Re: signal() anomaly

From	Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.c
Subject	Re: signal() anomaly
Date	2012-08-02 00:55 -0500
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<jvd4p5$f26$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)
References	<jv9e9e$bj3$1@speranza.aioe.org> <jv9l8p$1u2$1@blue-new.rahul.net> <jvbu80$pu5$1@speranza.aioe.org>

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On 01-Aug-12 13:58, hip cat wrote:
> My code has a certain pointer that sometimes unexpectedly becomes null. 
> It would be a lot of work to find every place the pointer gets 
> dereferenced and add a null check. So I want to just ignore it by 
> catching the signal.

Sorry, but the correct solution is to check for null before you
dereference a pointer, even if it is theoretically "impossible" for that
pointer to be null.

Ignoring a null pointer dereference is pretty much impossible, since
there are no sensible semantics for continuing execution after that
point--and trying to do so will probably just cause other "impossible"
bugs to appear and waste even more of your time.

Treat the disease, not the symptom.

S

-- 
Stephen Sprunk         "God does not play dice."  --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723         "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS        dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking

Thread

signal() anomaly hip cat <nospam@nospam.com> - 2012-07-31 20:13 +0000
  Re: signal() anomaly Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2012-07-31 16:35 -0400
    Re: signal() anomaly hip cat <nospam@nospam.com> - 2012-08-01 18:59 +0000
    Re: signal() anomaly Nick Bowler <nbowler@draconx.ca> - 2012-08-01 20:14 +0000
  Re: signal() anomaly falk@rahul.net (Edward A. Falk) - 2012-07-31 22:12 +0000
    Re: signal() anomaly hip cat <nospam@nospam.com> - 2012-08-01 18:58 +0000
      Re: signal() anomaly James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-08-01 15:33 -0400
        Re: signal() anomaly hip cat <nospam@nospam.com> - 2012-08-01 20:47 +0000
          Re: signal() anomaly Paul <nospam@needed.com> - 2012-08-01 17:34 -0400
            Re: signal() anomaly Johann Klammer <klammerj@NOSPAM.a1.net> - 2012-08-02 06:34 +0200
              Re: signal() anomaly Paul <nospam@needed.com> - 2012-08-02 07:10 -0400
          Re: signal() anomaly Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2012-08-01 18:07 -0400
            Re: signal() anomaly Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2012-08-02 00:15 +0100
              Re: signal() anomaly Nick Bowler <nbowler@draconx.ca> - 2012-08-02 00:05 +0000
                Re: signal() anomaly Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2012-08-02 02:47 +0100
          Re: signal() anomaly James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-08-01 18:13 -0400
          Re: signal() anomaly James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-08-01 18:14 -0400
          Re: signal() anomaly Nobody <nobody@nowhere.com> - 2012-08-02 12:52 +0100
      Re: signal() anomaly Angel <angel+news@spamcop.net> - 2012-08-01 19:41 +0000
      Re: signal() anomaly Kenneth Brody <kenbrody@spamcop.net> - 2012-08-01 16:16 -0400
      Re: signal() anomaly Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2012-08-01 16:33 -0400
      Re: signal() anomaly Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2012-08-02 00:22 +0100
      Re: signal() anomaly Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2012-08-02 00:55 -0500
        Re: signal() anomaly Ike Naar <ike@sverige.freeshell.org> - 2012-08-02 07:01 +0000
      Re: signal() anomaly Öö Tiib <ootiib@hot.ee> - 2012-09-08 20:53 -0700
  Re: signal() anomaly Nobody <nobody@nowhere.com> - 2012-08-01 18:06 +0100
    Re: signal() anomaly Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2012-09-07 13:44 -0700
  Re: signal() anomaly Kleuske <kleuske@nowhere.net> - 2012-08-02 20:52 +0000

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