array struct with pointer accessing members sequentially - pointers

I am still learning about pointers and structs, but I hoping someone might know if it is possible to access individual members sequentially by use of a pointer?
Typedef record_data {
float a;
float b;
float c;
}records,*Sptr;
records lists[5];
Sptr ptr;
Example: assign all members of the 5 lists with a value of float 1.0
// instead of this
(void)testworks(void){
int i;
float j=1.0;
ptr = &lists[i]
ptr->lists[0].a = j;
ptr->lists[0].b = j;
ptr->lists[0].c = j;
ptr->lists[1].a = j;
// ... and so on
ptr->lists[4].c = j;
}
// want to do this
(void)testwannado(void){
int a,i;
float j=1.0;
ptr = &lists[i]
for (a=0;a<5;a++){ // step through typedef structs
for (i=0;i<3;i++){ // step through members
???
}
}
Forgive my errors in this example below, but it represents the closest thing I can think of for want I am trying to accomplish.
int *mptr;
mptr = &(ptr->lists[0].a) // want to assign a pointer to members so all 3 members can be used...
*mptr++ = j; // so I can do something like this.
This wasn't compiled, so any other errors are unintentional.

You generally don't want to do that. Structure members should be accessed individually. You can run into a lot of portability problems by assuming the memory layout of how multiple consecutive structure members are placed in memory. And most (C-like) languages do not give you a way to "introspect" through the members of a structure.

Related

Why does thrust::device_vector not seem to have a chance to hold raw pointers to other device_vectors?

I have a question that I found many threads in, but none did explicitly answer my question.
I am trying to have a multidimensional array inside the kernel of the GPU using thrust. Flattening would be difficult, as all the dimensions are non-homogeneous and I go up to 4D. Now I know I cannot have device_vectors of device_vectors, for whichever underlying reason (explanation would be welcome), so I tried going the way over raw-pointers.
My reasoning is, a raw pointer points onto memory on the GPU, why else would I be able to access it from within the kernel. So I should technically be able to have a device_vector, which holds raw pointers, all pointers that should be accessible from within the GPU. This way I constructed the following code:
thrust::device_vector<Vector3r*> d_fluidmodelParticlePositions(nModels);
thrust::device_vector<unsigned int***> d_allFluidNeighborParticles(nModels);
thrust::device_vector<unsigned int**> d_nFluidNeighborsCrossFluids(nModels);
for(unsigned int fluidModelIndex = 0; fluidModelIndex < nModels; fluidModelIndex++)
{
FluidModel *model = sim->getFluidModelFromPointSet(fluidModelIndex);
const unsigned int numParticles = model->numActiveParticles();
thrust::device_vector<Vector3r> d_neighborPositions(model->getPositions().begin(), model->getPositions().end());
d_fluidmodelParticlePositions[fluidModelIndex] = CudaHelper::GetPointer(d_neighborPositions);
thrust::device_vector<unsigned int**> d_fluidNeighborIndexes(nModels);
thrust::device_vector<unsigned int*> d_nNeighborsFluid(nModels);
for(unsigned int pid = 0; pid < nModels; pid++)
{
FluidModel *fm_neighbor = sim->getFluidModelFromPointSet(pid);
thrust::device_vector<unsigned int> d_nNeighbors(numParticles);
thrust::device_vector<unsigned int*> d_neighborIndexesArray(numParticles);
for(unsigned int i = 0; i < numParticles; i++)
{
const unsigned int nNeighbors = sim->numberOfNeighbors(fluidModelIndex, pid, i);
d_nNeighbors[i] = nNeighbors;
thrust::device_vector<unsigned int> d_neighborIndexes(nNeighbors);
for(unsigned int j = 0; j < nNeighbors; j++)
{
d_neighborIndexes[j] = sim->getNeighbor(fluidModelIndex, pid, i, j);
}
d_neighborIndexesArray[i] = CudaHelper::GetPointer(d_neighborIndexes);
}
d_fluidNeighborIndexes[pid] = CudaHelper::GetPointer(d_neighborIndexesArray);
d_nNeighborsFluid[pid] = CudaHelper::GetPointer(d_nNeighbors);
}
d_allFluidNeighborParticles[fluidModelIndex] = CudaHelper::GetPointer(d_fluidNeighborIndexes);
d_nFluidNeighborsCrossFluids[fluidModelIndex] = CudaHelper::GetPointer(d_nNeighborsFluid);
}
Now the compiler won't complain, but accessing for example d_nFluidNeighborsCrossFluids from within the kernel will work, but return wrong values. I access it like this (again, from within a kernel):
d_nFluidNeighborsCrossFluids[iterator1][iterator2][iterator3];
// Note: out of bounds indexing guaranteed to not happen, indexing is definitely right
The question is, why does it return wrong values? The logic behind it should work in my opinion, since my indexing is correct and the pointers should be valid addresses from within the kernel.
Thank you already for your time and have a great day.
EDIT:
Here is a minimal reproducable example. For some reason the values appear right despite of having the same structure as my code, but cuda-memcheck reveals some errors. Uncommenting the two commented lines leads me to my main problem I am trying to solve. What does the cuda-memcheck here tell me?
/* Part of this example has been taken from code of Robert Crovella
in a comment below */
#include <thrust/device_vector.h>
#include <stdio.h>
template<typename T>
static T* GetPointer(thrust::device_vector<T> &vector)
{
return thrust::raw_pointer_cast(vector.data());
}
__global__
void k(unsigned int ***nFluidNeighborsCrossFluids, unsigned int ****allFluidNeighborParticles){
const unsigned int i = blockIdx.x*blockDim.x + threadIdx.x;
if(i > 49)
return;
printf("i: %d nNeighbors: %d\n", i, nFluidNeighborsCrossFluids[0][0][i]);
//for(int j = 0; j < nFluidNeighborsCrossFluids[0][0][i]; j++)
// printf("i: %d j: %d neighbors: %d\n", i, j, allFluidNeighborParticles[0][0][i][j]);
}
int main(){
const unsigned int nModels = 2;
const int numParticles = 50;
thrust::device_vector<unsigned int**> d_nFluidNeighborsCrossFluids(nModels);
thrust::device_vector<unsigned int***> d_allFluidNeighborParticles(nModels);
for(unsigned int fluidModelIndex = 0; fluidModelIndex < nModels; fluidModelIndex++)
{
thrust::device_vector<unsigned int*> d_nNeighborsFluid(nModels);
thrust::device_vector<unsigned int**> d_fluidNeighborIndexes(nModels);
for(unsigned int pid = 0; pid < nModels; pid++)
{
thrust::device_vector<unsigned int> d_nNeighbors(numParticles);
thrust::device_vector<unsigned int*> d_neighborIndexesArray(numParticles);
for(unsigned int i = 0; i < numParticles; i++)
{
const unsigned int nNeighbors = i;
d_nNeighbors[i] = nNeighbors;
thrust::device_vector<unsigned int> d_neighborIndexes(nNeighbors);
for(unsigned int j = 0; j < nNeighbors; j++)
{
d_neighborIndexes[j] = i + j;
}
d_neighborIndexesArray[i] = GetPointer(d_neighborIndexes);
}
d_nNeighborsFluid[pid] = GetPointer(d_nNeighbors);
d_fluidNeighborIndexes[pid] = GetPointer(d_neighborIndexesArray);
}
d_nFluidNeighborsCrossFluids[fluidModelIndex] = GetPointer(d_nNeighborsFluid);
d_allFluidNeighborParticles[fluidModelIndex] = GetPointer(d_fluidNeighborIndexes);
}
k<<<256, 256>>>(GetPointer(d_nFluidNeighborsCrossFluids), GetPointer(d_allFluidNeighborParticles));
if (cudaGetLastError() != cudaSuccess)
printf("Sync kernel error: %s\n", cudaGetErrorString(cudaGetLastError()));
cudaDeviceSynchronize();
}
A device_vector is a class definition. That class has various methods and operators associated with it. The thing that allows you to do this:
d_nFluidNeighborsCrossFluids[...]...;
is a square-bracket operator. That operator is a host operator (only). It is not usable in device code. Issues like this give rise to the general statements that "thrust::device_vector is not usable in device code." The device_vector object itself is generally not usable. However the data it contains is usable in device code, if you attempt to access it via a raw pointer.
Here is an example of a thrust device vector that contains an array of pointers to the data contained in other device vectors. That data is usable in device code, as long as you don't attempt to make use of the thrust::device_vector object itself:
$ cat t1509.cu
#include <thrust/device_vector.h>
#include <stdio.h>
template <typename T>
__global__ void k(T **data){
printf("the first element of vector 1 is: %d\n", (int)(data[0][0]));
printf("the first element of vector 2 is: %d\n", (int)(data[1][0]));
printf("the first element of vector 3 is: %d\n", (int)(data[2][0]));
}
int main(){
thrust::device_vector<int> vector_1(1,1);
thrust::device_vector<int> vector_2(1,2);
thrust::device_vector<int> vector_3(1,3);
thrust::device_vector<int *> pointer_vector(3);
pointer_vector[0] = thrust::raw_pointer_cast(vector_1.data());
pointer_vector[1] = thrust::raw_pointer_cast(vector_2.data());
pointer_vector[2] = thrust::raw_pointer_cast(vector_3.data());
k<<<1,1>>>(thrust::raw_pointer_cast(pointer_vector.data()));
cudaDeviceSynchronize();
}
$ nvcc -o t1509 t1509.cu
$ cuda-memcheck ./t1509
========= CUDA-MEMCHECK
the first element of vector 1 is: 1
the first element of vector 2 is: 2
the first element of vector 3 is: 3
========= ERROR SUMMARY: 0 errors
$
EDIT: In the mcve you have now posted, you point out that an ordinary run of the code appears to give correct results, but when you use cuda-memcheck, errors are reported. You have a general design problem that will cause this.
In C++, when an object is defined within a curly-braces region:
{
{
Object A;
// object A is in-scope here
}
// object A is out-of-scope here
}
// object A is out of scope here
k<<<...>>>(anything that points to something in object A); // is illegal
and you exit that region, the object defined within the region is now out of scope. For objects with constructors/destructors, this usually means the destructor of the object will be called when it goes out-of-scope. For a thrust::device_vector (or std::vector) this will deallocate any underlying storage associated with that vector. That does not necessarily "erase" any data, but attempts to use that data are illegal and would be considered UB (undefined behavior) in C++.
When you establish pointers to such data inside an in-scope region, and then go out-of-scope, those pointers no longer point to anything that would be legal to access, so attempts to dereference the pointer would be illegal/UB. Your code is doing this. Yes, it does appear to give the correct answer, because nothing is actually erased on deallocation, but the code design is illegal, and cuda-memcheck will highlight that.
I suppose one fix would be to pull all this stuff out of the inner curly-braces, and put it at main scope, just like the d_nFluidNeighborsCrossFluids device_vector is. But you might also want to rethink your general data organization strategy and flatten your data.
You should really provide a minimal, complete, verifiable/reproducible example; yours is neither minimal, nor complete, nor verifiable.
I will, however, answer your side-question:
I know I cannot have device_vectors of device_vectors, for whichever underlying reason (explanation would be welcome)
While a device_vector regards a bunch of data on the GPU, it's a host-side data structure - otherwise you would not have been able to use it in host-side code. On the host side, what it holds should be something like: The capacity, the size in elements, the device-side pointer to the actual data, and maybe more information. This is similar to how an std::vector variable may refer to data that's on the heap, but if you create the variable locally the fields I mentioned above will exist on the stack.
Now, those fields of the device vector that are located in host memory are not generally accessible from the device-side. In device-side code you would typically use the raw pointer to the device-side data the device_vector manages.
Also, note that if you have a thrust::device_vector<T> v, each use of operator[] means a bunch of separate CUDA calls to copy data to or from the device (unless there's some caching going on under the hoold). So you really want to avoid using square-brackets with this structure.
Finally, remember that pointer-chasing can be a performance killer, especially on a GPU. You might want to consider massaging your data structure somewhat in order to make it amenable to flattening.

Frama-C: Get all values of structs

I am currently struggling with creating a Frama-C-plugin that gets all int-values of structs in a hierarchy (structs in structs).
For example:
I have a C-Program with the following types:
struct a{
int a;
int b;
}
struct b{
int c;
int d;
struct a a1;
struct a a2;
}
(And even deepter hierarchie)
In the program, there is only one struct of type b created in the main method. Furthermore, I have several local pointers and ints (so a solution only for a struct-hierarchy doesn't help).
Now I want to get the "bottom-values" of the struct of type b at some specific positions.
I've started with code like this:
let lval =
if (Cil.isPointerType vi.vtype) then (
(Mem (Cil.evar vi), NoOffset)
) else if (Cil.isStructOrUnionType vi.vtype)(
(*TODO Section*)
) else (
(Var vi, NoOffset)
)
int* and int's are already working fine, I use the lval-variable to get the value.
To get the struct's values, I think I have to go down vi recursivly, until I get to the point where it is a "normal" variable or a pointer, but how do I do this?
I've already looked at varinfo in cil_types.mli, but I have no idea how to get the data in the struct.
Is it even possible to get the result of the value-analysis for these values, and if yes, how?

Using btSoftBodyHelpers::CreateFromTriMesh with trimesh

I've been trying for a while to get support for softbodies in my project,
I have already added all primitives, including static triangle meshes as you can see below:
I've now been trying to implement the softbodies.
I do have triangle shapes as I mentioned, and I thought I could re-use the triangulation code to
create softbody objects with the function:
btSoftBody* psb = btSoftBodyHelpers::CreateFromTriMesh(.....);
I successfully did this with the bunny mesh that's hardcoded, but now I want to insert any trinangulated mesh into this function.
But I'm a bit lost figuring out exactly what parameters to send in (how to get the right parameters from my triangulated mesh).
Do anyone of you have a example of this? (not a hardcoded one, but from a
btTriangleMesh *mTriMesh = new btTriangleMesh();
type object? )
It does work with the predefined type shapes that bullet has, so my update loop and all that works fine.
This is for version 2.81 (assuming vertices are stored as PHY_FLOAT and indices as PHY_INTEGER):
btTriangleMesh *mTriMesh = new btTriangleMesh();
// ...
const btVector3 meshScaling = mTriMesh->getScaling();
btAlignedObjectArray<btScalar> vertices;
btAlignedObjectArray<int> triangles;
for (int part=0;part< mTriMesh->getNumSubParts(); part++)
{
const unsigned char * vertexbase;
const unsigned char * indexbase;
int indexstride;
int stride,numverts,numtriangles;
PHY_ScalarType type, gfxindextype;
mTriMesh->getLockedReadOnlyVertexIndexBase(&vertexbase,numverts,type,stride,&indexbase,indexstride,numtriangles,gfxindextype,part);
for (int gfxindex=0; gfxindex < numverts; gfxindex++)
{
float* graphicsbase = (float*)(vertexbase+gfxindex*stride);
vertices.push_back(graphicsbase[0]*meshScaling.getX());
vertices.push_back(graphicsbase[1]*meshScaling.getY());
vertices.push_back(graphicsbase[2]*meshScaling.getZ());
}
for (int gfxindex=0;gfxindex < numtriangles; gfxindex++)
{
unsigned int* tri_indices= (unsigned int*)(indexbase+gfxindex*indexstride);
triangles.push_back(tri_indices[0]);
triangles.push_back(tri_indices[1]);
triangles.push_back(tri_indices[2]);
}
}
btSoftBodyWorldInfo worldInfo;
// Setup worldInfo...
// ....
btSoftBodyHelper::CreateFromTriMesh(worldInfo, &vertices[0], &triangles[0], triangles.size()/3 /*, randomizeConstraints = true*/);
A slower, more general approach is to iterate the mesh using mTriMesh->InternalProcessAllTriangles() but that will make your mesh a soup.

Recursive data types in Promela

I am trying to make a B-Tree in Promela so that I can prove stuff about it, however, it seems that Promela does not support recursive data types. This doesn't work:
#define n 2
typedef BTreeNode
{
int keys[2*n-1];
BTreeNode children[2*n];
int c;
};
How can I make a B-Tree in Promela, and if I can't, which tool would you suggest? I considered QuickCheck and Prolog. However making a B-Tree in Prolog would be hard too.
You'll represent the children using an index into a statically defined array of nodes. Like this:
#define n 2
#define BTreeNodeId byte
typedef BTreeNode {
BTreeNodeId my_id;
int keys[2*n-1];
BTreeNodeId children[2*n];
int c;
};
BTreeNode nodes [10];
byte next_node_id = 0;
With this, you 'allocate' nodes by incrementing next_node_id and can access a child by referencing into nodes using the child's id.

How to use cudaMalloc / cudaMemcpy for a pointer to a structure containing pointers?

I've looked all around this site and others, and nothing has worked. I'm resorting to posting a question for my specific case.
I have a bunch of matrices, and the goal is to use a kernel to let the GPU to do the same operation on all of them. I'm pretty sure I can get the kernel to work, but I can't get cudaMalloc / cudaMemcpy to work.
I have a pointer to a Matrix structure, which has a member called elements that points to some floats. I can do all the non-cuda mallocs just fine.
Thanks for any/all help.
Code:
typedef struct {
int width;
int height;
float* elements;
} Matrix;
int main void() {
int rows, cols, numMat = 2; // These are actually determined at run-time
Matrix* data = (Matrix*)malloc(numMat * sizeof(Matrix));
// ... Successfully read from file into "data" ...
Matrix* d_data;
cudaMalloc(&d_data, numMat*sizeof(Matrix));
for (int i=0; i<numMat; i++){
// The next line doesn't work
cudaMalloc(&(d_data[i].elements), rows*cols*sizeof(float));
// Don't know if this works
cudaMemcpy(d_data[i].elements, data[i].elements, rows*cols*sizeof(float)), cudaMemcpyHostToDevice);
}
// ... Do other things ...
}
Thanks!
You have to be aware where your memory resides. malloc allocates host memory, cudaMalloc allocates memory on the device and returns a pointer to that memory back. However, this pointer is only valid in device functions.
What you want could be achived as followed:
typedef struct {
int width;
int height;
float* elements;
} Matrix;
int main void() {
int rows, cols, numMat = 2; // These are actually determined at run-time
Matrix* data = (Matrix*)malloc(numMat * sizeof(Matrix));
// ... Successfully read from file into "data" ...
Matrix* h_data = (Matrix*)malloc(numMat * sizeof(Matrix));
memcpy(h_data, data, numMat * sizeof(Matrix);
for (int i=0; i<numMat; i++){
cudaMalloc(&(h_data[i].elements), rows*cols*sizeof(float));
cudaMemcpy(h_data[i].elements, data[i].elements, rows*cols*sizeof(float)), cudaMemcpyHostToDevice);
}// matrix data is now on the gpu, now copy the "meta" data to gpu
Matrix* d_data;
cudaMalloc(&d_data, numMat*sizeof(Matrix));
cudaMemcpy(d_data, h_data, numMat*sizeof(Matrix));
// ... Do other things ...
}
To make things clear:
Matrix* data contains the data on the host.
Matrix* h_data contains a pointer to the device memory in elements which can be passed to the kernels as parameters. The memory is on the GPU.
Matrix* d_data is completly on the GPU and can be used like data on the host.
in your kernel code you kann now access the matrix values, e.g.,
__global__ void doThings(Matrix* matrices)
{
matrices[i].elements[0] = 42;
}

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