C.4 Controlling Elaboration in GNAT - Internal Calls

In the case of internal calls, i.e., calls within a single package, the programmer has full control over the order of elaboration, and it is up to the programmer to elaborate declarations in an appropriate order. For example writing:

     

     function One return Float;
     
     Q : Float := One;
     
     function One return Float is
     begin
          return 1.0;
     end One;
     

will obviously raise Program_Error at run time, because function One will be called before its body is elaborated. In this case GNAT will generate a warning that the call will raise Program_Error:

     

      1. procedure y is
      2.    function One return Float;
      3.
      4.    Q : Float := One;
                         |
         >>> warning: cannot call "One" before body is elaborated
         >>> warning: Program_Error will be raised at run time
     
      5.
      6.    function One return Float is
      7.    begin
      8.         return 1.0;
      9.    end One;
     10.
     11. begin
     12.    null;
     13. end;
     

Note that in this particular case, it is likely that the call is safe, because the function One does not access any global variables. Nevertheless in Ada, we do not want the validity of the check to depend on the contents of the body (think about the separate compilation case), so this is still wrong, as we discussed in the previous sections.

The error is easily corrected by rearranging the declarations so that the body of One appears before the declaration containing the call (note that in Ada 95 and Ada 2005, declarations can appear in any order, so there is no restriction that would prevent this reordering, and if we write:

     

     function One return Float;
     
     function One return Float is
     begin
          return 1.0;
     end One;
     
     Q : Float := One;
     

then all is well, no warning is generated, and no Program_Error exception will be raised. Things are more complicated when a chain of subprograms is executed:

     

     function A return Integer;
     function B return Integer;
     function C return Integer;
     
     function B return Integer is begin return A; end;
     function C return Integer is begin return B; end;
     
     X : Integer := C;
     
     function A return Integer is begin return 1; end;
     

Now the call to C at elaboration time in the declaration of X is correct, because the body of C is already elaborated, and the call to B within the body of C is correct, but the call to A within the body of B is incorrect, because the body of A has not been elaborated, so Program_Error will be raised on the call to A. In this case GNAT will generate a warning that Program_Error may be raised at the point of the call. Let's look at the warning:

     

      1. procedure x is
      2.    function A return Integer;
      3.    function B return Integer;
      4.    function C return Integer;
      5.
      6.    function B return Integer is begin return A; end;
                                                         |
         >>> warning: call to "A" before body is elaborated may
                      raise Program_Error
         >>> warning: "B" called at line 7
         >>> warning: "C" called at line 9
     
      7.    function C return Integer is begin return B; end;
      8.
      9.    X : Integer := C;
     10.
     11.    function A return Integer is begin return 1; end;
     12.
     13. begin
     14.    null;
     15. end;
     

Note that the message here says “may raise”, instead of the direct case, where the message says “will be raised”. That's because whether A is actually called depends in general on run-time flow of control. For example, if the body of B said

     

     function B return Integer is
     begin
        if some-condition-depending-on-input-data then
           return A;
        else
           return 1;
        end if;
     end B;
     

then we could not know until run time whether the incorrect call to A would actually occur, so Program_Error might or might not be raised. It is possible for a compiler to do a better job of analyzing bodies, to determine whether or not Program_Error might be raised, but it certainly couldn't do a perfect job (that would require solving the halting problem and is provably impossible), and because this is a warning anyway, it does not seem worth the effort to do the analysis. Cases in which it would be relevant are rare.

In practice, warnings of either of the forms given above will usually correspond to real errors, and should be examined carefully and eliminated. In the rare case where a warning is bogus, it can be suppressed by any of the following methods:

• Compile with the -gnatws switch set
• Suppress Elaboration_Check for the called subprogram
• Use pragma Warnings_Off to turn warnings off for the call

For the internal elaboration check case, GNAT by default generates the necessary run-time checks to ensure that Program_Error is raised if any call fails an elaboration check. Of course this can only happen if a warning has been issued as described above. The use of pragma Suppress (Elaboration_Check) may (but is not guaranteed to) suppress some of these checks, meaning that it may be possible (but is not guaranteed) for a program to be able to call a subprogram whose body is not yet elaborated, without raising a Program_Error exception.