Dereferencing a pointer to 0 in C

Question

Sometimes data at memory address 0x0 is quite valuable -- take x86 real mode IVT as a more known example: it starts at 0x0 and contains pointers to interrupt handlers: a dword at 0x00 is a pointer to division by zero error handler.

However, C11 language standard prohibits dereferencing null pointers [WG14 N1570 6.5.3.2], which are defined as pointers initialized with 0 or pointers initialized with a null pointer [WG14 N1570 6.3.2.3], effectively banning the very first byte.

How do people actually use 0x0 when it's needed?

Answer 1

C does not prohibit dereferencing the null pointer, it merely makes it undefined behavior.

If your environment is such that you're able to dereference a pointer containing the address 0x0, then you should be able to do so. The C language standard says nothing about what will happen when you do so. (In most environments, the result will be a program crash.)

A concrete example (if I'm remembering this correctly): On the 68k-based Sun 3 computers, dereferencing a null pointer did not cause a trap; instead, the OS stored a zero value at memory address zero, and dereferencing a null pointer (which pointed to address zero) would yield that zero value. That meant, for example, that a C program could treat a null pointer as if it were a valid pointer to an empty string. Some software, intentionally or not, depended on this behavior. This required a great deal of cleanup when porting software to the SPARC-based Sun 4, which trapped on null pointer dereferences. (I distinctly remember reading about this, but I was unable to find a reference; I'll update this if I can find it.)

Note that the null pointer is not necessarily address zero. More precisely, the representation of a null may or may not be all-bits-zero. It very commonly is, but it's not guaranteed. (If it's not, then the integer-to-pointer conversion of (void*)0 is non-trivial.)

Section 5 of the comp.lang.c FAQ discusses null pointers.