 +0100
Organization	NGI SpA - http://www.ngi.it/
Message-ID	<jji27a$d4e$1@nnrp.ngi.it> (permalink)

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We perfectly know that C implementations can be very different in terms of:
- number of bits per byte
- number of bytes per int
- number of bytes per long
- signed or unsigned char
- negative number implementation (two's or one's complement)
- big or little endian or others

I'm asking if there's a way to test a small C source (a function or a 
small set of functions) against all possible C implementations.  Of 
course I'm thinking of an automatic test, because the number of C 
implementations is high.

I think this could be done with an ad-hoc C compiler that can be 
configured (I imagine thorugh command-line parameteres) in several ways. 
  For example, I can say to the compiler to use signed or unsigned char 
(when the signedness is not specified), 16-bit ints and 32-bit longs, 
big-ending representation, two's complement for negative numbers.

So I can write a small script that runs the compiler several times with 
different configurations, producing different executables.  Now I can 
run these exe and compare the results (their outputs) against "the 
correct output" I prepared before.

I think this test could be very useful to verify the correctness of our 
sources not only against the implementation where we are developing, but 
also for other possible implementations that could be used in the future 
by the users of our program.

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Thread

Method to test a program against different C implementations pozz <pozzugno@gmail.com> - 2012-03-11 12:27 +0100
  Re: Method to test a program against different C implementations "Joachim Schmitz" <nospam.jojo@schmitz-digital.de> - 2012-03-11 13:48 +0100
    Re: Method to test a program against different C implementations pete <pfiland@mindspring.com> - 2012-03-11 09:03 -0500
      Re: Method to test a program against different C implementations James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-03-11 10:43 -0400
  Re: Method to test a program against different C implementations Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2012-03-11 09:08 -0400
    Re: Method to test a program against different C implementations pozz <pozzugno@gmail.com> - 2012-03-11 22:12 +0100
      Re: Method to test a program against different C implementations Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2012-03-11 17:44 -0400
  Re: Method to test a program against different C implementations Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2012-03-11 09:39 -0700
  Re: Method to test a program against different C implementations Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2012-03-15 22:09 +0000
    Re: Method to test a program against different C implementations James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-03-15 18:32 -0400
      Re: Method to test a program against different C implementations pozz <pozzugno@gmail.com> - 2012-03-17 16:26 +0100
        Re: Method to test a program against different C implementations James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-03-17 11:52 -0400
    Re: Method to test a program against different C implementations Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2012-03-15 20:31 -0400
      Re: Method to test a program against different C implementations Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2012-03-20 22:18 +0000
        Re: Method to test a program against different C implementations Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2012-03-20 22:38 -0400
          Re: Method to test a program against different C implementations Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2012-03-22 21:48 +0000
            Re: Method to test a program against different C implementations James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-03-22 18:39 -0400
            Re: Method to test a program against different C implementations Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2012-03-22 21:07 -0400
  Re: Method to test a program against different C implementations Robert Miles <robertmilesxyz@gmail.com> - 2012-03-15 17:41 -0700

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