C++ - deprecated conversion from string constant to ‘char*’ [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Deprecated conversion from string constant to char * error

I tried to run old C++ code today (this code gone right in 2004 :). But now I got this error message:

make[1]: Entering directory `/home/thehost/Plocha/lpic-1.3.1/lpic/src'
source='error.C' object='error.o' libtool=no \
depfile='.deps/error.Po' tmpdepfile='.deps/error.TPo' \
depmode=gcc3 /bin/bash ../../config/depcomp \
g++ -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I../..    -g -O2 -Wno-deprecated  -g -O2 -c -o error.o `test -f 'error.C' || echo './'`error.C
error.C: In constructor ‘error_handler::error_handler(const char*, char*)’:
error.C:49:7: error: ‘cerr’ was not declared in this scope
error.C:58:11: warning: deprecated conversion from string constant to ‘char*’ [-Wwrite-    strings]
error.C:58:11: warning: deprecated conversion from string constant to ‘char*’ [-Wwrite-    strings]
error.C:58:11: warning: deprecated conversion from string constant to ‘char*’ [-Wwrite-    strings]
error.C:58:11: warning: deprecated conversion from string constant to ‘char*’ [-Wwrite-    strings]
make[1]: *** [error.o] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/thehost/Plocha/lpic-1.3.1/lpic/src'
make: *** [all-recursive] Error 1

Source of "error.C" file:

...
#include <error.h>

int error_handler::error_number   = 0;
int error_handler::message_number = 0;
int error_handler::debug_number   = 0;
int error_handler::Q_debug        = 1;
int error_handler::object_number  = 0;
int error_handler::tab            = 33;  

error_handler::error_handler(const char *name, char *error_file_name)
{
  errname = new char [filename_size];
  strcpy(errname,error_file_name);

  errfile.open(errname,ios::app);

  if (!errfile)
    {
      cerr << "error_handler: cannot open error file " << errname << endl;
      exit(1);
    }

  errfile.close();

  my_name = name;
  object_number++;

  debug("");
}


void error_handler::error(char* s1, char* s2, char *s3, char *s4)
{
  error_number++ ;

  errfile.open(errname,ios::app);
  errfile.setf(ios::left);

  errfile << "FAILURE: " << setw(tab) << my_name << "       " << s1 << ' ' << s2
    << s3 << s4 << endl;

  errfile.close();

exit(1);
}
...

And source of "error.h" file:

...
using namespace std;

class error_handler {
static int error_number;
static int message_number;
static int Q_debug;
static int debug_number;
static int object_number;
const char *my_name;

char       *errname;

ofstream   errfile;
static int tab;
public:
error_handler(const char *, char *error_file_name);


void error(char* s1,    char*  s2="",
       char* s3="", char*  s4="");
void error(char* s1,    double d2,
       char* s3="", char*  s4="");

void message(char* m1,
     char* m2="", char*  m3="", char* m4="");
void message(char* m1,    double m2,
     char* m3="", char*  m4="");
void message(char* m1,    double m2,    char* m3, double m4);
void message(char* m1,    double m2,    char* m3, double m4,
     char* m5,    double m6,    char* m7, double m8);
void message(char* m1, double m2, double m3, double m4, double m5 );
void message(char* m1, double m2, double m3, double m4 );
void message(char* m1, double m2, char* m3,  double m4, char* m5, double m6);
void message(char *s1, double d2, double d3);
void message(char *s1, char *s2, double d3);

void debug(char* m1,
       char* m2="", char*  m3="", char* m4="");
void debug(char* m1,    double m2,
       char* m3="", char*  m4="");
void debug(char* m1   , double m2,    char* m3, double m4);
void debug(char* m1   , double m2,    char* m3, double m4, char* m5, double m6);
};

#endif

Have you any idea how I could fix it? If yes, please write it down clearly (I am newbie...). Thank you!

Answer 1

I think that your warnings are coming from this code:

void message(char* m1,
     char* m2="", char*  m3="", char* m4="");

The issue is that string literals in C++ can be treated as char*s, but it's very unsafe to do so. Writing to an array defined by a string literal results in Undefined Behavior (the sort of thing that causes security holes, program crashes, etc.), but a regular ol' char* pointer would allow you to do this sort of write. For this reason, it is strongly suggested that you make all char*s that would point to a C-style string instead be const char*s so that the compiler can check to make sure that you aren't try to write to them. In this case, your code would be better written as

void message(char* m1,
     const char* m2="", const char*  m3="", const char* m4="");

However, since you're using C++, a much better idea is just to use std::string:

void message(std::string m1,
     std::string m2="", std::string m3="", std::string m4="");

This completely avoids the issue, because the C++ std::string type correctly has const char*s in its arguments and makes a deep-copy of the string, so if you try to mutate the string it's guaranteed that you're not going to be trashing the original array of characters.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

You have a few options:

• Fix your code so that string literals (eg. "foo") never get implicitly converted to char*. They should be const char*.

• Change your compiler command line to include -Wno-write-strings. This is what the -Wwrite-strings part of the error message is hinting at.

I would prefer the first option.