Cross Platform C++ Assertion Library

Following up my previous articles on assertions please welcome my drop-in cross platform C++ assertion library.

It all started with the need to provide a meaningful message when assertions fire. There is a well-known hack with standard assert to inject a message next to the expression being tested:

assert(expression && "message");

But it’s limited to string literals.

I wanted improve on assert() by providing the following features:

being able to format a message that would also contain the values for different variables around the point of failure

having different levels of severity

being able to selectively ignore assertions while debugging

being able to break into the debugger at the exact point an assertion fires (that is in your own source code, instead of somewhere deep inside assert implementation)

implementation) no memory allocation

no unused variables warning when assertions are disabled

The library is designed to be lightweight would you decide to keep assertions enabled even in release builds.

The library is released under the WTFPL v2 and is available on my GitHub account.

Message Formatting

The library provides printf like formatting:

PEMPEK_ASSERT(expression); PEMPEK_ASSERT(expression, message, ...);

E.g:

PEMPEK_ASSERT(validate(v, min, max), "invalid value: %f, must be between %f and %f", v, min, max);

Levels Of Severity

This library defines different levels of severity:

PEMPEK_ASSERT_WARNING

PEKPEK_ASSERT_DEBUG

PEMPEK_ASSERT_ERROR

PEMPEK_ASSERT_FATAL

When you use PEMPEK_ASSERT , the severity level is determined by the PEMPEK_ASSERT_DEFAULT_LEVEL preprocessor token.

You can also add your own additional severity levels by using:

PEMPEK_ASSERT_CUSTOM(level, expression); PEMPEK_ASSERT_CUSTOM(level, expression, message, ...);

Default Assertion Handler

The default handler associates a predefined behavior to each of the different levels:

WARNING <= level < DEBUG : print the assertion message to stderr

: print the assertion message to DEBUG <= level < ERROR : print the assertion message to stderr and prompt the user for action

: print the assertion message to and prompt the user for action ERROR <= level < FATAL : throw an AssertionException

: throw an FATAL < level : abort the program

When prompting for user action, the default handler prints the following message on stderr :

`Press (I)gnore / Ignore (F)orever / Ignore (A)ll / (D)ebug / A(b)ort:`

And waits for input on stdin (except on iOS and Android platforms):

Ignore: ignore the current assertion

Ignore Forever: remember the file and line where the assertion fired and ignore it for the remaining execution of the program

Ignore All: ignore all remaining assertions (all files and lines)

Debug: break into the debugger if attached, otherwise abort() (on Windows, the system will prompt the user to attach a debugger)

(on Windows, the system will prompt the user to attach a debugger) Abort: call abort() immediately

If you know you’re going to launch your program from within a login shell session on iOS or Android (e.g. through SSH), define the PEMPEK_ASSERT_DEFAULT_HANDLER_STDIN preprocessor token.

Providing Your Own Handler

If you want to change the default behavior, e.g. by opening a dialog box or logging assertions to a database, you can provide a custom handler with the following signature:

typedef AssertAction::AssertAction (*AssertHandler)(const char* file, int line, const char* function, const char* expression, int level, const char* message);

Your handler will be called with the proper information filled and needs to return the action to be performed:

PEMPEK_ASSERT_ACTION_NONE, PEMPEK_ASSERT_ACTION_ABORT, PEMPEK_ASSERT_ACTION_BREAK, PEMPEK_ASSERT_ACTION_IGNORE, PEMPEK_ASSERT_ACTION_IGNORE_LINE, PEMPEK_ASSERT_ACTION_IGNORE_ALL, PEMPEK_ASSERT_ACTION_THROW

To install your custom handler, call:

pempek::assert::implementation::setAssertHandler(customHandler);

Unused Return Values

The library provides PEMPEK_ASSERT_USED that fires an assertion when an unused return value reaches end of scope:

PEMPEK_ASSERT_USED(int) foo();

When calling foo() ,

{ foo(); // ... bar(); // ... baz(); } <- assertion fires, caused by unused `foo()` return value reaching end of scope

Just like PEMPEK_ASSERT , PEMPEK_ASSERT_USED uses PEMPEK_ASSERT_DEFAULT_LEVEL . If you want more control on the severity, use one of:

PEMPEK_ASSERT_USED_WARNING(type) PEMPEK_ASSERT_USED_DEBUG(type) PEMPEK_ASSERT_USED_ERROR(type) PEMPEK_ASSERT_USED_FATAL(type) PEMPEK_ASSERT_USED_CUSTOM(level, type)

Arguably, unused return values are better of detected by the compiler. For instance GCC and Clang allow you to mark function with attributes:

__attribute__((warn_unused_result)) int foo();

Which will emit the following warning in case the return value is not used:

warning: ignoring return value of function declared with warn_unused_result attribute [-Wunused-result]

However there is no MSVC++ equivalent. Well there is __checkReturn but it supposedly only have effect when running static code analysis and I failed to make it work with Visual Studio 2013 Express. Wrapping PEMPEK_ASSERT_USED around a return type is a cheap way to debug a program where you suspect a function return value is being ignored and shouldn’t have been.

Customizing Compilation

In order to use PEMPEK_ASSERT in your own project, you just have to bring in the two pempek_assert.h and pempek_assert.cpp files. It’s that simple.

You can customize the library’s behavior by defining the following macros:

#define PEMPEK_ASSERT_ENABLED 1 or #define PEMPEK_ASSERT_ENABLED 0 : enable or disable assertions, otherwise enabled state is based on NDEBUG preprocessor token being defined

or : enable or disable assertions, otherwise enabled state is based on preprocessor token being defined PEMPEK_ASSERT_DEFAULT_LEVEL : default level to use when using the PEMPEK_ASSERT macro

: default level to use when using the macro PEMPEK_ASSERT_DISABLE_STL : AssertionException won’t inherit from std::exception

: won’t inherit from PEMPEK_ASSERT_DISABLE_EXCEPTIONS : the library won’t throw exceptions on ERROR level but instead rely on a user provided throwException function that will likely abort() the program

: the library won’t throw exceptions on level but instead rely on a user provided function that will likely the program PEMPEK_ASSERT_MESSAGE_BUFFER_SIZE

If you want to use a different prefix, provide your own header that includes pempek_assert.h and define the following:

// custom prefix #define ASSERT PEMPEK_ASSERT #define ASSERT_WARNING PEMPEK_ASSERT_WARNING #define ASSERT_DEBUG PEMPEK_ASSERT_DEBUG #define ASSERT_ERROR PEMPEK_ASSERT_ERROR #define ASSERT_FATAL PEMPEK_ASSERT_FATAL #define ASSERT_CUSTOM PEMPEK_ASSERT_CUSTOM #define ASSERT_USED PEMPEK_ASSERT_USED #define ASSERT_USED_WARNING PEMPEK_ASSERT_USED_WARNING #define ASSERT_USED_DEBUG PEMPEK_ASSERT_USED_DEBUG #define ASSERT_USED_ERROR PEMPEK_ASSERT_USED_ERROR #define ASSERT_USED_FATAL PEMPEK_ASSERT_USED_FATAL #define ASSERT_USED_CUSTOM PEMPEK_ASSERT_USED_CUSTOM

Credits Where It’s Due:

This assertion library has been lingering in my pet codebase for years. It has greatly been inspired by Andrei Alexandrescu’s CUJ articles:

I learnt the PEMPEK_UNUSED trick from Branimir Karadžić.

Finally, __VA_NARG__ has been invented by Laurent Deniau.

The library is released under the WTFPL v2 and is available on my GitHub account.