C99: what is the recomended way to handle exceptions raised by `pow()` (overflow or complex number)

Question

executing

double result = pow(base, exponent);

with arbitrary base and exponent

may result in an attempt to compute a value too big or complex.

For example with base=-2, exponent=.5 (square root of -2)

Should I just check if result==NAN or result==HUGE_VAL ?

Would that code be C99 compliant and cross platform ?

Answer 1

Catch SIGFPE and die noisily. There is something worse than a crashed program: one that quietly gives incorrect answers.

Sample code below is taken from a random site about SIGFPE

/* demo_SIGFPE.c

   Demonstrate the generation of the SIGFPE signal.

   Usage: demo_SIGFPE [optstr]

   The main program executes code the generates a SIGFPE signal. Before doing
   so, the program optionally ignores and/or blocks SIGFPE. If 'optstr'
   contains 'i', then SIGFPE is ignored, otherwise it is caught by a handler.
   If 'optstr' contains 'b', then SIGFPE is blocked before it is delivered.
   The behavior that occurs when SIGFPE is generated depends on the kernel
   version (Linux 2.6 is different from Linux 2.4 and earlier).

   NOTE: Don't compile this program with optimization, as the arithmetic
   below is likely to be optimized away completely, with the result that
   we don't get SIGFPE at all.
*/
#define _GNU_SOURCE     /* Get strsignal() declaration from <string.h> */
#include <string.h>
#include <signal.h>

static void
sigfpeCatcher(int sig)
{
    printf("Caught signal %d (%s)\n", sig, strsignal(sig));
                                /* UNSAFE (see Section 21.1.2) */
    sleep(1);                   /* Slow down execution of handler */
}

int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    int x, y;
    sigset_t blockSet, prevMask;
    Boolean blocking;
    struct sigaction sa;

    /* If no command-line arguments specified, catch SIGFPE, else ignore it */

    if (argc > 1 && strchr(argv[1], 'i') != NULL) {
        printf("Ignoring SIGFPE\n");
        if (signal(SIGFPE, SIG_IGN) == SIG_ERR)
            errExit("signal");
    } else {
        printf("Catching SIGFPE\n");
        sigemptyset(&sa.sa_mask);
        sa.sa_flags = SA_RESTART;
        sa.sa_handler = sigfpeCatcher;
        if (sigaction(SIGFPE, &sa, NULL) == -1)
            errExit("sigaction");
    }

    blocking = argc > 1 && strchr(argv[1], 'b') != NULL;
    if (blocking) {
        printf("Blocking SIGFPE\n");
        sigemptyset(&blockSet);
        sigaddset(&blockSet, SIGFPE);
        if (sigprocmask(SIG_BLOCK, &blockSet, &prevMask) == -1)
            errExit("sigprocmask");
    }

    printf("About to generate SIGFPE\n");
    y = 0;
    x = 1 / y;
    y = x;      /* Avoid complaints from "gcc -Wunused-but-set-variable" */


    if (blocking) {
        printf("Sleeping before unblocking\n");
        sleep(2);
        printf("Unblocking SIGFPE\n");
        if (sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK, &prevMask, NULL) == -1)
            errExit("sigprocmask");
    }

    printf("Shouldn't get here!\n");
    exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}