>Number:         36444
>Category:       bin
>Synopsis:       flex generates bad C++ code
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       serious
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    bin-bug-people
>State:          open
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Tue Jun 05 14:30:01 +0000 2007
>Originator:     Michael van Elst
>Release:        NetBSD 4.0_BETA2
>Organization:
-- 
                                Michael van Elst
Internet: mlelstv@serpens.de
                                "A potential Snark may lurk in every tree."
>Environment:
	
	
System: NetBSD henery 4.0_BETA2 NetBSD 4.0_BETA2 (HENERY) #1: Sun Jun 3 12:09:36 CEST 2007 mlelstv@henery:/home/netbsd4/obj/home/netbsd4/src/sys/arch/i386/compile/HENERY i386
Architecture: i386
Machine: i386
>Description:

When compiling a flex source from the net/irrtoolkit-nox11 package,
I get an error message from the C++ compiler about the ambigous
call to an overloaded function.

>How-To-Repeat:

Here is a test case that shows the problem:

-------- snip --------
%option case-insensitive

%{
#include <cstdio>
#include <cstring>
%}

%%

[A-Z][A-Z0-9]* {
	printf("word = %s\n",yytext);
}

%%

class Object {
public:
	char *contents;
	unsigned long size;
	Object(const char buf[]) {
		contents = strdup(buf);
		size = strlen(buf);
	}
};

int length(const char *s)
{
	return strlen(s);
}

int main() {
	Object *o = new Object("1 Word");
	void *p;
	p = yy_scan_bytes(o->contents, o->size);
	BEGIN(INITIAL);
}

extern "C" {
int yywrap() {
	return 1;
}
}
-------- snip --------

% flex c.l
% % c++ lex.yy.c 
c.l: In function 'int main()':
c.l:34: error: call of overloaded 'yy_scan_bytes(char*&, long unsigned int&)' is ambiguous
lex.yy.c:1321: note: candidates are: yy_buffer_state* yy_scan_bytes(const char*, yy_size_t)
lex.yy.c:1355: note:                 yy_buffer_state* yy_scan_bytes(const char*, int)

The reason for this is a change in src/usr.bin/lex/flex.skl:1.21

| Traditional flex uses int instead of yy_size_t for some api functions.
| Unfortunately this mangles differently in c++, so we get undefined symbols.
| So we define the old function prototype to keep things happy.

This creates function duplicates for C (using yy_size_t) and C++ (using int)
that cause the ambiguity.

>Fix:

Reverting the change in flex.skl:1.21 solves the problem.

>Unformatted: