doc/verify.texi

@c GNU verify module documentation

@c Copyright (C) 2006, 2009--2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

@c Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
@c under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
@c any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
@c Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A
@c copy of the license is at <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl-1.3.en.html>.

@node Compile-time Assertions
@section Compile-time Assertions

@cindex assertion
@findex verify
@findex verify_expr
@mindex verify
The module @samp{verify} provides a header file @file{verify.h} that defines
macros related to compile-time verification.

Two of these macros are @code{verify (@var{V})} and @code{verify_expr
(@var{V}, @var{EXPR})}.  Both accept an integer constant expression
argument @var{V} and verify that it is nonzero.  If not, a compile-time error
results.

These two macros implement compile-time tests, as opposed to
the standard @code{assert} macro which supports only runtime tests.
Since the tests occur at compile-time, they are more reliable, and
they require no runtime overhead.

@code{verify (@var{V});} is a declaration; it can occur outside of
functions.  In contrast, @code{verify_expr (@var{V}, @var{EXPR})} is
an expression that returns the value of @var{EXPR}; it can be used in
macros that expand to expressions.  If @var{EXPR} is an integer
constant expression, then @code{verify_expr (@var{V}, @var{EXPR})} is
also an integer constant expression.  Although @var{EXPR} and
@code{verify_expr (@var{V}, @var{EXPR})}@ are guaranteed to have the
same side effects and value and type (after integer promotion), they
need not have the same type if @var{EXPR}'s type is an integer that is
narrower than @code{int} or @code{unsigned int}.

@var{V} should be an integer constant expression in the sense
of the C standard.  Its leaf operands should be integer, enumeration,
or character constants; or @code{sizeof} expressions that return
constants; or floating constants that are the immediate operands of
casts.  Outside a @code{sizeof} subexpression, @var{V} should
not contain any assignments, function calls, comma operators, casts to
non-integer types, or subexpressions whose values are outside the
representable ranges for their types.  If @var{V} is not an
integer constant expression, then a compiler might reject a usage like
@samp{verify (@var{V});} even when @var{V} is
nonzero.

Although the standard @code{assert} macro is a runtime test, C23 and C++17
specify a builtin @code{static_assert (@var{V})}, which differs
from @code{verify} in two major ways.  First, it can also be used
within a @code{struct} or @code{union} specifier, in place of an
ordinary member declaration.  Second, it allows the programmer to
specify, as an optional second argument, a compile-time diagnostic as
a string literal.  If your program is not intended to be portable to
compilers that lack C23 or C++17 @code{static_assert}, the only
advantage of @code{verify} is that its name is a bit shorter.

The @file{verify.h} header defines one more macro, @code{assume
(@var{E})}, which expands to an expression of type @code{void}
that causes the compiler to assume that @var{E} yields a nonzero
value.  @var{E} should be a scalar expression, and should not
have side effects; it may or may not be evaluated.  The behavior is
undefined if @var{E} would yield zero.  The main use of @code{assume}
is optimization, as the compiler may be able to generate better code
if it assumes @var{E}.  For best results, @var{E} should be simple
enough that a compiler can determine that it has no side effects: if
@var{E} calls an external function or accesses volatile storage the
compiler may not be able to optimize @var{E} away and @code{assume
(@var{E})} may therefore slow down the program.

Here are some example uses of these macros.

@example
@group
#include <verify.h>

#include <limits.h>
#include <time.h>
@end group

@group
/* Verify that time_t is an integer type.  */
verify ((time_t) 1.5 == 1);
@end group

@group
/* Verify that time_t is no smaller than int.  */
verify (sizeof (int) <= sizeof (time_t));
@end group

@group
/* Verify that time_t is signed.  */
verify ((time_t) -1 < 0);
@end group

@group
/* Verify that time_t uses two's complement representation.  */
verify (~ (time_t) -1 == 0);
@end group

@group
/* Return the maximum value of the integer type T,
   verifying that T is an unsigned integer type.
   The cast to (T) is outside the call to verify_expr
   so that the result is of type T
   even when T is narrower than unsigned int.  */
#define MAX_UNSIGNED_VAL(t) \
   ((t) verify_expr (0 < (t) -1, -1))
@end group

@group
/* Return T divided by CHAR_MAX + 1, where behavior is
   undefined if T < 0.  In the common case where CHAR_MAX
   is 127 the compiler can therefore implement the division
   by shifting T right 7 bits, an optimization that would
   not be valid if T were negative.  */
time_t
time_index (time_t t)
@{
  assume (0 <= t);
  return t / (CHAR_MAX + 1);
@}
@end group
@end example