https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=100395
Bug ID: 100395 Summary: Bogus -Wstringop-overflow warning Product: gcc Version: 10.2.0 Status: UNCONFIRMED Severity: normal Priority: P3 Component: c Assignee: unassigned at gcc dot gnu.org Reporter: lavr at ncbi dot nlm.nih.gov Target Milestone: --- $ gcc --version gcc (GCC) 10.2.0 $ cat test.c #include <stdio.h> #include <string.h> int main(int argc, const char* argv[]) { size_t len0 = strlen(argv[0]), len1 = strlen(argv[1]); char buf[444]; char* s; s = buf + sizeof(buf) - len0; memcpy(s, argv[0], len0); s -= len1; memcpy(--s, argv[1], len1); s[len1++] = ' '; printf("%.*s\n", (int)(len0 + len1), s); return 0; } $ gcc -O2 -Wall test.c test.c: In function ‘main’: test.c:14:15: warning: writing 1 byte into a region of size 0 [-Wstringop-overflow=] 14 | s[len1++] = ' '; | ~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~ test.c:7:10: note: at offset -1 to object ‘buf’ with size 444 declared here 7 | char buf[444]; | ^~~ The offset shown in the message is wrong, which most likely was the reason to emit the warning altogether. The test code above mocks up a situation where the lengths of both strings, which are being copied in the reverse order into "buf", are known and small, i.e. both fit (a few times, actually) together into the buffer, including the separator and terminator.