Consider this C/C++ program:
extern void **f1();
void f2(const char *p) { *(const void **)f1() = p; }
If I compile this program with g++ -Wcast-qual, I get this:
foo2.cc:2: warning: cast from type ‘void**’ to type ‘const void**’ casts away
qualifiers
If I compile this program with gcc -Wcast-qual, I do not get any
warning.
Let's overlook the fact that the text of the g++ warning does not make
any sense--I am certainly not casting anything away. The warning is
conceptually plausible for the same reason that you can't assign a
char** variable to a const char** variable without a cast. At least, I
think one could make a argument that that is so. But it's not a *very*
strong argument, as -Wcast-qual is documented to warn about cases where
a type qualifier is removed, and that is manifestly not happening here.
-Wcast-qual is useful to catch certain programming errors; I don't think
anybody adding a const qualifier is actually making a mistake.
All that aside, I can't think of any reason that the C and C++ frontends
should be different in this regard. Does anybody want to make an
argument for which of these choices we should adopt?
1) Keep things the same: the C++ frontend warns, the C frontend doesn't.
Consistency is overrated.
2) Change the C frontend to also warn about this case, albeit with a
better message.
3) Change the C++ frontend to not warn about this case.
Of course in all cases the frontends should continue to warn about a
cast from const void** to void**.
Ian
