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GCC provides a large number of built-in functions other than the ones mentioned above. Some of these are for internal use in the processing of exceptions or variable-length argument lists and are not documented here because they may change from time to time; we do not recommend general use of these functions.
The remaining functions are provided for optimization purposes.
With the exception of built-ins that have library equivalents such as the standard C library functions discussed below, or that expand to library calls, GCC built-in functions are always expanded inline and thus do not have corresponding entry points and their address cannot be obtained. Attempting to use them in an expression other than a function call results in a compile-time error.
GCC includes built-in versions of many of the functions in the standard
C library. These functions come in two forms: one whose names start with
the __builtin_ prefix, and the other without. Both forms have the
same type (including prototype), the same address (when their address is
taken), and the same meaning as the C library functions even if you specify
the -fno-builtin option see C Dialect Options). Many of these
functions are only optimized in certain cases; if they are not optimized in
a particular case, a call to the library function is emitted.
Outside strict ISO C mode (-ansi, -std=c90,
-std=c99 or -std=c11), the functions
_exit, alloca, bcmp, bzero,
dcgettext, dgettext, dremf, dreml,
drem, exp10f, exp10l, exp10, ffsll,
ffsl, ffs, fprintf_unlocked,
fputs_unlocked, gammaf, gammal, gamma,
gammaf_r, gammal_r, gamma_r, gettext,
index, isascii, j0f, j0l, j0,
j1f, j1l, j1, jnf, jnl, jn,
lgammaf_r, lgammal_r, lgamma_r, mempcpy,
pow10f, pow10l, pow10, printf_unlocked,
rindex, scalbf, scalbl, scalb,
signbit, signbitf, signbitl, signbitd32,
signbitd64, signbitd128, significandf,
significandl, significand, sincosf,
sincosl, sincos, stpcpy, stpncpy,
strcasecmp, strdup, strfmon, strncasecmp,
strndup, toascii, y0f, y0l, y0,
y1f, y1l, y1, ynf, ynl and
yn
may be handled as built-in functions.
All these functions have corresponding versions
prefixed with __builtin_, which may be used even in strict C90
mode.
The ISO C99 functions
_Exit, acoshf, acoshl, acosh, asinhf,
asinhl, asinh, atanhf, atanhl, atanh,
cabsf, cabsl, cabs, cacosf, cacoshf,
cacoshl, cacosh, cacosl, cacos,
cargf, cargl, carg, casinf, casinhf,
casinhl, casinh, casinl, casin,
catanf, catanhf, catanhl, catanh,
catanl, catan, cbrtf, cbrtl, cbrt,
ccosf, ccoshf, ccoshl, ccosh, ccosl,
ccos, cexpf, cexpl, cexp, cimagf,
cimagl, cimag, clogf, clogl, clog,
conjf, conjl, conj, copysignf, copysignl,
copysign, cpowf, cpowl, cpow, cprojf,
cprojl, cproj, crealf, creall, creal,
csinf, csinhf, csinhl, csinh, csinl,
csin, csqrtf, csqrtl, csqrt, ctanf,
ctanhf, ctanhl, ctanh, ctanl, ctan,
erfcf, erfcl, erfc, erff, erfl,
erf, exp2f, exp2l, exp2, expm1f,
expm1l, expm1, fdimf, fdiml, fdim,
fmaf, fmal, fmaxf, fmaxl, fmax,
fma, fminf, fminl, fmin, hypotf,
hypotl, hypot, ilogbf, ilogbl, ilogb,
imaxabs, isblank, iswblank, lgammaf,
lgammal, lgamma, llabs, llrintf, llrintl,
llrint, llroundf, llroundl, llround,
log1pf, log1pl, log1p, log2f, log2l,
log2, logbf, logbl, logb, lrintf,
lrintl, lrint, lroundf, lroundl,
lround, nearbyintf, nearbyintl, nearbyint,
nextafterf, nextafterl, nextafter,
nexttowardf, nexttowardl, nexttoward,
remainderf, remainderl, remainder, remquof,
remquol, remquo, rintf, rintl, rint,
roundf, roundl, round, scalblnf,
scalblnl, scalbln, scalbnf, scalbnl,
scalbn, snprintf, tgammaf, tgammal,
tgamma, truncf, truncl, trunc,
vfscanf, vscanf, vsnprintf and vsscanf
are handled as built-in functions
except in strict ISO C90 mode (-ansi or -std=c90).
There are also built-in versions of the ISO C99 functions
acosf, acosl, asinf, asinl, atan2f,
atan2l, atanf, atanl, ceilf, ceill,
cosf, coshf, coshl, cosl, expf,
expl, fabsf, fabsl, floorf, floorl,
fmodf, fmodl, frexpf, frexpl, ldexpf,
ldexpl, log10f, log10l, logf, logl,
modfl, modf, powf, powl, sinf,
sinhf, sinhl, sinl, sqrtf, sqrtl,
tanf, tanhf, tanhl and tanl
that are recognized in any mode since ISO C90 reserves these names for
the purpose to which ISO C99 puts them. All these functions have
corresponding versions prefixed with __builtin_.
There are also GNU extension functions clog10, clog10f and
clog10l which names are reserved by ISO C99 for future use.
All these functions have versions prefixed with __builtin_.
The ISO C94 functions
iswalnum, iswalpha, iswcntrl, iswdigit,
iswgraph, iswlower, iswprint, iswpunct,
iswspace, iswupper, iswxdigit, towlower and
towupper
are handled as built-in functions
except in strict ISO C90 mode (-ansi or -std=c90).
The ISO C90 functions
abort, abs, acos, asin, atan2,
atan, calloc, ceil, cosh, cos,
exit, exp, fabs, floor, fmod,
fprintf, fputs, frexp, fscanf,
isalnum, isalpha, iscntrl, isdigit,
isgraph, islower, isprint, ispunct,
isspace, isupper, isxdigit, tolower,
toupper, labs, ldexp, log10, log,
malloc, memchr, memcmp, memcpy,
memset, modf, pow, printf, putchar,
puts, scanf, sinh, sin, snprintf,
sprintf, sqrt, sscanf, strcat,
strchr, strcmp, strcpy, strcspn,
strlen, strncat, strncmp, strncpy,
strpbrk, strrchr, strspn, strstr,
tanh, tan, vfprintf, vprintf and vsprintf
are all recognized as built-in functions unless
-fno-builtin is specified (or -fno-builtin-function
is specified for an individual function). All of these functions have
corresponding versions prefixed with __builtin_.
GCC provides built-in versions of the ISO C99 floating-point comparison
macros that avoid raising exceptions for unordered operands. They have
the same names as the standard macros ( isgreater,
isgreaterequal, isless, islessequal,
islessgreater, and isunordered) , with __builtin_
prefixed. We intend for a library implementor to be able to simply
#define each standard macro to its built-in equivalent.
In the same fashion, GCC provides fpclassify, isfinite,
isinf_sign, isnormal and signbit built-ins used with
__builtin_ prefixed. The isinf and isnan
built-in functions appear both with and without the __builtin_ prefix.
The __builtin_alloca function must be called at block scope.
The function allocates an object size bytes large on the stack
of the calling function. The object is aligned on the default stack
alignment boundary for the target determined by the
__BIGGEST_ALIGNMENT__ macro. The __builtin_alloca
function returns a pointer to the first byte of the allocated object.
The lifetime of the allocated object ends just before the calling
function returns to its caller. This is so even when
__builtin_alloca is called within a nested block.
For example, the following function allocates eight objects of n
bytes each on the stack, storing a pointer to each in consecutive elements
of the array a. It then passes the array to function g
which can safely use the storage pointed to by each of the array elements.
void f (unsigned n)
{
void *a [8];
for (int i = 0; i != 8; ++i)
a [i] = __builtin_alloca (n);
g (a, n); // safe
}
Since the __builtin_alloca function doesn’t validate its argument
it is the responsibility of its caller to make sure the argument doesn’t
cause it to exceed the stack size limit.
The __builtin_alloca function is provided to make it possible to
allocate on the stack arrays of bytes with an upper bound that may be
computed at run time. Since C99 Variable Length Arrays offer
similar functionality under a portable, more convenient, and safer
interface they are recommended instead, in both C99 and C++ programs
where GCC provides them as an extension.
See Variable Length, for details.
The __builtin_alloca_with_align function must be called at block
scope. The function allocates an object size bytes large on
the stack of the calling function. The allocated object is aligned on
the boundary specified by the argument alignment whose unit is given
in bits (not bytes). The size argument must be positive and not
exceed the stack size limit. The alignment argument must be a constant
integer expression that evaluates to a power of 2 greater than or equal to
CHAR_BIT and less than some unspecified maximum. Invocations
with other values are rejected with an error indicating the valid bounds.
The function returns a pointer to the first byte of the allocated object.
The lifetime of the allocated object ends at the end of the block in which
the function was called. The allocated storage is released no later than
just before the calling function returns to its caller, but may be released
at the end of the block in which the function was called.
For example, in the following function the call to g is unsafe
because when overalign is non-zero, the space allocated by
__builtin_alloca_with_align may have been released at the end
of the if statement in which it was called.
void f (unsigned n, bool overalign)
{
void *p;
if (overalign)
p = __builtin_alloca_with_align (n, 64 /* bits */);
else
p = __builtin_alloc (n);
g (p, n); // unsafe
}
Since the __builtin_alloca_with_align function doesn’t validate its
size argument it is the responsibility of its caller to make sure
the argument doesn’t cause it to exceed the stack size limit.
The __builtin_alloca_with_align function is provided to make
it possible to allocate on the stack overaligned arrays of bytes with
an upper bound that may be computed at run time. Since C99
Variable Length Arrays offer the same functionality under
a portable, more convenient, and safer interface they are recommended
instead, in both C99 and C++ programs where GCC provides them as
an extension. See Variable Length, for details.
You can use the built-in function __builtin_types_compatible_p to
determine whether two types are the same.
This built-in function returns 1 if the unqualified versions of the types type1 and type2 (which are types, not expressions) are compatible, 0 otherwise. The result of this built-in function can be used in integer constant expressions.
This built-in function ignores top level qualifiers (e.g., const,
volatile). For example, int is equivalent to const
int.
The type int[] and int[5] are compatible. On the other
hand, int and char * are not compatible, even if the size
of their types, on the particular architecture are the same. Also, the
amount of pointer indirection is taken into account when determining
similarity. Consequently, short * is not similar to
short **. Furthermore, two types that are typedefed are
considered compatible if their underlying types are compatible.
An enum type is not considered to be compatible with another
enum type even if both are compatible with the same integer
type; this is what the C standard specifies.
For example, enum {foo, bar} is not similar to
enum {hot, dog}.
You typically use this function in code whose execution varies depending on the arguments’ types. For example:
#define foo(x) \
({ \
typeof (x) tmp = (x); \
if (__builtin_types_compatible_p (typeof (x), long double)) \
tmp = foo_long_double (tmp); \
else if (__builtin_types_compatible_p (typeof (x), double)) \
tmp = foo_double (tmp); \
else if (__builtin_types_compatible_p (typeof (x), float)) \
tmp = foo_float (tmp); \
else \
abort (); \
tmp; \
})
Note: This construct is only available for C.
The call_exp expression must be a function call, and the pointer_exp expression must be a pointer. The pointer_exp is passed to the function call in the target’s static chain location. The result of builtin is the result of the function call.
Note: This builtin is only available for C. This builtin can be used to call Go closures from C.
You can use the built-in function __builtin_choose_expr to
evaluate code depending on the value of a constant expression. This
built-in function returns exp1 if const_exp, which is an
integer constant expression, is nonzero. Otherwise it returns exp2.
This built-in function is analogous to the ‘? :’ operator in C, except that the expression returned has its type unaltered by promotion rules. Also, the built-in function does not evaluate the expression that is not chosen. For example, if const_exp evaluates to true, exp2 is not evaluated even if it has side-effects.
This built-in function can return an lvalue if the chosen argument is an lvalue.
If exp1 is returned, the return type is the same as exp1’s type. Similarly, if exp2 is returned, its return type is the same as exp2.
Example:
#define foo(x) \
__builtin_choose_expr ( \
__builtin_types_compatible_p (typeof (x), double), \
foo_double (x), \
__builtin_choose_expr ( \
__builtin_types_compatible_p (typeof (x), float), \
foo_float (x), \
/* The void expression results in a compile-time error \
when assigning the result to something. */ \
(void)0))
Note: This construct is only available for C. Furthermore, the unused expression (exp1 or exp2 depending on the value of const_exp) may still generate syntax errors. This may change in future revisions.
The built-in function __builtin_complex is provided for use in
implementing the ISO C11 macros CMPLXF, CMPLX and
CMPLXL. real and imag must have the same type, a
real binary floating-point type, and the result has the corresponding
complex type with real and imaginary parts real and imag.
Unlike ‘real + I * imag’, this works even when
infinities, NaNs and negative zeros are involved.
You can use the built-in function __builtin_constant_p to
determine if a value is known to be constant at compile time and hence
that GCC can perform constant-folding on expressions involving that
value. The argument of the function is the value to test. The function
returns the integer 1 if the argument is known to be a compile-time
constant and 0 if it is not known to be a compile-time constant. A
return of 0 does not indicate that the value is not a constant,
but merely that GCC cannot prove it is a constant with the specified
value of the -O option.
You typically use this function in an embedded application where memory is a critical resource. If you have some complex calculation, you may want it to be folded if it involves constants, but need to call a function if it does not. For example:
#define Scale_Value(X) \ (__builtin_constant_p (X) \ ? ((X) * SCALE + OFFSET) : Scale (X))
You may use this built-in function in either a macro or an inline function. However, if you use it in an inlined function and pass an argument of the function as the argument to the built-in, GCC never returns 1 when you call the inline function with a string constant or compound literal (see Compound Literals) and does not return 1 when you pass a constant numeric value to the inline function unless you specify the -O option.
You may also use __builtin_constant_p in initializers for static
data. For instance, you can write
static const int table[] = {
__builtin_constant_p (EXPRESSION) ? (EXPRESSION) : -1,
/* … */
};
This is an acceptable initializer even if EXPRESSION is not a
constant expression, including the case where
__builtin_constant_p returns 1 because EXPRESSION can be
folded to a constant but EXPRESSION contains operands that are
not otherwise permitted in a static initializer (for example,
0 && foo ()). GCC must be more conservative about evaluating the
built-in in this case, because it has no opportunity to perform
optimization.
You may use __builtin_expect to provide the compiler with
branch prediction information. In general, you should prefer to
use actual profile feedback for this (-fprofile-arcs), as
programmers are notoriously bad at predicting how their programs
actually perform. However, there are applications in which this
data is hard to collect.
The return value is the value of exp, which should be an integral expression. The semantics of the built-in are that it is expected that exp == c. For example:
if (__builtin_expect (x, 0)) foo ();
indicates that we do not expect to call foo, since
we expect x to be zero. Since you are limited to integral
expressions for exp, you should use constructions such as
if (__builtin_expect (ptr != NULL, 1)) foo (*ptr);
when testing pointer or floating-point values.
This function causes the program to exit abnormally. GCC implements
this function by using a target-dependent mechanism (such as
intentionally executing an illegal instruction) or by calling
abort. The mechanism used may vary from release to release so
you should not rely on any particular implementation.
If control flow reaches the point of the __builtin_unreachable,
the program is undefined. It is useful in situations where the
compiler cannot deduce the unreachability of the code.
One such case is immediately following an asm statement that
either never terminates, or one that transfers control elsewhere
and never returns. In this example, without the
__builtin_unreachable, GCC issues a warning that control
reaches the end of a non-void function. It also generates code
to return after the asm.
int f (int c, int v)
{
if (c)
{
return v;
}
else
{
asm("jmp error_handler");
__builtin_unreachable ();
}
}
Because the asm statement unconditionally transfers control out
of the function, control never reaches the end of the function
body. The __builtin_unreachable is in fact unreachable and
communicates this fact to the compiler.
Another use for __builtin_unreachable is following a call a
function that never returns but that is not declared
__attribute__((noreturn)), as in this example:
void function_that_never_returns (void);
int g (int c)
{
if (c)
{
return 1;
}
else
{
function_that_never_returns ();
__builtin_unreachable ();
}
}
This function returns its first argument, and allows the compiler to assume that the returned pointer is at least align bytes aligned. This built-in can have either two or three arguments, if it has three, the third argument should have integer type, and if it is nonzero means misalignment offset. For example:
void *x = __builtin_assume_aligned (arg, 16);
means that the compiler can assume x, set to arg, is at least
16-byte aligned, while:
void *x = __builtin_assume_aligned (arg, 32, 8);
means that the compiler can assume for x, set to arg, that
(char *) x - 8 is 32-byte aligned.
This function is the equivalent to the preprocessor __LINE__
macro and returns the line number of the invocation of the built-in.
In a C++ default argument for a function F, it gets the line number of
the call to F.
This function is the equivalent to the preprocessor __FUNCTION__
macro and returns the function name the invocation of the built-in is in.
This function is the equivalent to the preprocessor __FILE__
macro and returns the file name the invocation of the built-in is in.
In a C++ default argument for a function F, it gets the file name of
the call to F.
This function is used to flush the processor’s instruction cache for the region of memory between begin inclusive and end exclusive. Some targets require that the instruction cache be flushed, after modifying memory containing code, in order to obtain deterministic behavior.
If the target does not require instruction cache flushes,
__builtin___clear_cache has no effect. Otherwise either
instructions are emitted in-line to clear the instruction cache or a
call to the __clear_cache function in libgcc is made.
This function is used to minimize cache-miss latency by moving data into
a cache before it is accessed.
You can insert calls to __builtin_prefetch into code for which
you know addresses of data in memory that is likely to be accessed soon.
If the target supports them, data prefetch instructions are generated.
If the prefetch is done early enough before the access then the data will
be in the cache by the time it is accessed.
The value of addr is the address of the memory to prefetch. There are two optional arguments, rw and locality. The value of rw is a compile-time constant one or zero; one means that the prefetch is preparing for a write to the memory address and zero, the default, means that the prefetch is preparing for a read. The value locality must be a compile-time constant integer between zero and three. A value of zero means that the data has no temporal locality, so it need not be left in the cache after the access. A value of three means that the data has a high degree of temporal locality and should be left in all levels of cache possible. Values of one and two mean, respectively, a low or moderate degree of temporal locality. The default is three.
for (i = 0; i < n; i++)
{
a[i] = a[i] + b[i];
__builtin_prefetch (&a[i+j], 1, 1);
__builtin_prefetch (&b[i+j], 0, 1);
/* … */
}
Data prefetch does not generate faults if addr is invalid, but
the address expression itself must be valid. For example, a prefetch
of p->next does not fault if p->next is not a valid
address, but evaluation faults if p is not a valid address.
If the target does not support data prefetch, the address expression is evaluated if it includes side effects but no other code is generated and GCC does not issue a warning.
Returns a positive infinity, if supported by the floating-point format,
else DBL_MAX. This function is suitable for implementing the
ISO C macro HUGE_VAL.
Similar to __builtin_huge_val, except the return type is float.
Similar to __builtin_huge_val, except the return
type is long double.
This built-in implements the C99 fpclassify functionality. The first
five int arguments should be the target library’s notion of the
possible FP classes and are used for return values. They must be
constant values and they must appear in this order: FP_NAN,
FP_INFINITE, FP_NORMAL, FP_SUBNORMAL and
FP_ZERO. The ellipsis is for exactly one floating-point value
to classify. GCC treats the last argument as type-generic, which
means it does not do default promotion from float to double.
Similar to __builtin_huge_val, except a warning is generated
if the target floating-point format does not support infinities.
Similar to __builtin_inf, except the return type is _Decimal32.
Similar to __builtin_inf, except the return type is _Decimal64.
Similar to __builtin_inf, except the return type is _Decimal128.
Similar to __builtin_inf, except the return type is float.
This function is suitable for implementing the ISO C99 macro INFINITY.
Similar to __builtin_inf, except the return
type is long double.
Similar to isinf, except the return value is -1 for
an argument of -Inf and 1 for an argument of +Inf.
Note while the parameter list is an
ellipsis, this function only accepts exactly one floating-point
argument. GCC treats this parameter as type-generic, which means it
does not do default promotion from float to double.
This is an implementation of the ISO C99 function nan.
Since ISO C99 defines this function in terms of strtod, which we
do not implement, a description of the parsing is in order. The string
is parsed as by strtol; that is, the base is recognized by
leading ‘0’ or ‘0x’ prefixes. The number parsed is placed
in the significand such that the least significant bit of the number
is at the least significant bit of the significand. The number is
truncated to fit the significand field provided. The significand is
forced to be a quiet NaN.
This function, if given a string literal all of which would have been
consumed by strtol, is evaluated early enough that it is considered a
compile-time constant.
Similar to __builtin_nan, except the return type is _Decimal32.
Similar to __builtin_nan, except the return type is _Decimal64.
Similar to __builtin_nan, except the return type is _Decimal128.
Similar to __builtin_nan, except the return type is float.
Similar to __builtin_nan, except the return type is long double.
Similar to __builtin_nan, except the significand is forced
to be a signaling NaN. The nans function is proposed by
WG14 N965.
Similar to __builtin_nans, except the return type is float.
Similar to __builtin_nans, except the return type is long double.
Returns one plus the index of the least significant 1-bit of x, or if x is zero, returns zero.
Returns the number of leading 0-bits in x, starting at the most significant bit position. If x is 0, the result is undefined.
Returns the number of trailing 0-bits in x, starting at the least significant bit position. If x is 0, the result is undefined.
Returns the number of leading redundant sign bits in x, i.e. the number of bits following the most significant bit that are identical to it. There are no special cases for 0 or other values.
Returns the number of 1-bits in x.
Returns the parity of x, i.e. the number of 1-bits in x modulo 2.
Similar to __builtin_ffs, except the argument type is
long.
Similar to __builtin_clz, except the argument type is
unsigned long.
Similar to __builtin_ctz, except the argument type is
unsigned long.
Similar to __builtin_clrsb, except the argument type is
long.
Similar to __builtin_popcount, except the argument type is
unsigned long.
Similar to __builtin_parity, except the argument type is
unsigned long.
Similar to __builtin_ffs, except the argument type is
long long.
Similar to __builtin_clz, except the argument type is
unsigned long long.
Similar to __builtin_ctz, except the argument type is
unsigned long long.
Similar to __builtin_clrsb, except the argument type is
long long.
Similar to __builtin_popcount, except the argument type is
unsigned long long.
Similar to __builtin_parity, except the argument type is
unsigned long long.
Returns the first argument raised to the power of the second. Unlike the
pow function no guarantees about precision and rounding are made.
Similar to __builtin_powi, except the argument and return types
are float.
Similar to __builtin_powi, except the argument and return types
are long double.
Returns x with the order of the bytes reversed; for example,
0xaabb becomes 0xbbaa. Byte here always means
exactly 8 bits.
Similar to __builtin_bswap16, except the argument and return types
are 32 bit.
Similar to __builtin_bswap32, except the argument and return types
are 64 bit.
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