The C Language

Prof. Stephen A. Edwards

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

The C Language
Currently, the most commonly-used language for embedded systems High-level assembly Very portable: compilers exist for virtually every processor Easy-to-understand compilation Produces efficient code Fairly concise

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

C History
Developed between 1969 and 1973 along with Unix Due mostly to Dennis Ritchie Designed for systems programming

Operating systems Utility programs Compilers Filters

Evolved from B, which evolved from BCPL

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

BCPL
Designed by Martin Richards (Cambridge) in 1967 Typeless

Everything an n-bit integer (a machine word) Pointers (addresses) and integers identical

Memory is an undifferentiated array of words Natural model for word-addressed machines Local variables depend on frame-pointer-relative addressing: dynamically-sized automatic objects not permitted Strings awkward

Routines expand and pack bytes to/from word arrays

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

C History
Original machine (DEC PDP-11) was very small

24K bytes of memory, 12K used for operating system

Written when computers were big, capital equipment

Group would get one, develop new language, OS

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

C History
Many language features designed to reduce memory

Forward declarations required for everything Designed to work in one pass: must know everything No function nesting

PDP-11 was byte-addressed

Now standard Meant BCPLs word-based model was insufficient

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Hello World in C
#include <stdio.h> void main() - Clumsy { printf(Hello, world!\n); + Cheaply implemented + Very flexible }
Preprocessor used to share information among source files

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Hello World in C
#include <stdio.h>

Program mostly a collection of functions main function special: the entry point

void main() void qualifier indicates function does not return { printf(Hello, world!\n); anything }

I/O performed by a library function: not included in the language

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Euclids algorithm in C
int gcd(int m, int n) { int r; while ( (r = m % n) != 0) { m = n; n = r; } return n; }
New Style function declaration lists number and type of arguments Originally only listed return type. Generated code did not care how many arguments were actually passed. Arguments are callby-value

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Euclids algorithm in C
int gcd(int m, int n) { int r; while ( (r = m % n) != 0) { m = n; n = r; } Excess return n; arguments simply }
Frame pointer n m ret. addr. r ignored Stack pointer Automatic variable Storage allocated on stack when function entered, released when it returns. All parameters, automatic variables accessed w.r.t. frame pointer. Extra storage needed while evaluating large expressions also placed on the stack

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Euclids algorithm in C
int gcd(int m, int n) { int r; while ( (r = m % n) != 0) { m = n; n = r; } return n; }
Expression: Cs basic type of statement. Arithmetic and logical Assignment (=) returns a value, so can be used in expressions % is remainder != is not equal

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Euclids algorithm in C
int gcd(int m, int n) { int r; while ( (r = m % n) != 0) { m = n; n = r; High-level control-flow } statement. Ultimately return n; Each function becomes a conditional returns a single } branch. value, usually an
integer. Returned through a specific register by convention. Supports structured programming

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Euclid Compiled on PDP-11

.globl .text _gcd: jsr L2:mov sxt div mov jeq mov mov jbr L3:mov jbr L1:jmp _gcd r5,rsave 4(r5),r1 r0 6(r5),r0 r1,-10(r5) L3 6(r5),4(r5) -10(r5),6(r5) L2 6(r5),r0 L1 rretrn r0-r7 PC is r7, SP is r6, FP is r5 save sp in frame pointer r5 r1 = n int gcd(int m, int n) sign extend { int r; m / n = r0,r1 while ( (r = m % n) != 0) { r = m % n m = n n = r return n in r0 restore sp ptr, return
m = n; n = r; } return n; }

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Euclid Compiled on PDP-11

.globl .text _gcd: jsr L2:mov sxt div mov jeq mov mov jbr L3:mov jbr L1:jmp _gcd r5,rsave 4(r5),r1 r0 6(r5),r0 r1,-10(r5) L3 6(r5),4(r5) -10(r5),6(r5) L2 6(r5),r0 L1 rretrn

Very natural mapping from C into PDP-11 instructions. Complex addressing modes make frame-pointer-relative accesses easy. Another idiosyncrasy: registers were memory-mapped, so taking address of a variable in a register is straightforward.

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Pieces of C
Types and Variables

Definitions of data in memory Arithmetic, logical, and assignment operators in an infix notation Sequences of conditional, iteration, and branching instructions Groups of statements and variables invoked recursively

Expressions

Statements

Functions

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

C Types
Basic types: char, int, float, and double Meant to match the processors native types

Natural translation into assembly Fundamentally nonportable

Declaration syntax: string of specifiers followed by a declarator Declarators notation matches that in an expression Access a symbol using its declarator and get the basic type back

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

C Type Examples
int i; int *j, k; unsigned char *ch; float f[10]; int a[3][5][10]; int *func1(float); int (*func2)(void); Integer j: pointer to integer, int k ch: pointer to unsigned char Array of 10 floats 2-arg function Array of three arrays of five function returning int * pointer to function returning int

char nextChar(int, char*);

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

C Typedef
Type declarations recursive, complicated. Name new types with typedef Instead of int (*func2)(void) use typedef int func2t(void); func2t *func2;

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

C Structures
A struct is an object with named fields: struct { char *name; int x, y; int h, w; } box; Accessed using dot notation: box.x = 5; box.y = 2;
Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Struct bit-fields
Way to aggressively pack data in memory struct { unsigned int baud : 5; unsigned int div2 : 1; unsigned int use_external_clock : 1; } flags; Compiler will pack these fields into words Very implementation dependent: no guarantees of ordering, packing, etc. Usually less efficient

Reading a field requires masking and shifting

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

C Unions
Can store objects of different types at different times union { int ival; float fval; char *sval; }; Useful for arrays of dissimilar objects Potentially very dangerous Good example of Cs philosophy

Provide powerful mechanisms that can be abused

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Alignment of data in structs

Most processors require n-byte objects to be in memory at address n*k Side effect of wide memory busses E.g., a 32-bit memory bus Read from address 3 requires two accesses, shifting
1 4 3 2

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Alignment of data in structs

Compilers add padding to structs to ensure proper alignment, especially for arrays Pad to ensure alignment of largest object (with biggest requirement) struct { char a; int b; char c; }
b b b Pad b b b a b c a b c

Moral: rearrange to save memory

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

C Storage Classes
#include <stdlib.h> int global_static; static int file_static;

Linker-visible. Allocated at fixed location Visible within file. Allocated at fixed location.

void foo(int auto_param) { Visible within func. static int func_static; Allocated at fixed int auto_i, auto_a[10]; location. double *auto_d = malloc(sizeof(double)*5); }

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

C Storage Classes
#include <stdlib.h> int global_static; static int file_static; void foo(int auto_param) { Space allocated on static int func_static; stack by function. int auto_i, auto_a[10]; double *auto_d = malloc(sizeof(double)*5); }
Space allocated on heap by library routine.
Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Space allocated on stack by caller.

malloc() and free()

Library routines for managing the heap int *a; a = (int *) malloc(sizeof(int) * k); a[5] = 3; free(a); Allocate and free arbitrary-sized chunks of memory in any order

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

malloc() and free()

More flexible than automatic variables (stacked) More costly in time and space

malloc() and free() use complicated non-constant-time algorithms Each block generally consumes two additional words of memory
Pointer to next empty block Size of this block

Common source of errors

Using uninitialized memory Using freed memory Not allocating enough Neglecting to free disused blocks (memory leaks)

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

malloc() and free()

Memory usage errors so pervasive, entire successful company (Pure Software) founded to sell tool to track them down Purify tool inserts code that verifies each memory access Reports accesses of uninitialized memory, unallocated memory, etc. Publicly-available Electric Fence tool does something similar

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Dynamic Storage Allocation

What are malloc() and free() actually doing? Pool of memory segments:

Free

malloc(

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Dynamic Storage Allocation

Rules:

Each segment contiguous in memory (no holes) Segments do not move once allocated

malloc()

Find memory area large enough for segment Mark that memory is allocated

free()

Mark the segment as unallocated

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Dynamic Storage Allocation

Three issues: How to maintain information about free memory

The algorithm for locating a suitable block

The algorithm for freeing an allocated block

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Simple Dynamic Storage Allocation

Three issues: How to maintain information about free memory

Linked list

The algorithm for locating a suitable block

First-fit

The algorithm for freeing an allocated block

Coalesce adjacent free blocks

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Simple Dynamic Storage Allocation

Next Size

Next

First large-enough free block selected Free block divided into two Previous next pointer updated Newly-allocated region begins with a size value

Size Size Free block Allocated block malloc( )

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Simple Dynamic Storage Allocation

free(a)

Appropriate position in free list identified Newly-freed region added to adjacent free regions

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Dynamic Storage Allocation

Many, many variants Other fit algorithms Segregation of objects by sizes

8-byte objects in one region, 16 in another, etc.

More intelligent list structures

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Memory Pools
An alternative: Memory pools Separate management policy for each pool Stack-based pool: can only free whole pool at once

Very cheap operation Good for build-once data structures (e.g., compilers) Useful in object-oriented programs

Pool for objects of a single size

Not part of the C standard library

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Arrays
Array: sequence of identical objects in memory
Filippo Brunelleschi, Ospdale degli Innocenti, Firenze, Italy, 1421

int a[10]; means space for ten integers By itself, a is the address of the first integer *a and a[0] mean the same thing

The address of a is not stored in memory: the compiler inserts code to compute it when it appears Ritchie calls this interpretation the biggest conceptual jump from BCPL to C

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Multidimensional Arrays
Array declarations read right-to-left int a[10][3][2]; an array of ten arrays of three arrays of two ints In memory
3 3 ... 2 2 2 2 2 2 10
Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

2 2 2

Seagram Building, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe,1957

Multidimensional Arrays
Passing a multidimensional array as an argument requires all but the first dimension int a[10][3][2]; void examine( a[][3][2] ) { } Address for an access such as a[i][j][k] is a + k + 2*(j + 3*i)

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Multidimensional Arrays
Use arrays of pointers for variable-sized multidimensional arrays You need to allocate space for and initialize the arrays of pointers int ***a; a[3][5][4] expands to *(*(*(a+3)+5)+4)
int ***a The value

int **

int *

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

int

C Expressions
Traditional mathematical expressions y = a*x*x + b*x + c; Very rich set of expressions Able to deal with arithmetic and bit manipulation

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

C Expression Classes
arithmetic: + * / % comparison: == != < <= > >= bitwise logical: & | ^ ~ shifting: << >> lazy logical: && || ! conditional: ? : assignment: = += -= increment/decrement: ++ - sequencing: , pointer: * -> & []
Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Bitwise operators
and: & or: | xor: ^ not: ~ left shift: << right shift: >> Useful for bit-field manipulations #define MASK 0x040 if (a & MASK) { } c |= MASK; c &= ~MASK; d = (a & MASK) >> 4; /* Check bits */ /* Set bits */ /* Clear bits */ /* Select field */

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Lazy Logical Operators

Short circuit tests save time if ( a == 3 && b == 4 && c == 5 ) { } equivalent to if (a == 3) { if (b ==4) { if (c == 5) { } } } Evaluation order (left before right) provides safety if ( i <= SIZE && a[i] == 0 ) { }
Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Conditional Operator
c = a < b ? a + 1 : b 1; Evaluate first expression. If true, evaluate second, otherwise evaluate third. Puts almost statement-like behavior in expressions. BCPL allowed code in an expression: a := 5 + valof{ int i, s = 0; for (i = 0 ; i < 10 ; i++) s += a[I]; return s; }
Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Side-effects in expressions
Evaluating an expression often has side-effects a++ a=5 a = foo() increment a afterwards changes the value of a function foo may have side-effects

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Pointer Arithmetic
From BCPLs view of the world Pointer arithmetic is natural: everythings an integer int *p, *q; *(p+5) equivalent to p[5] If p and q point into same array, p q is number of elements between p and q. Accessing fields of a pointed-to structure has a shorthand: p->field means (*p).field

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

C Statements
Expression Conditional

if (expr) { } else {} switch (expr) { case c1: case c2: } while (expr) { } zero or more iterations do while (expr) at least one iteration for ( init ; valid ; next ) { } goto label continue; break; return expr;

Iteration

Jump

go to start of loop exit loop or switch return from function

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

The Switch Statement

Performs multi-way branches switch (expr) { case 1: break; case 5: case 6: break; default: break; }
tmp = expr; if (tmp == 1) goto L1 else if (tmp == 5) goto L5 else if (tmp == 6) goto L6 else goto Default; L1: goto Break; L5:; L6: goto Break; Default: goto Break; Break:

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Switch Generates Interesting Code

Sparse case labels tested sequentially if (e == 1) goto L1; else if (e == 10) goto L2; else if (e == 100) goto L3; Dense cases use a jump table table = { L1, L2, Default, L4, L5 }; if (e >= 1 and e <= 5) goto table[e]; Clever compilers may combine these
Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

setjmp/longjmp
A way to exit from deeply nested functions A hack now a formal part of the standard library #include <setjmp.h> jmp_buf jmpbuf;
Space for a return address and registers (including stack pointer, frame pointer) Stores context, returns 0

void top(void) { switch (setjmp(jmpbuf)) { case 0: child(); break; case 1: /* longjmp called */ break; Returns to context, making it } }
appear setjmp() returned 1

void deeplynested() { longjmp(jmpbuf, 1); }

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

The Macro Preprocessor

Relatively late and awkward addition to the language Symbolic constants #define PI 3.1415926535 Macros with arguments for emulating inlining #define min(x,y) ((x) < (y) ? (x) : (y)) Conditional compilation #ifdef __STDC__ File inclusion for sharing of declarations #include myheaders.h
Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Macro Preprocessor Pitfalls

Header file dependencies usually form a directed acyclic graph (DAG) How do you avoid defining things twice? Convention: surround each header (.h) file with a conditional: #ifndef __MYHEADER_H__ #define __MYHEADER_H__ /* Declarations */ #endif
Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Macro Preprocessor Pitfalls

Macros with arguments do not have function call semantics Function Call:

Each argument evaluated once, in undefined order, before function is called

Macro:

Each argument evaluated once every time it appears in expansion text

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Macro Preprocessor pitfalls

Example: the min function
int min(int a, int b) { if (a < b) return a; else return b; } #define min(a,b) ((a) < (b) ? (a) : (b))

Identical for min(5,x) Different when evaluating expression has side-effect: min(a++,b)

min function increments a once min macro may increment a twice if a < b

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Macro Preprocessor Pitfalls

Text substitution can expose unexpected groupings #define mult(a,b) a*b mult(5+3,2+4) Expands to 5 + 3 * 2 + 4 Operator precedence evaluates this as 5 + (3*2) + 4 = 15 not (5+3) * (2+4) = 48 as intended Moral: By convention, enclose each macro argument in parenthesis: #define mult(a,b) (a)*(b)
Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Nondeterminism in C
Library routines

malloc() returns a nondeterministically-chosen address Address used as a hash key produces nondeterministic results myfunc( func1(), func2(), func3() ) func1, func2, and func3 may be called in any order

Argument evaluation order

Word sizes int a; a = 1 << 16; a = 1 << 32;

/* Might be zero */ /* Might be zero */

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Nondeterminism in C
Uninitialized variables

Automatic variables may take values from stack Global variables left to the whims of the OS union { int a; float b; } u; u.a = 10; printf(%g, u.b); *a undefined unless it points within an allocated array and has been initialized Very easy to violate these rules Legal: int a[10]; a[-1] = 3; a[10] = 2; a[11] = 5; int *a, *b; a - b only defined if a and b point into the same array

Reading the wrong value from a union

Pointer dereference

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Nondeterminism in C
How to deal with nondeterminism?

Caveat programmer Compilers, lint, etc. dont really help

Studiously avoid nondeterministic constructs

Philosophy of C: get out of the programmers way C treats you like a consenting adult

Created by a systems programmer (Ritchie) Created by an educator (Wirth) Created by the Department of Defense

Pascal treats you like a misbehaving child

Ada treats you like a criminal

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Summary
C evolved from the typeless languages BCPL and B Array-of-bytes model of memory permeates the language Original weak type system strengthened over time C programs built from

Variable and type declarations Functions Statements Expressions

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Summary of C types
Built from primitive types that match processor types char, int, float, double, pointers Struct and union aggregate heterogeneous objects Arrays build sequences of identical objects Alignment restrictions ensured by compiler Multidimensional arrays Three storage classes

global, static (address fixed at compile time) automatic (on stack) heap (provided by malloc() and free() library calls)

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Summary of C expressions
Wide variety of operators

Arithmetic + - * / Logical && || (lazy) Bitwise & | Comparison < <= Assignment = += *= Increment/decrement ++ -Conditional ? :

Expressions may have side-effects

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Summary of C statements
Expression Conditional

if-else switch while do-while for(;;) goto break continue return

Iteration

Branching

Awkward setjmp, longjmp library routines for nonlocal goto

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

Summary of C
Preprocessor

symbolic constants inline-like functions conditional compilation file inclusion

Sources of nondeterminsm

library functions, evaluation order, variable sizes

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved

The Main Points

Like a high-level assembly language Array-of-cells model of memory Very efficient code generation follows from close semantic match Language lets you do just about everything Very easy to make mistakes

Copyright 2001 Stephen A. Edwards All rights reserved