nb/bit_cast.h

// Copyright (c) 2011 The Chromium Authors. All rights reserved.
// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be
// found in the LICENSE file.

/*
* Modifications Copyright 2017 Google Inc. All Rights Reserved.
*
* Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
* you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
* You may obtain a copy of the License at
*
*     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
*
* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
* distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
* WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
* See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
* limitations under the License.
*/

#ifndef NB_BIT_CAST_H_
#define NB_BIT_CAST_H_

#include "starboard/configuration.h"
#include "starboard/memory.h"

namespace nb {

// bit_cast<Dest,Source> is a template function that implements the
// equivalent of "*reinterpret_cast<Dest*>(&source)".  We need this in
// very low-level functions like hashing pod data, where the pod data is
// reinterpreted to a const char*.
//
// The classical address-casting method is:
//
//   // WRONG
//   float f = 3.14159265358979;            // WRONG
//   int i = * reinterpret_cast<int*>(&f);  // WRONG
//
// The address-casting method actually produces undefined behavior
// according to ISO C++ specification section 3.10 -15 -.  Roughly, this
// section says: if an object in memory has one type, and a program
// accesses it with a different type, then the result is undefined
// behavior for most values of "different type".
//
// This is true for any cast syntax, either *(int*)&f or
// *reinterpret_cast<int*>(&f).  And it is particularly true for
// conversions between integral lvalues and floating-point lvalues.
//
// The purpose of 3.10 -15- is to allow optimizing compilers to assume
// that expressions with different types refer to different memory.  gcc
// 4.0.1 has an optimizer that takes advantage of this.  So a
// non-conforming program quietly produces wildly incorrect output.
//
// The problem is not the use of reinterpret_cast.  The problem is type
// punning: holding an object in memory of one type and reading its bits
// back using a different type.
//
// The C++ standard is more subtle and complex than this, but that
// is the basic idea.
//
// Anyways ...
//
// bit_cast<> calls memcpy() which is blessed by the standard,
// especially by the example in section 3.9 .  Also, of course,
// bit_cast<> wraps up the nasty logic in one place.
template <class Dest, class Source>
inline Dest bit_cast(const Source& source) {
  SB_COMPILE_ASSERT(sizeof(Dest) == sizeof(source),
                    Source_and_destination_types_should_have_equal_sizes);
  Dest dest;
  memcpy(&dest, &source, sizeof(dest));
  return dest;
}

}  // namespace nb

#endif  // NB_CONCURRENT_MAP_H_