In the context of another question there was some discussion on whether it was allowed (i.e. would or would not introduce implementation defined or undefined behavior) to cast int** to void** and subsequently assign a value to the dereferenced void*. This brings me to my question on the interpretation of the C11 standard
6.2.5 (28) A pointer to void shall have the same representation and alignment requirements as a pointer to a character type. ...
6.3.2.3 (1) A pointer to void may be converted to or from a pointer to any object type. A pointer to any object type may be converted to a pointer to void and back again; the result shall compare equal to the original pointer.
6.3.2.3 (7) ... When a pointer to an object is converted to a pointer to a character type, the result points to the lowest addressed byte of the object. ...
My question is whether this
int* intptr = NULL;
void* dvoidptr = &intptr; /* 6.3.2.3 (1) */
*(void**)dvoidptr = malloc(sizeof *intptr); /* using 6.3.2.3 (1) */
conforms with the standard or not? It seems strange to me, but I cannot find a conclusive line of argument why not. void* to void** is guaranteed by 6.3.2.3 and 6.2.5 together with 6.3.2.3 help with the alignment.
Code is not valid.
See the emphasis:
6.3.2.3 (1) A pointer to void may be converted to or from a pointer to any object type. A pointer to any object type may be converted to a pointer to void and back again; the result shall compare equal to the original pointer.
You are converting int** to void* (fine), and then to different type void** (not ok). C gives no quarantee that you can safely convert void* to anything other than the original type (aside from converting to char *)
In addition, *(void**)dvoidptr results in void* when in reality there is int*. What if, for example, sizeof(void*) == 2 and sizeof(int*) == 1? You can convert void* pointer to other type, but you cannot reinterpret it directly as other type.
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