Question

I have

const int MAX_CONNECTIONS = 500;
//...
if(clients.size() < MAX_CONNECTIONS) {
    //...
}

I’m trying to find the “right” choice for MAX_CONNECTIONS. So I fire up gdb and set MAX_CONNECTIONS = 750. But it seems my code isn’t responding to this change. I wonder if it’s because the const int was resolved at compile time even though it wound up getting bumped at runtime. Does this sound right, and, using GDB is there any way I can bypass this effect without having to edit the code in my program? It takes a while just to warm up to 500.

Answer 1

I suspect that the compiler, seeing that the variable is const, is inlining the constant into the assembly and not having the generated code actually read the value of the MAX_CONNECTIONS variable. The C++ spec is worded in a way where if a variable of primitive type is explicitly marked const, the compiler can make certain assumptions about it for the purposes of optimization, since any attempt to change that constant is either (1) illegal or (2) results in undefined behavior.

If you want to use GDB to do things like this, consider marking the variable volatile rather than const to indicate to the compiler that it shouldn’t optimize it. Alternatively, have this information controlled by some other data source (say, a configuration option inside a file) so that you aren’t blasting the program’s memory out from underneath it in order to change the value.

Hope this helps!