GCC on Solaris - parse error before `0x00000002'

Question

I'm working on a C++ project that is compiled on a few platforms, including Windows, Linux, and Solaris.

The Solaris version of the code is quite old. I'm updating it with changes made over several years, and getting weird compiler errors with code that compiles fine on Windows and Linux.

GCC is version 2.95.3, on Solaris 9 (SunOS 5.9). I'm aware that these are very old versions.
The weird errors are "parse error before", followed by a hexadecimal number that doesn't appear in the source files.

Here's a small sample of the errors (not all of them) for one source file:

./InDB/InDB/Column.cpp: In method `bool InDB::IndexSorter::operator ()(unsigned int, unsigned int)':
./InDB/InDB/Column.cpp:27: parse error before `0x00000002'
./InDB/InDB/Column.cpp: In method `int InDB::Column::load()':
./InDB/InDB/Column.cpp:110: parse error before `0x00000020'
./InDB/InDB/Column.cpp:111: initialization of non-const reference type `int &'
./InDB/InDB/Column.cpp:111: from rvalue of type `int'

Here's the function in Column.cpp that contains line 27:

bool IndexSorter::operator()(unsigned int _Lhs, unsigned int _Rhs) {
//  Get the two records
    unsigned int _L = Cp->getLookupIndexAt(_Lhs);  // Line 27
    unsigned int _R = Cp->getLookupIndexAt(_Rhs);

//  Now do the comparison
    return (_L < _R);
}

This function hasn't changed at all between the old, working version of the Solaris code, and the current version, but there are several other changes in the same source file.

What do the hexadecimal numbers mean in the error messages?
How can I fix this?

Answer 1

usr/include/iso/ctype_iso.h from Solaris 8 defines _L:

#define _U  0x00000001  /* Upper case */
#define _L  0x00000002  /* Lower case */
#define _N  0x00000004  /* Numeral (digit) */
#define _S  0x00000008  /* Spacing character */
#define _P  0x00000010  /* Punctuation */
#define _C  0x00000020  /* Control character */
#define _B  0x00000040  /* Blank */
#define _X  0x00000080  /* heXadecimal digit */

This is breaking your code. These defines are specific to Solaris, though you should not be using these kinds of identifiers in the first place as @juanchopanza points out.

Your best bet is to simply rename those identifiers to something more legal (simply Lhs, Rhs and L, R should work since these are local variables).