# Program crashes in release build

**URL:** <https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/program-crashes-in-release-build/16140>\
**Category:** SDL Development\
**Created:** [March 23, 2009, 4:18am UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/program-crashes-in-release-build/16140 "2009-03-23T04:18:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mitch\_curtis](https://discourse.libsdl.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/a9a28c/32.png) [@mitch\_curtis](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/mitch_curtis)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 4:18am UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/program-crashes-in-release-build/16140/1 "2009-03-23T04:18:12Z")

</div>

Hey.

I’m having an issue with my program where it crashes upon exiting in the release build. Funnily enough, this is the program:

#include “sdl.h”

int main(int argc, char\* args[])  
{  
return 0;  
}

Rather than post stuff that I’ve posted elsewhere, I’ll post the links to the sites that I posted to about this problem:

[http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=472394](http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=472394)

[http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic\_id=527261](http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=527261)

I’m completely dumbfounded… I don’t have any idea what to do about this. It works fine in the debug build…

Cheers.\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_  
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---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Paul\_Duffy](https://discourse.libsdl.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/76d3ee/32.png) [@Paul\_Duffy](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/Paul_Duffy)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 11:03am UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/program-crashes-in-release-build/16140/2 "2009-03-23T11:03:24Z")

</div>

Just a bit of a guess here (in wrong place to test this) but SDL relies on argc and argv, which you’ve called args. Try changing the name.— On Mon, 3/23/09, mitch curtis wrote:

> From: mitch curtis   
> Subject: [SDL] Program crashes in release build  
> To: sdl at [lists.libsdl.org](http://lists.libsdl.org)  
> Date: Monday, March 23, 2009, 4:18 AM  
> Hey.
> 
> I’m having an issue with my program where it crashes  
> upon exiting in the release build. Funnily enough, this is  
> the program:
> 
> #include “sdl.h”
> 
> int main(int argc, char\* args)  
> {  
> return 0;  
> }
> 
> Rather than post stuff that I’ve posted elsewhere,  
> I’ll post the links to the sites that I posted to about  
> this problem:
> 
> [http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=472394](http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=472394)
> 
> [http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic\_id=527261](http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=527261)
> 
> I’m completely dumbfounded… I don’t have any idea  
> what to do about this. It works fine in the debug build…
> 
> Cheers.
> 
> * * *
> 
> Find out what?s new with your friends Download the new  
> Windows Live Messenger  
> [Windows Essentials - Microsoft Support](http://download.live.com/ _______________________________________________ )  
> SDL mailing list  
> SDL at [lists.libsdl.org](http://lists.libsdl.org)  
> [http://lists.libsdl.org/listinfo.cgi/sdl-libsdl.org](http://lists.libsdl.org/listinfo.cgi/sdl-libsdl.org)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mitch\_curtis](https://discourse.libsdl.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/a9a28c/32.png) [@mitch\_curtis](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/mitch_curtis)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 11:16am UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/program-crashes-in-release-build/16140/3 "2009-03-23T11:16:51Z")

</div>

Hey. Thanks for the reply, but unfortunately it’s still throwing the exception.

I dunno how to reply to this list haha…

Just a bit of a guess here (in wrong place to test this) but SDL relies on argc and argv,  
which you’ve called args. Try changing the name.— On Mon, 3/23/09, mitch curtis \<@mitch\_curtis\> wrote:

> From: mitch curtis \<@mitch\_curtis\>  
> Subject: [SDL] Program crashes in release build  
> To: sdl at [lists.libsdl.org](http://lists.libsdl.org)  
> Date: Monday, March 23, 2009, 4:18 AM  
> Hey.
> 
> I’m having an issue with my program where it crashes  
> upon exiting in the release build. Funnily enough, this is  
> the program:
> 
> #include “sdl.h”
> 
> int main(int argc, char\* args)  
> {  
> return 0;  
> }
> 
> Rather than post stuff that I’ve posted elsewhere,  
> I’ll post the links to the sites that I posted to about  
> this problem:
> 
> [http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=472394](http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=472394)
> 
> [http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic\_id=527261](http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=527261)
> 
> I’m completely dumbfounded… I don’t have any idea  
> what to do about this. It works fine in the debug build…
> 
> Cheers.

* * *

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---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jeff\_Post](https://discourse.libsdl.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Jeff\_Post](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/Jeff_Post)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 12:35pm UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/program-crashes-in-release-build/16140/4 "2009-03-23T12:35:09Z")

</div>

As long as he refers to it as args in the body of main, the name change  
doesn’t matter.

JeffOn Monday 23 March 2009 04:03, Paul Duffy wrote:

> Just a bit of a guess here (in wrong place to test this) but SDL relies on  
> argc and argv, which you’ve called args. Try changing the name.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Paul\_Duffy](https://discourse.libsdl.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/76d3ee/32.png) [@Paul\_Duffy](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/Paul_Duffy)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 1:53pm UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/program-crashes-in-release-build/16140/5 "2009-03-23T13:53:13Z")

</div>

This is what happens when someone ‘reply alls’ to a mailing list. I’ll send this again.

That’s all very well so long as only he’s referring to args, but there are parts of SDL which also refer to the arguments and expect them to be called argv. This is something which has caused problems before when people have tried to leave argc and argv out when working with SDL.— On Mon, 3/23/09, Jeff Post \<j\_post at [pacbell.net](http://pacbell.net)\> wrote:

> From: Jeff Post \<j\_post at [pacbell.net](http://pacbell.net)\>  
> Subject: Re: [SDL] Program crashes in release build  
> To: @Paul_Duffy, “A list for developers using the SDL library. (includes SDL-announce)”   
> Date: Monday, March 23, 2009, 12:35 PM  
> On Monday 23 March 2009 04:03, Paul Duffy wrote:
> 
> > Just a bit of a guess here (in wrong place to test  
> > this) but SDL relies on  
> > argc and argv, which you’ve called args. Try  
> > changing the name.
> 
> As long as he refers to it as args in the body of main, the  
> name change  
> doesn’t matter.
> 
> Jeff

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jeff\_Post](https://discourse.libsdl.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Jeff\_Post](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/Jeff_Post)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 2:53pm UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/program-crashes-in-release-build/16140/6 "2009-03-23T14:53:10Z")

</div>

argv is not global. As long as he passes “args” from main to any SDL function  
that expects argv, all will be well.

JeffOn Monday 23 March 2009 06:53, Paul Duffy wrote:

> That’s all very well so long as only he’s referring to args, but there are  
> parts of SDL which also refer to the arguments and expect them to be called  
> argv. This is something which has caused problems before when people have  
> tried to leave argc and argv out when working with SDL.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Paul\_Duffy](https://discourse.libsdl.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/76d3ee/32.png) [@Paul\_Duffy](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/Paul_Duffy)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 4:25pm UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/program-crashes-in-release-build/16140/7 "2009-03-23T16:25:13Z")

</div>

You need to read through the header files sometime.

sdl.h includes sdl\_main.h which has a specific #define which substitutes ‘main’ with ‘SDL\_main’ and a function prototype for SDL\_main.

While it’s true that the name in the prototype does not have to be the same as in the function proper according to the standards, compilers and their optimisation routines can do some very unstandard things.

So, like I said, SDL expects the main function to have a certani format. This is because it does things to the main function in the preprocessor which doesn’t care if something’s global or not.

The problem this guy is having looks very much like an over-optimisation issue. It’s entirely possible that as the compiler isn’t seeing anything properly used from sdl.h and all the included files that it’s optimising this right out. It may be something to do with the mismatch, it may be something else.

Just because something has not been a problem before doesn’t mean it’s not going to bite you sometime.

/\* The application’s main() function must be called with C linkage,  
and should be declared like this:  
#ifdef \_\_cplusplus  
extern “C”  
#endif  
int main(int argc, char \*argv)  
{  
}  
\*/  
#define main SDL\_main

/\* The prototype for the application’s main() function \*/  
extern C\_LINKAGE int SDL\_main(int argc, char \*argv);— On Mon, 3/23/09, Jeff Post \<j\_post at [pacbell.net](http://pacbell.net)\> wrote:

> From: Jeff Post \<j\_post at [pacbell.net](http://pacbell.net)\>  
> Subject: Re: [SDL] Program crashes in release build  
> To: @Paul_Duffy, “A list for developers using the SDL library. (includes SDL-announce)”   
> Date: Monday, March 23, 2009, 2:53 PM  
> On Monday 23 March 2009 06:53, Paul Duffy wrote:
> 
> > That’s all very well so long as only he’s  
> > referring to args, but there are  
> > parts of SDL which also refer to the arguments and  
> > expect them to be called  
> > argv. This is something which has caused problems  
> > before when people have  
> > tried to leave argc and argv out when working with  
> > SDL.
> 
> argv is not global. As long as he passes “args”  
> from main to any SDL function  
> that expects argv, all will be well.
> 
> Jeff

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mitch\_curtis](https://discourse.libsdl.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/a9a28c/32.png) [@mitch\_curtis](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/mitch_curtis)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 11:33pm UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/program-crashes-in-release-build/16140/8 "2009-03-23T23:33:29Z")

</div>

I tried what you suggested but it’s still giving me the exception… did you take a look at my project settings in the other links and also where the exception took me to? I’m hoping that might prove indicative of the problem.

#include “sdl.h”

#ifdef \_\_cplusplus  
extern “C”  
#endif

int main(int argc, char\* argv[])  
{  
return 0;  
}\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_  
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---

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**Author:** ![necron](https://discourse.libsdl.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@necron](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/necron)\
**Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 5:43am UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/program-crashes-in-release-build/16140/9 "2009-03-24T05:43:01Z")

</div>

Hiyyya, it will be clear as day if you try to duplicate the issue on another compiler and the another computer. You don’t know what your functions are doing so you can release everything, your compiler settings, or what is returning what and why…did I forget anything? lol lol lol no I’m just giving you the rasberry.

## Just start with a known good program and add/replace one part at a time (with full rebuilds) till the error happens then you know where to look. Enjoy--------------------------

---- mitch curtis wrote:

=============

I tried what you suggested but it’s still giving me the exception… did you take a look at my project settings in the other links and also where the exception took me to? I’m hoping that might prove indicative of the problem.

#include “sdl.h”

#ifdef \_\_cplusplus  
extern “C”  
#endif

int main(int argc, char\* argv[])  
{  
return 0;  
}

* * *

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---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mitch\_curtis](https://discourse.libsdl.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/a9a28c/32.png) [@mitch\_curtis](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/mitch_curtis)\
**Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 7:38am UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/program-crashes-in-release-build/16140/10 "2009-03-24T07:38:12Z")

</div>

Hey. Not really sure what you mean, as I am not calling any functions. All I have is main, and I #include “SDL.h”.  
Trying it on another computer sounds like a good idea, but what would it prove?-----------

Hiyyya, it will be clear as day if you try to duplicate the issue on another compiler and the another computer.  
You don’t know what your functions are doing so you can release everything, your compiler settings,  
or what is returning what and why…did I forget anything? lol lol lol no I’m just giving you the rasberry.

Just start with a known good program and add/replace one part at a time (with full rebuilds)  
till the error happens then you know where to look. Enjoy

* * *

Find out what?s new with your friends Download the new Windows Live Messenger  
[http://download.live.com/](http://download.live.com/)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Paul\_Duffy](https://discourse.libsdl.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/76d3ee/32.png) [@Paul\_Duffy](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/Paul_Duffy)\
**Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 2:43pm UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/program-crashes-in-release-build/16140/11 "2009-03-24T14:43:25Z")

</div>

OK, now that I’m properly awake again.

I’m not sure exactly which example you’re wanting the help with at the exact moment. There’s the checkers example (I’m not seeing any use of destructors, this isn’t ObjC is it?) and the base example you’ve copied here.

Usually when I see an error like this, it’s down to going only slightly out of the allocated memory elsewhere in the program. If, for example, you accidently write one cell beyond the end of an array it’ll be a small enough error when it happens it can still be within program memory, not spilling into system memory, and it won’t immediately crash the program but when you go to free memory (any memory, not just the memory you’ve misused) the whole thing just keels over. When you exit, the O/S attempts to free any memory cleanly and deallocate resources which is why this happens here.

If course, it’d be easy to say something like this must be the problem if it was just one program, calling a destructor on any object would have a similar effect in the right place. This might be worth trying anyway to see if there’s any effect.

Still, try it on another computer if you can. There are a range of issues that can be cause by flagging hardware and SDL is particularly likely to highlight such issues as it pokes itself into a lot of areas most software (like a word processor) just doesn’t need.

As for the debugging/release issue. This is something of a common problem. Debugging compiles have a lot of padding and don’t optimise (some optimisations can cause problems with debugging) nearly as much. Sometimes it’s a case of the compiler over-optimising, sometimes the compiler uses tricks in more optimised compiling that it doesn’t employ otherwise and people have found that this can be affected by hardware faults (another reason to check it on another computer).— On Tue, 3/24/09, mitch curtis wrote:

> From: mitch curtis   
> Subject: [SDL] Program crashes in release build  
> To: sdl at [lists.libsdl.org](http://lists.libsdl.org)  
> Date: Tuesday, March 24, 2009, 7:38 AM  
> Hey. Not really sure what you mean, as I am not calling any  
> functions. All I have is main, and I #include  
> “SDL.h”.  
> Trying it on another computer sounds like a good idea, but  
> what would it prove?
> 
> * * *
> 
> Hiyyya, it will be clear as day if you try to duplicate the  
> issue on another compiler and the another computer.  
> You don’t know what your functions are doing so you can  
> release everything, your compiler settings,  
> or what is returning what and why…did I forget anything?  
> lol lol lol no I’m just giving you the rasberry.
> 
> Just start with a known good program and add/replace one  
> part at a time (with full rebuilds)  
> till the error happens then you know where to look. Enjoy
> 
> * * *
> 
> Find out what?s new with your friends Download the new  
> Windows Live Messenger  
> [Windows Essentials - Microsoft Support](http://download.live.com/ _______________________________________________ )  
> SDL mailing list  
> SDL at [lists.libsdl.org](http://lists.libsdl.org)  
> [http://lists.libsdl.org/listinfo.cgi/sdl-libsdl.org](http://lists.libsdl.org/listinfo.cgi/sdl-libsdl.org)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mitch\_curtis](https://discourse.libsdl.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/a9a28c/32.png) [@mitch\_curtis](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/mitch_curtis)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 11:11am UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/program-crashes-in-release-build/16140/12 "2009-04-03T11:11:03Z")

</div>

Hey thanks for that Paul.

I tried it on my laptop and it throws an exception in the same place. It still runs fine in debug mode.

What else do you suggest? I think I am literally out of all options… I’ve been trying to share this game around for ages and it’s so discouraging to encounter this problem each time I get excited about it…

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks.------------------------

OK, now that I’m properly awake again.

I’m not sure exactly which example you’re wanting the help with at the exact moment.  
There’s the checkers example (I’m not seeing any use of destructors, this isn’t ObjC is it?) and the base example you’ve copied here.

Usually when I see an error like this, it’s down to going only slightly out of the allocated memory  
elsewhere in the program. If, for example, you accidently write one cell beyond the end of an  
array it’ll be a small enough error when it happens it can still be within program memory, not  
spilling into system memory, and it won’t immediately crash the program but when you go to  
free memory (any memory, not just the memory you’ve misused) the whole thing just keels over.  
When you exit, the O/S attempts to free any memory cleanly and deallocate resources which is why this happens here.

If course, it’d be easy to say something like this must be the problem if it was just one program,  
calling a destructor on any object would have a similar effect in the right place.  
This might be worth trying anyway to see if there’s any effect.

Still, try it on another computer if you can. There are a range of issues that can be cause  
by flagging hardware and SDL is particularly likely to highlight such issues as it pokes itself  
into a lot of areas most software (like a word processor) just doesn’t need.

As for the debugging/release issue. This is something of a common problem. Debugging  
compiles have a lot of padding and don’t optimise (some optimisations can cause problems  
with debugging) nearly as much. Sometimes it’s a case of the compiler over-optimising,  
sometimes the compiler uses tricks in more optimised compiling that it doesn’t employ otherwise  
and people have found that this can be affected by hardware faults (another reason to check it on another computer).

* * *

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---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mitch\_curtis](https://discourse.libsdl.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/a9a28c/32.png) [@mitch\_curtis](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/mitch_curtis)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 12:20pm UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/program-crashes-in-release-build/16140/13 "2009-04-15T12:20:14Z")

</div>

Mybowlcut wrote:

> Hey.
> 
> I’m having an issue with my program where it crashes upon exiting in the  
> release build. Funnily enough, this is the program:
> 
> #include “sdl.h”
> 
> int main(int argc, char\* args)  
> {  
> return 0;  
> }
> 
> Rather than post stuff that I’ve posted elsewhere, I’ll post the links to  
> the sites that I posted to about this problem:
> 
> [http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=472394](http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=472394)
> 
> [http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic\_id=527261](http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=527261)
> 
> I’m completely dumbfounded… I don’t have any idea what to do about this.  
> It works fine in the debug build…
> 
> Cheers.
> 
> * * *
> 
> SDL mailing list  
> SDL at [lists.libsdl.org](http://lists.libsdl.org)  
> [http://lists.libsdl.org/listinfo.cgi/sdl-libsdl.org](http://lists.libsdl.org/listinfo.cgi/sdl-libsdl.org)

I have not had any luck with this problem…

> **[Microsoft Q&A](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/)**
>
> Find it on Q&A — the home for technical questions and answers at Microsoft. New to Q&A? See our get started article below.

this thread discusses an error that occurs in the same place as mine,  
though.

Anyone have any ideas as to what this might be? I have tried it on my laptop  
like was suggested but it does the same thing.–  
View this message in context: [http://www.nabble.com/Program-crashes-in-release-build-tp22654119p23057544.html](http://www.nabble.com/Program-crashes-in-release-build-tp22654119p23057544.html)  
Sent from the SDL mailing list archive at [Nabble.com](http://Nabble.com).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jeff\_Smith](https://discourse.libsdl.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Jeff\_Smith](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/Jeff_Smith)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:04pm UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/program-crashes-in-release-build/16140/14 "2009-04-15T13:04:03Z")

</div>

> Mybowlcut wrote:
> 
> > [http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=472394](http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=472394)
> > 
> > [[SDL & C++] Exception after main - Engines and Middleware - GameDev.net](http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=527261)
> > 
> > It works fine in the debug build…

What compiler, and what exact version of the compiler, are you using  
to build this? What runtime library is being used? What are all the  
compiler settings? Try changing settings and runtime libraries  
between the debug and release build configurations to identify which  
setting or runtime, or combination of the two, is triggering the  
crash. Check to see if there are any updates available for your build  
system and install them, see if the problem still occurs. Try with an  
earlier release of your build system, see if the problem still occurs.

Run the code in the debugger, and examine the local variables right  
before the exception is thrown. Is \*onexitend the pointer that  
contains 0x10 rather than a valid value? If so, set a memory  
breakpoint on the address in onexitend (which could require examining  
and understanding the source of the \_decode\_pointer function to do  
properly) and identify when and why it is set to 0x10.

If it is not, then step through the assembly  
instruction-by-instruction (rather than the code line-by-line),  
watching the values of the registers, to identify when 0x10 is  
actually dereferenced. Once you know where exactly the 0x10 is  
happening, you can trace back in the assembly where in the code or in  
memory the 0x10 came from, and set an appropriate breakpoint. Perhaps  
\*onexitend is a valid pointer but does not point to valid code – then  
you would still want to set a memory breakpoint to see where onexitend  
is set or reset, and if it is never properly set. There may be  
something going screwy with a call to atexit() in SDL code.

It would be easier to deal with your issue if the relevant information  
had been distilled and compiled into your post on the mailing list –  
diving through the linked forum posts makes working out a hard problem  
even harder, hence my late response. I am not the best person to  
resolve this anyway, though, as I do not work with the microsoft sdk  
and am rather new to SDL!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mitch\_curtis](https://discourse.libsdl.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/a9a28c/32.png) [@mitch\_curtis](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/mitch_curtis)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:56pm UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/program-crashes-in-release-build/16140/15 "2009-04-15T13:56:52Z")

</div>

fuzzyTew wrote:

> > Mybowlcut wrote:
> > 
> > > [http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=472394](http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=472394)
> > > 
> > > [[SDL & C++] Exception after main - Engines and Middleware - GameDev.net](http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=527261)
> > > 
> > > It works fine in the debug build…
> 
> What compiler, and what exact version of the compiler, are you using  
> to build this? What runtime library is being used? What are all the  
> compiler settings? Try changing settings and runtime libraries  
> between the debug and release build configurations to identify which  
> setting or runtime, or combination of the two, is triggering the  
> crash. Check to see if there are any updates available for your build  
> system and install them, see if the problem still occurs. Try with an  
> earlier release of your build system, see if the problem still occurs.
> 
> Run the code in the debugger, and examine the local variables right  
> before the exception is thrown. Is \*onexitend the pointer that  
> contains 0x10 rather than a valid value? If so, set a memory  
> breakpoint on the address in onexitend (which could require examining  
> and understanding the source of the \_decode\_pointer function to do  
> properly) and identify when and why it is set to 0x10.
> 
> If it is not, then step through the assembly  
> instruction-by-instruction (rather than the code line-by-line),  
> watching the values of the registers, to identify when 0x10 is  
> actually dereferenced. Once you know where exactly the 0x10 is  
> happening, you can trace back in the assembly where in the code or in  
> memory the 0x10 came from, and set an appropriate breakpoint. Perhaps  
> \*onexitend is a valid pointer but does not point to valid code – then  
> you would still want to set a memory breakpoint to see where onexitend  
> is set or reset, and if it is never properly set. There may be  
> something going screwy with a call to atexit() in SDL code.
> 
> It would be easier to deal with your issue if the relevant information  
> had been distilled and compiled into your post on the mailing list –  
> diving through the linked forum posts makes working out a hard problem  
> even harder, hence my late response. I am not the best person to  
> resolve this anyway, though, as I do not work with the microsoft sdk  
> and am rather new to SDL!
> 
> * * *
> 
> SDL mailing list  
> SDL at [lists.libsdl.org](http://lists.libsdl.org)  
> [http://lists.libsdl.org/listinfo.cgi/sdl-libsdl.org](http://lists.libsdl.org/listinfo.cgi/sdl-libsdl.org)

Hey thanks for the reply.

I was just experimenting then, and I found that excluding all the other  
source files except main and bringing main down to this fixes the problem:

#include “sdl.h”

int main(int argc, char\* argv)  
{  
return 0;  
}

Unfortunately, this leaves me with no Checkers game to play. I’ve been  
deleting folders and files and rebuilding for almost an hour now… please  
someone tell me I don’t have to do this for each source/header file in my  
project. :)–  
View this message in context: [http://www.nabble.com/Program-crashes-in-release-build-tp22654119p23059506.html](http://www.nabble.com/Program-crashes-in-release-build-tp22654119p23059506.html)  
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**Author:** ![Jeff\_Smith](https://discourse.libsdl.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Jeff\_Smith](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/Jeff_Smith)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 5:35pm UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/program-crashes-in-release-build/16140/16 "2009-04-15T17:35:06Z")

</div>

> I was just experimenting then, and I found that excluding all the other  
> source files except main and bringing main down to this fixes the problem:
> 
> #include “sdl.h”
> 
> int main(int argc, char\* argv)  
> {  
> ? ? ? ?return 0;  
> }
> 
> Unfortunately, this leaves me with no Checkers game to play. I’ve been  
> deleting folders and files and rebuilding for almost an hour now… please  
> someone tell me I don’t have to do this for each source/header file in my  
> project until I find the offending file. 🙂

Ah, so it is indeed something outside main being linked in. Don’t  
worry about header files. The problem is probably from the destructor  
of an object defined statically or at file scope. Stepping through in  
a debugger should help a lot. If that is not an option for some  
reason, you’re stuck with either inspection of your source or adding  
and removing .cpp files until you find which one causes it.

> From the little I see, it really looks like one of your singletons  
> fails to initialise a pointer in its constructor. This singleton  
> probably defines a static instance of itself to save you from  
> initialising it, so it doesn’t matter whether main references it or  
> not. Do you have no backtrace of the exception?On Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 9:57 AM, Mybowlcut wrote:

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mitch\_curtis](https://discourse.libsdl.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/a9a28c/32.png) [@mitch\_curtis](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/mitch_curtis)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2009, 12:14am UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/program-crashes-in-release-build/16140/17 "2009-04-16T00:14:04Z")

</div>

fuzzyTew wrote:

> > I was just experimenting then, and I found that excluding all the other  
> > source files except main and bringing main down to this fixes the  
> > problem:
> > 
> > #include “sdl.h”
> > 
> > int main(int argc, char\* argv)  
> > {  
> > ? ? ? ?return 0;  
> > }
> > 
> > Unfortunately, this leaves me with no Checkers game to play. I’ve been  
> > deleting folders and files and rebuilding for almost an hour now…  
> > please  
> > someone tell me I don’t have to do this for each source/header file in my  
> > project until I find the offending file. 🙂
> 
> Ah, so it is indeed something outside main being linked in. Don’t  
> worry about header files. The problem is probably from the destructor  
> of an object defined statically or at file scope. Stepping through in  
> a debugger should help a lot. If that is not an option for some  
> reason, you’re stuck with either inspection of your source or adding  
> and removing .cpp files until you find which one causes it.
> 
> > From the little I see, it really looks like one of your singletons  
> > fails to initialise a pointer in its constructor. This singleton  
> > probably defines a static instance of itself to save you from  
> > initialising it, so it doesn’t matter whether main references it or  
> > not. Do you have no backtrace of the exception?
> 
> * * *
> 
> SDL mailing list  
> SDL at [lists.libsdl.org](http://lists.libsdl.org)  
> [http://lists.libsdl.org/listinfo.cgi/sdl-libsdl.org](http://lists.libsdl.org/listinfo.cgi/sdl-libsdl.org)

Found it. The reason I’m not excited is because I am SCARED. Here is the  
offending header file:

#ifndef SDL\_TOOLS\_H  
#define SDL\_TOOLS\_H

#include “include\_ticpp.h”

#include “SDL.h”

namespace SDL\_Tools  
{  
// A readable/writeable SDL\_Rect.  
struct RW\_SDL\_Rect : public SDL\_Rect//, public ticpp::Element\_RW  
{  
RW\_SDL\_Rect();  
RW\_SDL\_Rect(Sint16 x, Sint16 y, Uint16 w, Uint16 h);

```
	virtual void Read(ticpp::Element* element);
	virtual void Write(ticpp::Element* element) const;
};

```

}

#endif

Here is the offending source file:

#include “SDL\_Tools.h”

SDL\_Tools::RW\_SDL\_Rect::RW\_SDL\_Rect()  
{  
}

SDL\_Tools::RW\_SDL\_Rect::RW\_SDL\_Rect(Sint16 x, Sint16 y, Uint16 w, Uint16 h)  
{  
this-\>x = x;  
this-\>y = y;  
this-\>w = w;  
this-\>h = h;  
}

void SDL\_Tools::RW\_SDL\_Rect::Read(ticpp::Element\* element)  
{  
// TODO: Uncomment! Is temp until release crash bug is found!  
//ticpp::throw\_on\_bad\_element(element, **FILE** );

```
x = element->GetAttribute<Sint16>("x");
y = element->GetAttribute<Sint16>("y");
w = element->GetAttribute<Uint16>("w");
h = element->GetAttribute<Uint16>("h");

```

}

void SDL\_Tools::RW\_SDL\_Rect::Write(ticpp::Element\* element) const  
{  
// TODO: Uncomment! Is temp until release crash bug is found!  
//ticpp::throw\_on\_bad\_element(element, **FILE** );

```
element->SetAttribute("x", x);
element->SetAttribute("y", y);
element->SetAttribute("w", w);
element->SetAttribute("h", h);

```

}  
SDL\_Tools::RW\_SDL\_Rect::RW\_SDL\_Rect(Sint16 x, Sint16 y, Uint16 w, Uint16 h)  
{  
this-\>x = x;  
this-\>y = y;  
this-\>w = w;  
this-\>h = h;  
}

The scary part is that include\_ticpp.h is excluded from my build completely.  
The calls to throw\_on\_bad\_element produce linker errors if I uncomment them,  
yet my code is happy to use ticpp::Element… can anyone please explain this  
before my head explodes?

## Cheers.\> On Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 9:57 AM, Mybowlcut \<@mitch\_curtis\> wrote:

View this message in context: [http://www.nabble.com/Program-crashes-in-release-build-tp22654119p23069172.html](http://www.nabble.com/Program-crashes-in-release-build-tp22654119p23069172.html)  
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**Author:** ![Pierre\_Phaneuf](https://discourse.libsdl.org/user_avatar/discourse.libsdl.org/pierre_phaneuf/32/94_2.png) [@Pierre\_Phaneuf](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/Pierre_Phaneuf)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2009, 1:39am UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/program-crashes-in-release-build/16140/18 "2009-04-16T01:39:32Z")

</div>

> The scary part is that include\_ticpp.h is excluded from my build completely.  
> The calls to throw\_on\_bad\_element produce linker errors if I uncomment them,  
> yet my code is happy to use ticpp::Element… can anyone please explain this  
> before my head explodes?

It’s excluded from the build completely, as in from the project file?  
If it’s still in the right location, it might get included nonetheless  
(otherwise, the #include statement would probably cause a compilation  
error, actually).

But it’s source file probably did get excluded from the build, hence  
the linking errors. I suspect that the methods called that do work  
fine are defined in the header file (so no need for the source file),  
but I can’t tell for sure, since that header wasn’t posted.

That’d be another case where Valgrind might point you right at the  
culprit, but you’d have to run your code on Linux to use that (Purify  
would do too, but that’s US$870).On Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 8:14 PM, Mybowlcut wrote:

–

> **[Pierre Phaneuf's Diary](https://pphaneuf.livejournal.com/)**
>
> pphaneuf - the new blog in LiveJournal. There should be new interesting records soon.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mitch\_curtis](https://discourse.libsdl.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/a9a28c/32.png) [@mitch\_curtis](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/mitch_curtis)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 10:51am UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/program-crashes-in-release-build/16140/19 "2009-04-17T10:51:53Z")

</div>

Pierre Phaneuf wrote:

> It’s excluded from the build completely, as in from the project file?  
> If it’s still in the right location, it might get included nonetheless  
> (otherwise, the #include statement would probably cause a compilation  
> error, actually).
> 
> But it’s source file probably did get excluded from the build, hence  
> the linking errors. I suspect that the methods called that do work  
> fine are defined in the header file (so no need for the source file),  
> but I can’t tell for sure, since that header wasn’t posted.
> 
> That’d be another case where Valgrind might point you right at the  
> culprit, but you’d have to run your code on Linux to use that (Purify  
> would do too, but that’s US$870).
> 
> –  
> [http://pphaneuf.livejournal.com/](http://pphaneuf.livejournal.com/)
> 
> * * *
> 
> SDL mailing list  
> SDL at [lists.libsdl.org](http://lists.libsdl.org)  
> [http://lists.libsdl.org/listinfo.cgi/sdl-libsdl.org](http://lists.libsdl.org/listinfo.cgi/sdl-libsdl.org)

Hey.

Both include\_ticpp.h and include\_ticpp.cpp are excluded (via right clicking  
on them and excluding them from the build). All the files are still added in  
the project and exist in the physical folder.

throw\_on\_bad\_element is declared in the header and defined in the source  
(not declared & defined in header). When I uncomment the call to it, I get  
the link error. I thought that it should be a compile error too, since it  
shouldn’t have any function declaration matching that name.

What kind of problem do you think this is though? I don’t use this structure  
at all so I don’t understand why it would be crashing.

Any help is appreciated!–  
View this message in context: [http://www.nabble.com/Program-crashes-in-release-build-tp22654119p23095349.html](http://www.nabble.com/Program-crashes-in-release-build-tp22654119p23095349.html)  
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**Author:** ![Pierre\_Phaneuf](https://discourse.libsdl.org/user_avatar/discourse.libsdl.org/pierre_phaneuf/32/94_2.png) [@Pierre\_Phaneuf](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/Pierre_Phaneuf)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 12:32pm UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/program-crashes-in-release-build/16140/20 "2009-04-17T12:32:08Z")

</div>

> Both include\_ticpp.h and include\_ticpp.cpp are excluded (via right clicking  
> on them and excluding them from the build). All the files are still added in  
> the project and exist in the physical folder.

I suspect that excluding a header file only does something like skip  
any dependency analysis done on the file, or something of that nature.

> From what you describe, the header file does indeed get included  
> successfully, otherwise the ‘#include “include\_ticpp.h”’ line would  
> cause a fatal compilation error.

> throw\_on\_bad\_element is declared in the header and defined in the source  
> (not declared & defined in header). When I uncomment the call to it, I get  
> the link error. I thought that it should be a compile error too, since it  
> shouldn’t have any function declaration matching that name.

And the GetElement templated method is, of course, declared and  
defined in the header, so when that one is used in your source file,  
it works fine.

The compilation passes because the header file is indeed included,  
despite what you think might happen when you “excluded” it. So it sees  
the function declaration just fine, but then, at link time, can’t find  
its implementation, since its missing the source file that defines it.

> What kind of problem do you think this is though? I don’t use this structure  
> at all so I don’t understand why it would be crashing.

A further tip on the crash you’re getting: having an invalid access at  
0x10 is probably a NULL pointer getting dereferenced, where the  
pointer is expected to be at some structure or array, and the access  
is to some member that’s 16 bytes into the structure (say, “int\* foo =  
NULL; foo[4]”). Why it’s happening in the libc atexit handler, that’s  
a good question. Looking for uses of atexit in your program (including  
the libraries) might be a start.On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 6:51 AM, Mybowlcut wrote:

–

> **[Pierre Phaneuf's Diary](https://pphaneuf.livejournal.com/)**
>
> pphaneuf - the new blog in LiveJournal. There should be new interesting records soon.

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