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C++ Value at Recursive Struct Pointer Keeps Changing

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I am continuing my motion-planning algorithm with a recursive Node structure and a boost geometry rtree. However, I'm running into a couple of issues in which the value at a Node pointer keeps changing. Here is a MWE:

#include <algorithm>
#include <iostream>
#include <cmath>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
#include <set>
#include <boost/geometry.hpp>
#include <boost/geometry/geometry.hpp>
#include <boost/geometry/geometries/point.hpp>
#include <boost/geometry/geometries/box.hpp>
#include <boost/geometry/geometries/register/point.hpp>
#include <boost/geometry/index/rtree.hpp>

using namespace std;

namespace bg = boost::geometry;
namespace bgi = boost::geometry::index;

typedef bg::model::point<double, 2, bg::cs::cartesian> point;

struct Node
{
  struct Node *parent;
  point pos;
  int id;
};

typedef pair<Node, unsigned int> ptval;

BOOST_GEOMETRY_REGISTER_POINT_2D_GET_SET(Node, double, bg::cs::cartesian, pos.get<0>, pos.get<1>, pos.set<0>, pos.set<1>);

double px(point& p) {
  return pbruh.get<0>();
}

double nx(Node *n) {
  return px(n->pos);
}

double py(point& p)
{
  return pbruh.get<1>();
}

double ny(Node *n)
{
  return py(n->pos);
}

int main() {
  point start(0, 0), end(200, 200);
  Node *root = new Node;
  root->parent = NULL;
  root->pos = start;
  root->id = 0;
  Node *last = root;
  bgi::rtree<ptval, bgi::quadratic<16>> pts;
  pts.insert(make_pair(*root, 0));

  int c = 1; // running count
  srand(time(nullptr)); // seed rng
  vector<int> pars; // actual parent ids
  pars.push_back(-1);
  Node *save;
  int marker = 500;
  while (c<2000)
  {
    // generate random pos
    double xr = ((double)rand() / RAND_MAX) * 200;
    double yr = ((double)rand() / RAND_MAX) * 200;
    point random(xr, yr);

    vector<ptval> res;
    pts.query(bgi::nearest(random, 1), back_inserter(res)); // get nearest point in rtree
    Node *pnearest = &(res[0].first);

    Node *pnew = new Node;
    pnew->pos = random;
    pnew->parent = pnearest; pnew->id = c; if (c == marker) { save = pnew; }
    pars.push_back(pnearest->id);
    if (c > marker && c < marker+50 && save->parent->id != pars[marker]) { cout << "CHANGED " << c << " " << pars[marker] << " " << save->parent->id << " " << save->parent << " " << nx(save->parent) << " " << ny(save->parent) << endl; }

    pts.insert(make_pair(*pnew, c));
    last = pnew;

    c++;

  }
  cout << "ULTIMATE " << pars[marker] << " " << save->parent->id << endl;
  return 0;
}

An example output is

CHANGED 501 416 118 0x257c1b0 134.416 103.623
CHANGED 502 416 412 0x257c1b0 187.164 150.841
CHANGED 503 416 190 0x257c1b0 176.128 162.548
CHANGED 504 416 212 0x257c1b0 68.16 167.425
CHANGED 505 416 487 0x257c1b0 0.701926 114.237
CHANGED 506 416 61 0x257c1b0 16.8645 91.7386
CHANGED 507 416 221 0x257c1b0 160.991 62.9841
CHANGED 508 416 439 0x257c1b0 65.627 130.284
CHANGED 509 416 203 0x257c1b0 146.312 189.367
CHANGED 510 416 140 0x257c1b0 164.946 30.2683
CHANGED 511 416 76 0x257c1b0 193.194 146.336
CHANGED 512 416 286 0x257c1b0 29.8898 124.509
CHANGED 513 416 14 0x257c1b0 88.4732 88.3816
CHANGED 514 416 340 0x257c1b0 179.907 93.4538
CHANGED 515 416 409 0x257c1b0 26.5389 94.4609
CHANGED 516 416 488 0x257c1b0 98.8983 12.36
CHANGED 517 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 518 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 519 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 520 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 521 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 522 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 523 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 524 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 525 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 526 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 527 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 528 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 529 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 530 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 531 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 532 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 533 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 534 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 535 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 536 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 537 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 538 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 539 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 540 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 541 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 542 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 543 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 544 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 545 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 546 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 547 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 548 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
CHANGED 549 416 256 0x257c1b0 141.984 180.651
ULTIMATE 416 599

As you can see, for all of these iterations, same->parent->id differs from the actual id of the parent (416) when same was processed on its iteration, and for some reason same->parent->id fluctuates on these first few iterations. However, the pointer address remains the same. What is happening in the heap memory that is causing these values to fluctuate and then stop but still be at the wrong address? This is very weird. I suspect it may have something to do with the Boost RTree as I store a direct reference to each Node in it and Boost may be doing some underlying operations, but that is just a theory. I may also just be a bit misguided on how pointers work.

Does anyone know how to fix the issue?

c++ pointers boost heap-memory boost-geometry
Original Q&A
1

There are 1 best solutions below

3
sehe On BEST ANSWER

  1. I'm assuming the missing functions are:

    double px(point& p) { return p.get<0>(); }
double py(point& p) { return p.get<1>(); }
double nx(Node* n) { return px(n->pos); }
double ny(Node* n) { return py(n->pos); }

  2. The first real issue I see is:

    pts.insert(make_pair(*root, 0));

    That inserts a copy of the object pointed to by root. Any references will not point to the copy. root is always leaked for no reason.

    This is a better start that might actually work until the tree invalidates references:

    pts.insert(std::make_pair(Node{nullptr, start, 0}, 0));
Node const* last = &pts.begin()->first;

  3. Same here:

    pts.insert(std::make_pair(*pnew, id));
last = pnew;

    *pnew is always leaked, and you didn't want last to point to it. To "fix" it naievely, I'd use a helper function:

    auto insert = [&pts](Node n) -> Node const* {
    pts.insert(std::make_pair(n, n.id));
    auto it = std::find_if(pts.begin(), pts.end(),
                           [](ptval const& p) { return p.second == n.id; });
    return &it->first;
};

Node const* last = insert(Node{nullptr, start, 0});

  4. As others have noted, this is definitely wrong:

    ptval res;
pts.query(bgi::nearest(newpos, 1), &res);
Node* pnearest = &(res[0].first);

    This by definition takes the address of the local copy of a ptval's Node element. Instead, let's use the same naive (probably enormously inefficient) approach:

    auto find = [&pts](int id) -> Node const* {
    auto it = std::find_if(pts.begin(), pts.end(),
                           [id](ptval const& p) { return p.second == id; });
    return &it->first;
};
auto insert = [&, find](Node n) -> Node const* {
    pts.insert(std::make_pair(n, n.id));
    return find(n.id);
};

    Now you can have:

    Node const* last = insert(Node{nullptr, start, 0}); // insert root

    As well as:

        ptval res;
    pts.query(bgi::nearest(newpos, 1), &res);
    Node new_node{find(res.second), newpos, id};

    if (id == marker) {
        marker_parent = new_node.parent;
    }

    parents.push_back(new_node.parent->id);

  5. Next up

    srand(time(nullptr));  // seed rng
// generate random pos
double xr = ((double)rand() / RAND_MAX) * 200;
double yr = ((double)rand() / RAND_MAX) * 200;

    Prefer standard library:

    std::mt19937 prng{std::random_device{}()};
std::uniform_real_distribution<double> dist(0, 200);
// generate random pos
double xr = dist(prng);
double yr = dist(prng);

  6. Next up

    Node* save;

  7. Prefer to initialize:

    Node* save = nullptr;

  8. Know your loops.

    int c = 1;            // running count
// ...
while (c < 2000) {
    //...
    c++;
}

    Should just be

    for (int id = 1; id<2000; ++id) {
    //...
}

    Note the naming as well.

  9. Don't use using namespace std; (Why is "using namespace std;" considered bad practice?)

Applying all this leads me to:

Live On Compiler Explorer

//#include <algorithm>
#include <iostream>
//#include <cmath>
//#include <stdlib.h>
//#include <stdio.h>
//#include <string>
//#include <vector>
//#include <set>
#include <boost/geometry.hpp>
#include <boost/geometry/geometries/box.hpp>
#include <boost/geometry/geometries/point.hpp>
#include <boost/geometry/geometries/register/point.hpp>
#include <boost/geometry/geometry.hpp>
#include <boost/geometry/index/rtree.hpp>
#include <random>

namespace bg  = boost::geometry;
namespace bgi = boost::geometry::index;

typedef bg::model::point<double, 2, bg::cs::cartesian> point;

struct Node {
    Node const* parent = nullptr;
    point       pos    = {};
    int         id     = -1;
};

typedef std::pair<Node, int> ptval;

BOOST_GEOMETRY_REGISTER_POINT_2D_GET_SET(Node, double, bg::cs::cartesian,
                                         pos.get<0>, pos.get<1>, pos.set<0>,
                                         pos.set<1>)

double px(point const& p) { return p.get<0>(); }
double py(point const& p) { return p.get<1>(); }
double nx(Node const* n) { return px(n->pos); }
double ny(Node const* n) { return py(n->pos); }

int main(int argc, char** argv) {
    point start(0, 0) /*, end(200, 200)*/;

    bgi::rtree<ptval, bgi::quadratic<16>> pts;

    auto find = [&pts](int id) -> Node const* {
        auto it = std::find_if(pts.begin(), pts.end(),
                               [id](ptval const& p) { return p.second == id; });
        return &it->first;
    };
    auto insert = [&, find](Node n) -> Node const* {
        pts.insert(std::make_pair(n, n.id));
        return find(n.id);
    };

    Node const* last = insert(Node{nullptr, start, 0}); // insert root

    std::mt19937 prng{argc > 1 ? atoi(argv[1]) : std::random_device{}()};
    std::uniform_real_distribution<double> dist(0, 200);

    std::vector<int> parents{-1}; // actual parent ids

    Node const* marker_parent = nullptr;

    int marker = 500;
    for (int id = 1; id < 2000; ++id) {
        // generate random pos
        point newpos(dist(prng), dist(prng));

        ptval res;
        pts.query(bgi::nearest(newpos, 1), &res);
        Node new_node{find(res.second), newpos, id};

        if (id == marker) {
            marker_parent = new_node.parent;
        }

        parents.push_back(new_node.parent->id);
        if (id > marker && id < marker + 50 &&
            marker_parent->id != parents[marker]) {
            std::cout << "CHANGED " << id << " " << parents[marker] << " "
                      << marker_parent->id << " " << marker_parent
                      << " " << nx(marker_parent) << " "
                      << ny(marker_parent) << std::endl;
        }

        last = insert(new_node);
    }
    std::cout << "ULTIMATE " << parents[marker] << " ";

    if (marker_parent)
        std::cout << marker_parent->id << std::endl;
    else
        std::cout << std::endl;
}

Prints (with the seed fixed at 42 for online demo):

ULTIMATE 307 1622

The funny thing is, as far as I can see last is never used. So you can probably do with much simpler and more efficient:

auto insert = [&](Node n) { pts.insert(std::make_pair(n, n.id)); };

Isolating The Bug - Root Cause

Note above when I said "might actually work until the tree invalidates references". Sadly I was unable to find any documentation of reference stability/invalidation guarantees for rtree¹.

With different seeds we still get output like e.g. for seed 47:

CHANGED 501 189 38 0x617000004e30 26.0044 140.042
...
CHANGED 549 189 38 0x617000004e30 26.0044 140.042
ULTIMATE 189 474

Obviously, at least all the lines are identical (except for the running counter 501..549). Comparing seed 40:

CHANGED 517 108 500 0x560957ad1638 109.71 53.341
...
CHANGED 549 108 500 0x560957ad1638 109.71 53.341
ULTIMATE 108 590

Illustrates that sometimes the marker "randomly" changes during the game. The problem then, clearly, is that rtree can reallocate, invalidating Node references.

The number 517 is interesting to me for its relation to 16 in bgi::quadratic<16>. So, I thought to make a much more granular test instead of randomly monitoring the 500th "marker". Why not monitor all parents?

constexpr auto N = 2000;
std::vector<Node const*> parents(N, nullptr); // parents refs
std::vector<int>         parent_ids(N, -1);   // parent ids

for (int id = 1; id < N; ++id) {
    // generate random pos
    point newpos(dist(prng), dist(prng));

    ptval res;
    pts.query(bgi::nearest(newpos, 1), &res);
    Node new_node{find(res.second), newpos, id};

    parents[id]    = new_node.parent;
    parent_ids[id] = new_node.parent->id;

    bool invalidated = !std::equal(
        parents.begin(), parents.end(), parent_ids.begin(),
        [](Node const* p, int id) { return !p || p->id == id; });

    std::cout << "invalidated: " << std::boolalpha << invalidated << "\n";
    //assert(!invalidated);

    insert(new_node);
}

Now running this a few hundred times with random seeds shows a pattern of always invalidating after 16 nodes:

$ for a in {1..100}; do ./build/sotest; done | uniq -c | sort | uniq
     16 invalidated: false
   1983 invalidated: true
      1 ULTIMATE 101 1393
      1 ULTIMATE 103 262
      1 ULTIMATE 103 5
      1 ULTIMATE 104 536
      1 ULTIMATE 108 1406
      1 ULTIMATE 111 111

This confirms beyond any statistical doubt that reallocation is causing the references (i.e. the pointers) to become invalidated.

FIXING

I suggest keeping the parent references by id only. Interestingly, since id is already part of Node you can do without the duplication in std::pair by using a custom ``indexable<>or customIndexableGetter` template argument.

Let's store references to Nodes in the tree, instead, using a custom indexable:

using NodeRef = std::reference_wrapper<Node const>;
struct MyIndexable {
    using value_type  = NodeRef;
    using result_type = Node const&;

    result_type operator()(NodeRef r) const { return r; }
};

Now we can trivially build a tree from those:

bgi::rtree<NodeRef, bgi::quadratic<16>, MyIndexable> pts;

All we need is some stable storage for the referenced nodes:

std::deque<Node> storage; // reference stability adding/removing at either end
//std::list<Node> storage; // iterator and reference stability (except removed)

auto insert = [&](Node n) {
    storage.push_back(std::move(n));
    pts.insert(NodeRef(storage.back()));
};

The rest of the program can remain pretty much the same - except for a few respellings to accomodate NodeRef:

Live On Coliru

#undef NDEBUG
#include <iostream>
#include <boost/geometry.hpp>
#include <boost/geometry/geometries/box.hpp>
#include <boost/geometry/geometries/point.hpp>
#include <boost/geometry/geometries/register/point.hpp>
#include <boost/geometry/geometry.hpp>
#include <boost/geometry/index/rtree.hpp>
#include <random>

namespace bg  = boost::geometry;
namespace bgi = boost::geometry::index;

typedef bg::model::point<double, 2, bg::cs::cartesian> point;

struct Node {
    Node const* parent = nullptr;
    point       pos    = {};
    int         id     = -1;
};

BOOST_GEOMETRY_REGISTER_POINT_2D_GET_SET(Node, double, bg::cs::cartesian,
                                         pos.get<0>, pos.get<1>, pos.set<0>,
                                         pos.set<1>)

double px(point const& p) { return p.get<0>(); }
double py(point const& p) { return p.get<1>(); }
double nx(Node const* n) { return px(n->pos); }
double ny(Node const* n) { return py(n->pos); }

using NodeRef = std::reference_wrapper<Node const>;
struct MyIndexable {
    using value_type  = NodeRef;
    using result_type = Node const&;

    result_type operator()(NodeRef r) const { return r; }
};

int main(int argc, char** argv) {
    bgi::rtree<NodeRef, bgi::quadratic<16>, MyIndexable> pts;

    std::deque<Node> storage; // reference stability adding/removing at either end
    //std::list<Node> storage; // iterator and reference stability (except removed)

    auto insert = [&](Node n) {
        storage.push_back(std::move(n));
        pts.insert(NodeRef(storage.back()));
    };

    insert({nullptr, point(0, 0), 0}); // insert root

    std::mt19937 prng{argc > 1 ? atoi(argv[1]) : std::random_device{}()};
    std::uniform_real_distribution<double> dist(0, 200);

    constexpr auto N = 2000;
    std::vector<NodeRef> parents; // parents refs
    std::vector<int>     parent_ids; // parent ids

    for (int id = 1; id < N; ++id) {
        // generate random pos
        point newpos(dist(prng), dist(prng));

        std::vector<NodeRef> res;
        pts.query(bgi::nearest(newpos, 1), back_inserter(res));
        Node new_node{&res.front().get(), newpos, id};

        parents.push_back(*new_node.parent);
        parent_ids.push_back(new_node.parent->id);

        bool invalidated =
            !std::equal(parents.begin(), parents.end(), parent_ids.begin(),
                        [](Node const& p, int id) { return p.id == id; });

        assert(!invalidated);

        insert(std::move(new_node));
    }
    std::cout << "ULTIMATE " << parent_ids.at(500) << " "
              << parents.at(500).get().id << "\n";
}

Which never trips the assert, and produces stable output like:

for a in {1..50}; do ./a.out; done
ULTIMATE 41 41
ULTIMATE 365 365
ULTIMATE 219 219
ULTIMATE 193 193
ULTIMATE 448 448
ULTIMATE 331 331
ULTIMATE 227 227
ULTIMATE 234 234
ULTIMATE 300 300
ULTIMATE 227 227
ULTIMATE 243 243
ULTIMATE 248 248
ULTIMATE 233 233
ULTIMATE 143 143
ULTIMATE 39 39
ULTIMATE 488 488
ULTIMATE 493 493
ULTIMATE 9 9
ULTIMATE 212 212
ULTIMATE 338 338
ULTIMATE 141 141
ULTIMATE 356 356
ULTIMATE 147 147
ULTIMATE 376 376
ULTIMATE 76 76
ULTIMATE 450 450
ULTIMATE 272 272
ULTIMATE 34 34
ULTIMATE 492 492
ULTIMATE 478 478
ULTIMATE 84 84
ULTIMATE 416 416
ULTIMATE 222 222
ULTIMATE 457 457
ULTIMATE 95 95
ULTIMATE 446 446
ULTIMATE 233 233
ULTIMATE 480 480
ULTIMATE 265 265
ULTIMATE 415 415
ULTIMATE 289 289
ULTIMATE 121 121
ULTIMATE 344 344
ULTIMATE 110 110
ULTIMATE 429 429
ULTIMATE 31 31
ULTIMATE 344 344
ULTIMATE 172 172
ULTIMATE 20 20
ULTIMATE 394 394

Bonus

A version without the now-redundant sanity checks and unused code: Live On Coliru

¹ although there are some notes about iterator invalidation

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