BrowserUk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Does anyone know of a publicly available C source file specifically constructed for testing the edge cases of C-language parsers?

I'm writing a parser for the C-language (and yes; I need to write my own), and I sat down to think of a good way to test it.

My conclusion is that rather than just feeding it it reams and reams of C sources; most of which will simply be re-exercising the same paths; it would be better to try and construct a single, preferably relatively small, C-source that doesn't necessarily have to do anything useful, but simply uses all the constructs and language features that I need to support. (Which isn't the full standard; any of them.)

I started to try and write notes on everything I think need to be in this file -- and I will continue that -- but then I thought maybe such a file already exists. I've done a few half-hearted searches for something that might fit the bill; but its proven to be a difficult thing to construct a discriminative search criteria for.

So, this is just a hope that maybe someone here has knowledge of something that might lend itself to my purpose.

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Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". I knew I was on the right track :)
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
I'm with torvalds on this Agile (and TDD) debunked I told'em LLVM was the way to go. But did they listen!

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Re: [OT] A C-language parser test file?
by GotToBTru (Prior) on Aug 27, 2015 at 13:19 UTC

    You don't say specifically what you've searched for, only that it was half-hearted. On the off chance it was also half-brained, I'll make what is probably the obvious suggestion. Search for other C-compiler projects, not test files. In other words, when looking for a pencil sharpener, find the guy who uses lots of pencils.

    Dum Spiro Spero
[reply]

      You mean like this? Or this?

      None of them are what I'm hoping for. They are intimately entwined with the testing philosophies and tools of the projects they are a part of; they cover the full variety of C-like languages; are broken up into dozens of separate files.

      Maybe what I want doesn't exist; but maybe it does and someone here knows where.

      With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday'
      Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
      "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". I knew I was on the right track :)
      In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
      I'm with torvalds on this Agile (and TDD) debunked I told'em LLVM was the way to go. But did they listen!
[reply]

        I found https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gccint/C-Tests.html which I then found better access to at https://github.com/gcc-mirror/gcc/tree/master/gcc/testsuite (the first link is actually talking about the gcc.dg subdirectory of the second). Lots of stuff in there so I didn't go trawling through there trying to guess if any of it might suite your needs.

        A compliance test suite would be a nice addition to something that has such a robust standard defined for it. I thought that was a fairly common thing for those old-style standards where you have to pay to get an official copy.

        - tye        

[reply]
Re: [OT] A C-language parser test file?
by RonW (Parson) on Aug 27, 2015 at 19:02 UTC

    An interesting edge case that makes the coding standards purists scream in horror: Duff's Device

    (Yes, it really is valid, functioning C code.)

[reply]
Re: [OT] A C-language parser test file?
by Anonymous Monk on Aug 27, 2015 at 16:01 UTC
    Google: grammar for C.
[reply]

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