Passing a boost::unordered_set as the result map to boost::split

Question

Does anyone know if it's kosher to pass a boost::unordered_set as the first parameter to boost::split? Under libboost1.42-dev, this seems to cause problems. Here's a small example program that causes the problem, call it test-split.cc:

#include <boost/algorithm/string/classification.hpp>
#include <boost/algorithm/string/split.hpp>
#include <boost/unordered_set.hpp>
#include <string>

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
  boost::unordered_set<std::string> tags_set;
  boost::split(tags_set, "a^b^c^",
               boost::is_any_of(std::string(1, '^')));
  return 0;
}

Then, if I run the following commands:

g++ -o test-split test-split.cc; valgrind ./test-split

I get a bunch of complaints in valgrind like the one that follows (I also sometimes see coredumps without valgrind, though it seems to vary based on timing):

==16843== Invalid read of size 8
==16843==    at 0x4ED07D3: std::string::end() const (in /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6.0.13)
==16843==    by 0x401EE2: unsigned long boost::hash_value<char, std::allocator<char> >(std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&) (in /tmp/test-split)
...
==16843==    by 0x402248: boost::unordered_set<std::string, boost::hash<std::string>, std::equal_to<std::string>, std::allocator<std::string> >& boost::algorithm::split<boost::unordered_set<std::string, boost::hash<std::string>, std::equal_to<std::string>, std::allocator<std::string> >, char const [26], boost::algorithm::detail::is_any_ofF<char> >(boost::unordered_set<std::string, boost::hash<std::string>, std::equal_to<std::string>, std::allocator<std::string> >&, char const (&) [26], boost::algorithm::detail::is_any_ofF<char>, boost::algorithm::token_compress_mode_type) (in /tmp/test-split)
==16843==    by 0x40192A: main (in /tmp/test-split)
==16843==  Address 0x5936610 is 0 bytes inside a block of size 32 free'd
==16843==    at 0x4C23E0F: operator delete(void*) (vg_replace_malloc.c:387)
==16843==    by 0x4ED1EE8: std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> >::~basic_string() (in /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6.0.13)
==16843==    by 0x404A8B: void boost::unordered_detail::hash_unique_table<boost::unordered_detail::set<boost::hash<std::string>, std::equal_to<std::string>, std::allocator<std::string> > >::insert_range_impl<boost::transform_iterator<boost::algorithm::detail::copy_iterator_rangeF<std::string, char const*>, boost::algorithm::split_iterator<char const*>, boost::use_default, boost::use_default> >(std::string const&, boost::transform_iterator<boost::algorithm::detail::copy_iterator_rangeF<std::string, char const*>, boost::algorithm::split_iterator<char const*>, boost::use_default, boost::use_default>, boost::transform_iterator<boost::algorithm::detail::copy_iterator_rangeF<std::string, char const*>, boost::algorithm::split_iterator<char const*>, boost::use_default, boost::use_default>) (in /tmp/test-split)
...
==16843==    by 0x402248: boost::unordered_set<std::string, boost::hash<std::string>, std::equal_to<std::string>, std::allocator<std::string> >& boost::algorithm::split<boost::unordered_set<std::string, boost::hash<std::string>, std::equal_to<std::string>, std::allocator<std::string> >, char const [26], boost::algorithm::detail::is_any_ofF<char> >(boost::unordered_set<std::string, boost::hash<std::string>, std::equal_to<std::string>, std::allocator<std::string> >&, char const (&) [26], boost::algorithm::detail::is_any_ofF<char>, boost::algorithm::token_compress_mode_type) (in /tmp/test-split)
==16843==    by 0x40192A: main (in /tmp/test-split)

This is a Debian Squeeze box; here's my relevant system info:

$ g++ --version
g++ (Debian 4.4.5-2) 4.4.5
Copyright (C) 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

$ dpkg -l | grep boost
ii  libboost-iostreams1.42.0            1.42.0-4                     Boost.Iostreams Library
ii  libboost1.42-dev                    1.42.0-4                     Boost C++ Libraries development files
$ uname -a
Linux gcc44-buildvm 2.6.32-5-amd64 #1 SMP Fri Sep 17 21:50:19 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux

However, the code seems to work fine if I downgrade libboost1.42-dev to libboost1.40-dev. So is this a bug in boost 1.42, or am I misusing boost::split by passing in a container that can't handle sequences? Thanks!

Answer 1

This was confirmed on the boost-users mailing list to be a bug in the boost::unordered_set implementation. There is a patch available on the mailing list, and a fix will be checked in soon, hopefully in time for boost 1.45.

Boost-users: patch

Boost-users: confirmation

Thanks everyone for looking into this!