strlen function to empty char* causes reboot

[gerrikoio]

Whether right or wrong, this code is handled by Arduino UNO and Arduino MKR without crashing. It tells me strlen = 1.

With my ESP32 it causes continuous reboot.

Code: Select all

char *thisCharPntr;


void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);
  // put your setup code here, to run once:
  Serial.print("Char length: ");
  Serial.println(strlen(thisCharPntr));
}

void loop() {
  // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:

}

[ESP_Angus]

Hi gerrikoio,

This is not a bug in ESP-IDF or Arduino-ESP32.

Because thisCharPntr is a static variable it's initialized to NULL. Evaluating strlen(NULL) involves dereferencing a NULL pointer, and dereferencing a NULL pointer is undefined behaviour in C. (strlen is a C function.)

Undefined behaviour means the implementation is allowed to do whatever it wants. Most computers (including ESP32) will crash. Possibly some implementations don't crash and will instead do something else.

C11 added a new function strlen_s() which has defined behaviour if the pointer is NULL (it returns 0).

Suggesting adding a null-check in your code if you need to verify that thisCharPntr is not-null before calling strlen(NULL)

You can read more about this here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/5796686/1006619

[gerrikoio]

Thanks. Your explanation is very clear and most helpful.