How to catch segmentation fault in Linux?

Here's an example of how to do it in C.

#include <signal.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

void segfault_sigaction(int signal, siginfo_t *si, void *arg)
{
    printf("Caught segfault at address %p\n", si->si_addr);
    exit(0);
}

int main(void)
{
    int *foo = NULL;
    struct sigaction sa;

    memset(&sa, 0, sizeof(struct sigaction));
    sigemptyset(&sa.sa_mask);
    sa.sa_sigaction = segfault_sigaction;
    sa.sa_flags   = SA_SIGINFO;

    sigaction(SIGSEGV, &sa, NULL);

    /* Cause a seg fault */
    *foo = 1;

    return 0;
}

For portability, one should probably use std::signal from the standard C++ library, but there is a lot of restriction on what a signal handler can do. Unfortunately, it is not possible to catch a SIGSEGV from within a C++ program without introducing undefined behavior because the specification says:

1. it is undefined behavior to call any library function from within the handler other than a very narrow subset of the standard library functions (abort, exit, some atomic functions, reinstall current signal handler, memcpy, memmove, type traits, std::move, std::forward, and some more).
2. it is undefined behavior if handler use a throw expression.
3. it is undefined behavior if the handler returns when handling SIGFPE, SIGILL, SIGSEGV

This proves that it is impossible to catch SIGSEGV from within a program using strictly standard and portable C++. SIGSEGV is still caught by the operating system and is normally reported to the parent process when a wait family function is called.

You will probably run into the same kind of trouble using POSIX signal because there is a clause that says in 2.4.3 Signal Actions:

The behavior of a process is undefined after it returns normally from a signal-catching function for a SIGBUS, SIGFPE, SIGILL, or SIGSEGV signal that was not generated by kill(), sigqueue(), or raise().

A word about the longjumps. Assuming we are using POSIX signals, using longjump to simulate stack unwinding won't help:

Although longjmp() is an async-signal-safe function, if it is invoked from a signal handler which interrupted a non-async-signal-safe function or equivalent (such as the processing equivalent to exit() performed after a return from the initial call to main()), the behavior of any subsequent call to a non-async-signal-safe function or equivalent is undefined.

This means that the continuation invoked by the call to longjump cannot reliably call usually useful library function such as printf, malloc or exit or return from main without inducing undefined behavior. As such, the continuation can only do a restricted operations and may only exit through some abnormal termination mechanism.

To put things short, catching a SIGSEGV and resuming execution of the program in a portable is probably infeasible without introducing undefined behavior. Even if you are working on a Windows platform for which you have access to Structured exception handling, it is worth mentioning that MSDN suggest to never attempt to handle hardware exceptions: Hardware Exceptions.

At last but not least, whether any SIGSEGV would be raised when dereferencing a null valued pointer (or invalid valued pointer) is not a requirement from the standard. Because indirection through a null valued pointer or any invalid valued pointer is an undefined behaviour, which means the compiler assumes your code will never attempt such a thing at runtime, the compiler is free to make code transformation that would elide such undefined behavior. For example, from cppreference,

int foo(int* p) {
    int x = *p;
    if(!p)
        return x; // Either undefined behavior above or this branch is never taken
    else
        return 0;
}
 
int main() {
    int* p = nullptr;
    std::cout << foo(p);
}

Here the true path of the if could be completely elided by the compiler as an optimization; only the else part could be kept. Said otherwise, the compiler infers foo() will never receive a null valued pointer at runtime since it would lead to an undefined behaviour. Invoking it with a null valued pointer, you may observe the value 0 printed to standard output and no crash, you may observe a crash with SIGSEG, in fact you could observe anything since no sensible requirements are imposed on programs that are not free of undefined behaviors.

C++ solution found here (http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/unices/16430/)

#include <signal.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
void ouch(int sig)
{
    printf("OUCH! - I got signal %d\n", sig);
}
int main()
{
    struct sigaction act;
    act.sa_handler = ouch;
    sigemptyset(&act.sa_mask);
    act.sa_flags = 0;
    sigaction(SIGINT, &act, 0);
    while(1) {
        printf("Hello World!\n");
        sleep(1);
    }
}

Sometimes we want to catch a SIGSEGV to find out if a pointer is valid, that is, if it references a valid memory address. (Or even check if some arbitrary value may be a pointer.)

One option is to check it with isValidPtr() (worked on Android):

int isValidPtr(const void*p, int len) {
    if (!p) {
    return 0;
    }
    int ret = 1;
    int nullfd = open("/dev/random", O_WRONLY);
    if (write(nullfd, p, len) < 0) {
    ret = 0;
    /* Not OK */
    }
    close(nullfd);
    return ret;
}
int isValidOrNullPtr(const void*p, int len) {
    return !p||isValidPtr(p, len);
}

Another option is to read the memory protection attributes, which is a bit more tricky (worked on Android):

re_mprot.c:

#include <errno.h>
#include <malloc.h>
//#define PAGE_SIZE 4096
#include "dlog.h"
#include "stdlib.h"
#include "re_mprot.h"

struct buffer {
    int pos;
    int size;
    char* mem;
};

char* _buf_reset(struct buffer*b) {
    b->mem[b->pos] = 0;
    b->pos = 0;
    return b->mem;
}

struct buffer* _new_buffer(int length) {
    struct buffer* res = malloc(sizeof(struct buffer)+length+4);
    res->pos = 0;
    res->size = length;
    res->mem = (void*)(res+1);
    return res;
}

int _buf_putchar(struct buffer*b, int c) {
    b->mem[b->pos++] = c;
    return b->pos >= b->size;
}

void show_mappings(void)
{
    DLOG("-----------------------------------------------\n");
    int a;
    FILE *f = fopen("/proc/self/maps", "r");
    struct buffer* b = _new_buffer(1024);
    while ((a = fgetc(f)) >= 0) {
    if (_buf_putchar(b,a) || a == '\n') {
        DLOG("/proc/self/maps: %s",_buf_reset(b));
    }
    }
    if (b->pos) {
    DLOG("/proc/self/maps: %s",_buf_reset(b));
    }
    free(b);
    fclose(f);
    DLOG("-----------------------------------------------\n");
}

unsigned int read_mprotection(void* addr) {
    int a;
    unsigned int res = MPROT_0;
    FILE *f = fopen("/proc/self/maps", "r");
    struct buffer* b = _new_buffer(1024);
    while ((a = fgetc(f)) >= 0) {
    if (_buf_putchar(b,a) || a == '\n') {
        char*end0 = (void*)0;
        unsigned long addr0 = strtoul(b->mem, &end0, 0x10);
        char*end1 = (void*)0;
        unsigned long addr1 = strtoul(end0+1, &end1, 0x10);
        if ((void*)addr0 < addr && addr < (void*)addr1) {
            res |= (end1+1)[0] == 'r' ? MPROT_R : 0;
            res |= (end1+1)[1] == 'w' ? MPROT_W : 0;
            res |= (end1+1)[2] == 'x' ? MPROT_X : 0;
            res |= (end1+1)[3] == 'p' ? MPROT_P
                 : (end1+1)[3] == 's' ? MPROT_S : 0;
            break;
        }
        _buf_reset(b);
    }
    }
    free(b);
    fclose(f);
    return res;
}

int has_mprotection(void* addr, unsigned int prot, unsigned int prot_mask) {
    unsigned prot1 = read_mprotection(addr);
    return (prot1 & prot_mask) == prot;
}

char* _mprot_tostring_(char*buf, unsigned int prot) {
    buf[0] = prot & MPROT_R ? 'r' : '-';
    buf[1] = prot & MPROT_W ? 'w' : '-';
    buf[2] = prot & MPROT_X ? 'x' : '-';
    buf[3] = prot & MPROT_S ? 's' : prot & MPROT_P ? 'p' :  '-';
    buf[4] = 0;
    return buf;
}

re_mprot.h:

#include <alloca.h>
#include "re_bits.h"
#include <sys/mman.h>

void show_mappings(void);

enum {
    MPROT_0 = 0, // not found at all
    MPROT_R = PROT_READ,                                 // readable
    MPROT_W = PROT_WRITE,                                // writable
    MPROT_X = PROT_EXEC,                                 // executable
    MPROT_S = FIRST_UNUSED_BIT(MPROT_R|MPROT_W|MPROT_X), // shared
    MPROT_P = MPROT_S<<1,                                // private
};

// returns a non-zero value if the address is mapped (because either MPROT_P or MPROT_S will be set for valid addresses)
unsigned int read_mprotection(void* addr);

// check memory protection against the mask
// returns true if all bits corresponding to non-zero bits in the mask
// are the same in prot and read_mprotection(addr)
int has_mprotection(void* addr, unsigned int prot, unsigned int prot_mask);

// convert the protection mask into a string. Uses alloca(), no need to free() the memory!
#define mprot_tostring(x) ( _mprot_tostring_( (char*)alloca(8) , (x) ) )
char* _mprot_tostring_(char*buf, unsigned int prot);

PS DLOG() is printf() to the Android log. FIRST_UNUSED_BIT() is defined here.

PPS It may not be a good idea to call alloca() in a loop -- the memory may be not freed until the function returns.