1 character typo generating most error messages from C++ compilation

Question

It seems that simple changes to a C++ file, especially with templates, can generate pages of errors. This contest is to see what the largest "bang of the buck" is, that is the more verbose error output with the smallest change to the source code (1 character addition).

Because other languages are more sane, this will be limited to C++ and gcc version 4.x.

Rules

1. Original source file must compile with gcc 4.9.2 to object code without error.

2. One ASCII character is added to source code to create a typo, increasing file size by 1 byte.

3. Compiler is run with default options. Necessary options like -c and -std=c++11 are allowed, options like -Wall are not.

4. Metric is

       number of bytes of generated error messages
       -----------------------------------------------------------------------
       (bytes of source code with typo) (length of filename passed to compiler)
   

5. Answers will be validated with http://ideone.com/ C++ 4.9.2.

Example:

Filename is a.cpp, which is 5 bytes long.

int foo();

Working Compilation

 gcc -c a.cpp

Corrupted source code:

in t foo();

Failing Compilation

$ gcc -c a.cpp
a.cpp:1:1: error: ‘in’ does not name a type
in t foo();
  ^
$ gcc -c a.cpp |& -c wc
64
$ wc -c a.cpp
12 a.cpp

Score: 64/12/5 = 1.0666

Better attempt: Insert { between parens of foo()

$ gcc -c a.cpp |& wc -c
497

New score: 497/12/5 = 8.283

Good Luck!

UPDATE

I encourage people to ignore the recursive implementation. That technically wins but is not in the spirit of the contest.

UPDATE 2

As many people have noted, the contest probably would have been more interesting if the C pre-processor was not allowed. So I would like to encourage people to post solutions that do not use pre-processor commands at all. That implies no use of any header files at all, since #include is not allowed!

As far as using IDEONE to validate, you are allowed to either use the IDEONE output directly (and the source name as prog.cpp), or you can run the IDEONE output through a global search and replace (s/prog.cpp/a.cc/ for example) and pretend that you were able to set the file name directly.

UPDATE 3

As people pointed out, Ideone is a little too restrictive, requiring linkage not just object file creation. As this contest is purely in the name of fun, please be honest and specify what you used to get your score. Either use ideone, or use the most vanilla build (all defaults) of gcc 4.9.2 as you can muster. The contest is intended to bring awareness to the awfulness of C++ error messages.

Answer 1

gcc 4.5.2, Score: 8579.15 (or 14367.49 for filename "a.C", may update later)

Original file, 29 bytes, compiles clean (a.cpp):

#if 0
#include"a.cpp"
#endif

Modified file, 30 bytes:

#iff 0
#include"a.cpp"
#endif

Errors:

$ gcc -c a.cpp 2>&1 | wc -c
1286873

Score:

1286873 / (30 * 5) = 8579.15

Head and tail of error output:

a.cpp:1:2: error: invalid preprocessing directive #iff
In file included from a.cpp:2:0:
a.cpp:1:2: error: invalid preprocessing directive #iff
In file included from a.cpp:2:0,
                 from a.cpp:2:
a.cpp:1:2: error: invalid preprocessing directive #iff
In file included from a.cpp:2:0,
                 from a.cpp:2,
                 from a.cpp:2:
a.cpp:1:2: error: invalid preprocessing directive #iff
In file included from a.cpp:2:0,
                 from a.cpp:2,
                 from a.cpp:2,
                 from a.cpp:2:
a.cpp:1:2: error: invalid preprocessing directive #iff
In file included from a.cpp:2:0,
                 from a.cpp:2,
                 from a.cpp:2,
                 from a.cpp:2,
                 from a.cpp:2:
a.cpp:1:2: error: invalid preprocessing directive #iff
In file included from a.cpp:2:0,
                 from a.cpp:2,
                 from a.cpp:2,
                 from a.cpp:2,
                 from a.cpp:2,
                 from a.cpp:2:

... And so on, backing out with second error after max include depth:

a.cpp:3:2: error: #endif without #if
In file included from a.cpp:2:0,
                 from a.cpp:2,
                 from a.cpp:2,
                 from a.cpp:2,
                 from a.cpp:2:
a.cpp:3:2: error: #endif without #if
In file included from a.cpp:2:0,
                 from a.cpp:2,
                 from a.cpp:2,
                 from a.cpp:2:
a.cpp:3:2: error: #endif without #if
In file included from a.cpp:2:0,
                 from a.cpp:2,
                 from a.cpp:2:
a.cpp:3:2: error: #endif without #if
In file included from a.cpp:2:0,
                 from a.cpp:2:
a.cpp:3:2: error: #endif without #if
In file included from a.cpp:2:0:
a.cpp:3:2: error: #endif without #if
a.cpp:3:2: error: #endif without #if

<sub>Note:
- If .C ends up qualifying as a valid extension then score is 1,206,869 / (28 * 3) = 14,367.49.
- If Dennis' suggested second #include is added, file name "a.cpp", score is 80,797,292,934 / (46 * 5) = 351,292,578.97</sub>

Answer 2

gcc 4.9.2, score: 222,898,664 663,393,783

This is heavily based on @JasonC's answer, but he said he didn't want to take credit for this improvement.

The error output of the code below is 126,044,818,789 bytes long. The score should be much higher in theory (and tend to infinity as the number of include statements increases), but it decreases in practice by adding more include statements.

Original file (37 bytes)

/*#
#include"w.cpp"
#include"w.cpp"*/

$ gcc -c w.cpp
$

Modified file (38 bytes)

/
*#
#include"w.cpp"
#include"w.cpp"*/

$ gcc -c w.cpp
w.cpp:2:2: error: stray ‘#’ in program
 *#
  ^
In file included from w.cpp:3:0:
w.cpp:2:2: error: stray ‘#’ in program
 *#
  ^
In file included from w.cpp:3:0,
                 from w.cpp:3:
w.cpp:2:2: error: stray ‘#’ in program
 *#
  ^
In file included from w.cpp:3:0,
                 from w.cpp:3,
                 from w.cpp:3:
w.cpp:2:2: error: stray ‘#’ in program
 *#
  ^
In file included from w.cpp:3:0,
                 from w.cpp:3,
                 from w.cpp:3,
                 from w.cpp:3:
⋮
w.cpp:2:2: error: stray ‘#’ in program
 *#
  ^
w.cpp:3:0: error: #include nested too deeply
 #include"w.cpp"
 ^
w.cpp:4:0: warning: extra tokens at end of #include directive
 #include"w.cpp"*/
 ^
w.cpp:4:0: error: #include nested too deeply
w.cpp:2: confused by earlier errors, bailing out
The bug is not reproducible, so it is likely a hardware or OS problem.

Answer 3

gcc, 4.9.2, Score: 22.2

Original file: 0 bytes (a.cpp)

Compiles clean:

$ gcc -c a.cpp |& wc -c
0

Modified file:

(

Errors:

$ gcc -c a.cpp |& wc -c
111

Score

111/1/5 = 22.2

Answer 4

11,126.95 9,105.44 2,359.37 1,645.94 266.88 points

More preprocessor abuse! This time, we're making the standard library cry.

Without typo:

#define typedf
#include<fstream>

With typo:

#define typedef
#include<fstream>

Errors:

In file included from /usr/include/c++/4.9/iosfwd:39:0,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/ios:38,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/istream:38,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/fstream:38,
                 from a.C:2:
/usr/include/c++/4.9/bits/stringfwd.h:62:33: error: aggregate ‘std::basic_string<char> std::string’ has incomplete type and cannot be defined
   typedef basic_string<char>    string;   
                                 ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/bits/stringfwd.h:68:33: error: aggregate ‘std::basic_string<wchar_t> std::wstring’ has incomplete type and cannot be defined
   typedef basic_string<wchar_t> wstring;   
                                 ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/bits/stringfwd.h:78:34: error: aggregate ‘std::basic_string<char16_t> std::u16string’ has incomplete type and cannot be defined
   typedef basic_string<char16_t> u16string; 
                                  ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/bits/stringfwd.h:81:34: error: aggregate ‘std::basic_string<char32_t> std::u32string’ has incomplete type and cannot be defined
   typedef basic_string<char32_t> u32string; 
                                  ^
In file included from /usr/include/wchar.h:36:0,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/cwchar:44,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/bits/postypes.h:40,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/iosfwd:40,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/ios:38,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/istream:38,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/fstream:38,
                 from a.C:2:
/usr/include/stdio.h:48:25: error: aggregate ‘_IO_FILE FILE’ has incomplete type and cannot be defined
 typedef struct _IO_FILE FILE;
                         ^
/usr/include/stdio.h:64:25: error: aggregate ‘_IO_FILE __FILE’ has incomplete type and cannot be defined
 typedef struct _IO_FILE __FILE;
                         ^
In file included from /usr/include/c++/4.9/cwchar:44:0,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/bits/postypes.h:40,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/iosfwd:40,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/ios:38,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/istream:38,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/fstream:38,
                 from a.C:2:
/usr/include/wchar.h:106:9: error: ‘__mbstate_t’ does not name a type
 typedef __mbstate_t mbstate_t;
         ^
/usr/include/wchar.h:151:38: error: ‘size_t’ is not a type
     const wchar_t *__restrict __src, size_t __n)
                                      ^
/usr/include/wchar.h:159:38: error: ‘size_t’ is not a type
     const wchar_t *__restrict __src, size_t __n)
                                      ^
/usr/include/wchar.h:166:63: error: ‘size_t’ is not a type
 extern int wcsncmp (const wchar_t *__s1, const wchar_t *__s2, size_t __n)
                                                               ^
/usr/include/wchar.h:176:4: error: ‘size_t’ is not a type
    size_t __n) __THROW;
    ^
In file included from /usr/include/wchar.h:180:0,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/cwchar:44,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/bits/postypes.h:40,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/iosfwd:40,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/ios:38,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/istream:38,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/fstream:38,
                 from a.C:2:
/usr/include/xlocale.h:42:9: error: ‘__locale_t’ does not name a type
 typedef __locale_t locale_t;
         ^
In file included from /usr/include/c++/4.9/cwchar:44:0,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/bits/postypes.h:40,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/iosfwd:40,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/ios:38,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/istream:38,
                 from /usr/include/c++/4.9/fstream:38,
                 from a.C:2:
/usr/include/wchar.h:183:5: error: ‘__locale_t’ is not a type
     __locale_t __loc) __THROW;
     ^
/usr/include/wchar.h:186:6: error: ‘size_t’ is not a type
      size_t __n, __locale_t __loc) __THROW;
      ^
/usr/include/wchar.h:186:18: error: ‘__locale_t’ is not a type
      size_t __n, __locale_t __loc) __THROW;
                  ^
/usr/include/wchar.h:196:8: error: ‘size_t’ does not name a type
 extern size_t wcsxfrm (wchar_t *__restrict __s1,
        ^
/usr/include/wchar.h:207:9: error: ‘__locale_t’ is not a type
         __locale_t __loc) __THROW;
         ^
/usr/include/wchar.h:212:8: error: ‘size_t’ does not name a type
 extern size_t wcsxfrm_l (wchar_t *__s1, const wchar_t *__s2,
        ^
/usr/include/wchar.h:252:8: error: ‘size_t’ does not name a type
 extern size_t wcscspn (const wchar_t *__wcs, const wchar_t *__reject)
        ^
/usr/include/wchar.h:256:8: error: ‘size_t’ does not name a type
 extern size_t wcsspn (const wchar_t *__wcs, const wchar_t *__accept)
        ^
/usr/include/wchar.h:287:8: error: ‘size_t’ does not name a type
 extern size_t wcslen (const wchar_t *__s) __THROW __attribute_pure__;
        ^
/usr/include/wchar.h:306:8: error: ‘size_t’ does not name a type
 extern size_t wcsnlen (const wchar_t *__s, size_t __maxlen)
        ^

[SNIP]

/usr/include/c++/4.9/bits/fstream.tcc:934:35: error: ‘cur’ is not a member of ‘std::ios_base’
    __testvalid = this->seekoff(0, ios_base::cur, _M_mode)
                                   ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/bits/fstream.tcc:934:50: error: ‘_M_mode’ was not declared in this scope
    __testvalid = this->seekoff(0, ios_base::cur, _M_mode)
                                                  ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/bits/fstream.tcc:941:25: error: ‘_M_state_last’ was not declared in this scope
    + _M_codecvt->length(_M_state_last, _M_ext_buf,
                         ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/bits/fstream.tcc:944:15: error: ‘streamsize’ does not name a type
         const streamsize __remainder = _M_ext_end - _M_ext_next;
               ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/bits/fstream.tcc:945:13: error: ‘__remainder’ was not declared in this scope
         if (__remainder)
             ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/bits/fstream.tcc:949:35: error: ‘__remainder’ was not declared in this scope
         _M_ext_end = _M_ext_buf + __remainder;
                                   ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/bits/fstream.tcc:951:25: error: ‘_M_state_cur’ was not declared in this scope
         _M_state_last = _M_state_cur = _M_state_beg;
                         ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/bits/fstream.tcc:951:40: error: ‘_M_state_beg’ was not declared in this scope
         _M_state_last = _M_state_cur = _M_state_beg;
                                        ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/bits/fstream.tcc:960:2: error: ‘_M_codecvt’ was not declared in this scope
  _M_codecvt = _M_codecvt_tmp;
  ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/bits/fstream.tcc:960:15: error: ‘_M_codecvt_tmp’ was not declared in this scope
  _M_codecvt = _M_codecvt_tmp;
               ^
/usr/include/c++/4.9/bits/fstream.tcc:962:2: error: ‘_M_codecvt’ was not declared in this scope
  _M_codecvt = 0;
  ^

On my Ubuntu machine, g++-4.9 -std=c++11 -c a.C generates 1,101,568 glorious bytes of errors, for a score of 1101568/33/3 = 11,126.95.

Answer 5

62.93 points

Just some C++ meta black magic, compiled with g++-4.8 -c -std=c++11 a.cc:

#include<memory>
template<int n>class B:std::unique_ptr<B<n-1>>{};template<>class B<0>{};B<-1>x;

Ungolfed:

#include <memory>

template<int n>
class B: std::unique_ptr<B<n-1>> {};

template<>
class B<0> {};

B<-1>x;

G++ has a recursion limit of 900, so changing B<1> to B<-1> with a 31-bit range has an... interesting effect.

• 96 bytes of code (not counting the final \n some text editors automatically add, vim doesn't).
• 4-letter filename, a.cc
• 24165 bytes of error message, and it's truncated. The full error message has a whopping 1235889 bytes of content. It would require the -ftemplate-backtrace-limit=0 switch. It would also mean 3185 points for me!

std::unique_ptr is just the template class that manages to emit the longest error message, found by trial and error and knowledge of the STL and cats and stuff.

Answer 6

Score 7.865

Strictly speaking, the 0-byte-Answer is NOT correct, as ideone.com will refuse to compile the file without error. The same is true with the example int foo(); - it won't compile on ideone.com (I'm unable to comment because of missing reputation...)

So the smallest possible program to compile without any #includes is this:

int main(){}

If you change this to the following code, it will fail with 409 bytes of error code (after renaming prog.cpp to a.cc from the ideone.com output):

int main(){[}

409 / ( 13 * 4 ) = 7.865

Please update the question accordingly, as the examples given don't respect the given rules...

Answer 7

C, named as .cc

main(){constexprs a(){*(int*)0=f;}a(0)}

Error code:

.code.tio.cpp: In function ‘int main()’:
.code.tio.cpp:1:8: error: ‘constexprs’ was not declared in this scope
 main(){constexprs int a(f){*(int*)0=f;}a(0);}
        ^~~~~~~~~~
.code.tio.cpp:1:8: note: suggested alternative: ‘__cpp_constexpr’
 main(){constexprs int a(f){*(int*)0=f;}a(0);}
        ^~~~~~~~~~
        __cpp_constexpr
.code.tio.cpp:1:40: error: ‘a’ was not declared in this scope
 main(){constexprs int a(f){*(int*)0=f;}a(0);}

Answer 8

Score 12.xx (error by DELETING a character)

Please forgive the breaking of Rule 2 (IMHO adding OR deleting one character would be in the spirit of the rule), but this happened to me accidentally (thus doesn't use any 'intentionally' abusive tricks) while writing Real Code (TM) - both the working and error-causing code are (or look) simple and straightforward, so I thought it neat enough to include here. Original code

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main ()
{
cout<<"test"<<endl;
}

Code generating the error (last '<' deleted so it looks like a less-than comparison, but noooooooooooo ...)

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main ()
{
cout<<"test"<endl;
}

It's 'only' 8241 bytes of compiler error messages in ideone.com g++ 4.3.2.

ETA: Added a couple of lines to make it fit the rules. I knew these silly macros would come in handy someday. Ashamed it took so long because I've known C very well for a very long time. This code compiles and runs:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
#define a <<
#define aa <
int main ()
{
    cout<<"test" a endl;
}

Add another letter a after "test" a to make it fail:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
#define a <<
#define aa <
int main ()
{
    cout << "test" aa endl;
}