Functions returning structs do not work

[meerik]

Structs defined in c++, such as b2Vec2 seem to cause many problems when they are passed over the FFI by-value. I think the reason is different calling conventions for C vs C++.
It seems like functions returning structs as-value or taking structs as input argument as-value cause problems. Take Body::world_point() as example, it does not work and return undefined data or some times crash. (All other demos from the testbed work because they never use any such function).

It is implemented as follows:

pub fn world_point(&self, local: &Vec2) -> Vec2 {
        unsafe { ffi::Body_get_world_point(self.ptr(), local) }
    }

b2Vec2 Body_get_world_point(const b2Body* self, const b2Vec2* local) {
    return self->GetWorldPoint(*local);
}

Here the argument "local" will point to garbage no matter how you call the funcition and the program crashes. This is because the return value is a b2Vec2 as-value and b2Vec2 is compiled as struct/class by c++ code while the function Body_get_world_point is treated as C-code.

[Bastacyclop]

@meerik Thanks for the detailed issue,
convention issues between C and C++ would surprise me since I'm using extern "C" so I would at least expect a warning if the result is not C compatible. Although I don't know the details and there may be no checks at all, so it is very possible, are you confident in your explanation ?

This code works fine for me, I guess it doesn't work for you ?

use wrapped2d::b2;
use wrapped2d::user_data::NoUserData;

#[test]
fn get_world_point() {
    let gravity = b2::Vec2 { x: 0., y: -10. };
    let mut world = b2::World::<NoUserData>::new(&gravity);

    let mut ground_body_def = b2::BodyDef::new();
    ground_body_def.position = b2::Vec2 { x: 0., y: -10. };
    let ground_handle = world.create_body(&ground_body_def);
    {
        let mut ground = world.body_mut(ground_handle);

        let ground_box = b2::PolygonShape::new_box(50., 10.);
        ground.create_fast_fixture(&ground_box, 0.);
        assert_eq!(ground.world_point(&b2::Vec2 { x: 5., y: 0. }),
                   b2::Vec2 { x: 5., y: -10. });
    }
}

> rustc --print cfg
debug_assertions
target_arch="x86_64"
target_endian="little"
target_env="gnu"
target_family="unix"
target_feature="sse"
target_feature="sse2"
target_has_atomic="16"
target_has_atomic="32"
target_has_atomic="64"
target_has_atomic="8"
target_has_atomic="ptr"
target_os="linux"
target_pointer_width="64"
target_thread_local
target_vendor="unknown"
unix

[meerik]

Thank you for the quick reply.
Your test works on Ubuntu with GCC but not on Windows with MSVC.

---- tests::get_world_point stdout ----
	thread 'tests::get_world_point' panicked at 'assertion failed: `(left == right)` (left: `Vec2 { x: -0.00000000000000029138696, y: 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000912 }`, right: `Vec2 { x: 5, y: -10 }`)', src\lib.rs:22

rustc --print cfg
target_os="windows"
target_family="windows"
target_arch="x86_64"
target_endian="little"
target_pointer_width="64"
target_env="msvc"
windows
debug_assertions

[Bastacyclop]

Maybe the problem comes from the use of gcc in build_frontend ?

[retep998]

This may be a case of rust-lang/rfcs#1342, especially since it specifically does not work on Windows.

[Bastacyclop]

@retep998 Thanks for the info!

[norru]

I've seen this too in VS 2015, msvc toolchain.

Quite a few other related issues too. 1) stdc++ cannot be linked in MSVC 2) no luck with 64 bit build, link.exe laments a 32/64 bit mismatch with one of the deps. I'll investigate and post separate issues.

[retep998]

stdc++ cannot be linked in MSVC

Statically linking together MSVC and MinGW code is not supported at all whatsoever and will almost always break.

[norru]

Yep, I am building with the MSVC toolchain, but rust_box2d causes the linker to attempt to include stdc++ anyway.

[retep998]

Hmmm, it uses the gcc crate to build things, and that should know how to handle MSVC just fine. I'll investigate more later perhaps.

[norru]

This may have something to do with it (in lib.rs)

#[link(name = "stdc++")] extern "C" {}

EDIT: removing the line above from lib.rs actually fixes the problem in MSVC - I haven't tried other toolchains/platforms though. That may require a #[cfg(...)] annotation for other platforms.

I'll move to another thread though, I've hijacked this enough :)

[retep998]

@norru Since this uses the gcc crate to handle building and linking the C++, that automatically handles linking the C++ standard library. https://github.com/alexcrichton/gcc-rs/blob/master/src/lib.rs#L950-L963 So definitely removing that #[link(name = "stdc++")] is the right thing to do.

[Bastacyclop]

For information, the latter has been done.