rocksdb/utilities/transactions/lock/point
Peter Dillinger 54cb9c77d9 Prefer static_cast in place of most reinterpret_cast (#12308)
Summary:
The following are risks associated with pointer-to-pointer reinterpret_cast:
* Can produce the "wrong result" (crash or memory corruption). IIRC, in theory this can happen for any up-cast or down-cast for a non-standard-layout type, though in practice would only happen for multiple inheritance cases (where the base class pointer might be "inside" the derived object). We don't use multiple inheritance a lot, but we do.
* Can mask useful compiler errors upon code change, including converting between unrelated pointer types that you are expecting to be related, and converting between pointer and scalar types unintentionally.

I can only think of some obscure cases where static_cast could be troublesome when it compiles as a replacement:
* Going through `void*` could plausibly cause unnecessary or broken pointer arithmetic. Suppose we have
`struct Derived: public Base1, public Base2`.  If we have `Derived*` -> `void*` -> `Base2*` -> `Derived*` through reinterpret casts, this could plausibly work (though technical UB) assuming the `Base2*` is not dereferenced. Changing to static cast could introduce breaking pointer arithmetic.
* Unnecessary (but safe) pointer arithmetic could arise in a case like `Derived*` -> `Base2*` -> `Derived*` where before the Base2 pointer might not have been dereferenced. This could potentially affect performance.

With some light scripting, I tried replacing pointer-to-pointer reinterpret_casts with static_cast and kept the cases that still compile. Most occurrences of reinterpret_cast have successfully been changed (except for java/ and third-party/). 294 changed, 257 remain.

A couple of related interventions included here:
* Previously Cache::Handle was not actually derived from in the implementations and just used as a `void*` stand-in with reinterpret_cast. Now there is a relationship to allow static_cast. In theory, this could introduce pointer arithmetic (as described above) but is unlikely without multiple inheritance AND non-empty Cache::Handle.
* Remove some unnecessary casts to void* as this is allowed to be implicit (for better or worse).

Most of the remaining reinterpret_casts are for converting to/from raw bytes of objects. We could consider better idioms for these patterns in follow-up work.

I wish there were a way to implement a template variant of static_cast that would only compile if no pointer arithmetic is generated, but best I can tell, this is not possible. AFAIK the best you could do is a dynamic check that the void* conversion after the static cast is unchanged.

Pull Request resolved: https://github.com/facebook/rocksdb/pull/12308

Test Plan: existing tests, CI

Reviewed By: ltamasi

Differential Revision: D53204947

Pulled By: pdillinger

fbshipit-source-id: 9de23e618263b0d5b9820f4e15966876888a16e2
2024-02-07 10:44:11 -08:00
..
point_lock_manager.cc Remove RocksDB LITE (#11147) 2023-01-27 13:14:19 -08:00
point_lock_manager.h Remove RocksDB LITE (#11147) 2023-01-27 13:14:19 -08:00
point_lock_manager_test.cc Add missing status check when compiling with ASSERT_STATUS_CHECKED=1 (#11686) 2023-08-09 15:46:44 -07:00
point_lock_manager_test.h Prefer static_cast in place of most reinterpret_cast (#12308) 2024-02-07 10:44:11 -08:00
point_lock_tracker.cc Remove RocksDB LITE (#11147) 2023-01-27 13:14:19 -08:00
point_lock_tracker.h Remove 'virtual' when implied by 'override' (#12319) 2024-01-31 13:14:42 -08:00