Can't get past this segmentation fault

[NRaf]

Hey, I'm having trouble with this piece of code. Basically, it's meant to look at a map file (which basically is a bunch of URLs paired to an ID) and then go through another file and replace each URL with it's corresponding ID.

The code seems to work fine, but when I test on the 2GB file I have access to, I'm getting a segfault.

The following is the relevant section of code:

void Compressor::compress(std::string filename)
{
//Input file to read from
Parser parser(filename);

//String stream
std::stringstream stringStream;

//Line count
int count = 0;

//Number of times written to file bufferSize(used to determine whether to start new file or append)
int writeCount = 0;


//Variables to store IDs in
int idNode;
int idBranch;

//Reset buffer count
bufferCount = 0;

//Clear string buffer
stringBuffer.clear();

while(parser.hasNext())
{
std::vector<std::string> elements;
std::string str = parser.getLine();

if (str != "")
{
elements = parser.getElements(str, "\t");

//Convert URLs to ID
if(doesMappingExist(elements[index1]))
{
idNode = getID(elements[index1]);

//Convert second element
if(doesMappingExist(elements[index2]))
{
idBranch = getID(elements[index2]);
str = idNode + "\t" ;

//Clear buffer
stringStream.str("");

//Add to buffer
stringStream << idNode << "\t" << idBranch << "\n";
stringBuffer.push_back(stringStream.str());

//Increment count
bufferCount++;
}
else
{
std::cout << "URL " << count << " not added." << std::endl;
}
}
else
{
std::cout << "URL " << count << " not added." << std::endl;
}
}

if (bufferCount >= bufferSize)
{
writeBufferToFile("inputCompressed.txt", (writeCount == 0) ? false : true);
writeCount++;
std::cout << "Buffer Written.\tMappings created: " << bufferCount * writeCount << std::endl;
stringBuffer.clear();
bufferCount = 0;
}

count++;
}
std::cout << "Buffer size is " << stringBuffer.size() << std::endl;
writeBufferToFile("inputCompressed.txt", (writeCount == 0) ? false : true);
}

void Compressor::writeBufferToFile(std::string filename, bool append = false)
{
//Output file to write to
std::ofstream output;

output.open(filename.c_str(), (append) ? std::ios::app : std::ios::out);

for (int i = 0; i < stringBuffer.size(); i++)
{
output << stringBuffer[i];
}

The following is the gdb output: Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
0xff0b1df0 in strlen () from /lib/libc.so.1
(gdb) ;3Dbt
Undefined command: "". Try "help".
(gdb) bt
#0 0xff0b1df0 in strlen () from /lib/libc.so.1
#1 0xff333314 in std::string::operator= (this=0xffbff058,
__s=0x20014 <Address 0x20014 out of bounds>)
at /export/nigelw/build-work/gcc-objdir/sparc-sun-solaris2.10/libstdc++-v3/include/bits/char_traits.h:262
#2 0x000171f8 in Compressor::compress ()
#3 0x00018724 in Compressor::createIdMapping ()
#4 0x00015934 in compressInput ()
#5 0x00015bec in main ()
(gdb)

The program seems to stop at line 96212. Any ideas?

[stilllearning]

As you can see from your messages, your code is segfaulting inside one of the std::string operator = overload functions, which in turn calls strlen.

A segfault is usually an access violation, ie you are writing to or reading from memory that is beyond what has been allocated to you. Its possible that one of your functions is returning an invalid pointer to the string element or an incorrectly terminated string, and so it cannot allocate a length inside strlen and crashes.

I'd suggest putting some breakpoints at the 'str = ' lines and a count of how often you want to break.

[Salem]

When you hit the segfault, use the "up" command a couple of times so you're looking at this frame
#2 0x000171f8 in Compressor::compress ()
Then list the source code lines so you know exactly where you are.

Then start examining variables (in particular, whatever string you're trying to assign) to see if it's valid.
Maybe your parser returned rubbish.

> The program seems to stop at line 96212. Any ideas?
Use a counting breakpoint at some point where a whole line is read, and make it run for 96211 times. Then start single stepping until you discover something new.

[NRaf]

The issue seems to have been fixed. No idea why, but removing the
str = idNode + "\t";
seems to have fixed the segfault.

Thanks for the help, guys.

[Salem]

> but removing the str = idNode + "\t"; seems to have fixed the segfault.
Yeah, idNode is an int, and "\t" is a string constant.

Which basically means a char at "\t"[idNode]

Which is perfectly valid (if obscure) code, so long as idNode is actually zero, but would be increasingly way off the end of the array until (inevitably) you stepped off the end of valid memory and got a segfault.

Didn't you see lots of random garbage instead of the "nnn\t" you were expecting whilst testing this code?

[NRaf]

> but removing the str = idNode + "\t"; seems to have fixed the segfault. Yeah, idNode is an int, and "\t" is a string constant.

Which basically means a char at "\t"[idNode]

Which is perfectly valid (if obscure) code, so long as idNode is actually zero, but would be increasingly way off the end of the array until (inevitably) you stepped off the end of valid memory and got a segfault.

Didn't you see lots of random garbage instead of the "nnn\t" you were expecting whilst testing this code?

No, that line was never being used in my code (I just hadn't gotten around to removing it). The output on my small test files looked good and I've since used the compressed file with no issues so the data looks to be fine.

[Salem]

> No, that line was never being used in my code
You mean you weren't using str later on.
But it was still doing all the work, marching off into unknown memory and the like.