Programming Gotchas for C++ and UNIX programmers

Garrett Mitchener

This is a selection of "Gotchas", silly things that keep your programs from compiling and working and waste a lot of your time. Hopefully, you will read this document and learn from the mistakes of others...

Table of Contents

1. C++ Compiler Gotchas

cpp: /var/tmp/cc0XVRDA.ii: No space left on device
Pre-processor directives (#include, #define, etc.) must end with a newline character
Shared libraries and illegal instruction errors

2. My program runs but it crashes

I get "Segmentation Fault" or "Bus Error" messages

What causes these errors?
How to I track them down?

3. Problems with specific functions and classes

Problems with stat and lstat

I called stat on a symbolic link, but the flags say it's not a link.
Okay, I used lstat, and I still can't get it to say that a file is really a link.

I've opened a lot of files or directories or sockets or pipes etc. and it won't let me open any more.

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		C++ Compiler Gotchas