pybind / pybind/pybind11

[MSVC] Virtual Inheritances (Diamond pattern) causes crash

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Dominant language
C++
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Description

Issue description

I'm wrapping an interface (abstract base class) with pybind. This interface is not meant to be instantiated in python, it's only purpose is showing the inheritance (and if possible wrapping the functions such that they get forwarded to the children). All calls on this Interface take Interface*/Interface&/shared_ptr(doesn't matter, crashes for all). Classes that implement this interface usepublich virtual Interfaceto inherit the Interface. When calling a wrapped function that takes anInterface*with a python instance of a derived object, the C++ pointer loses it's vtable and calling a method on this pointer causes a segmentation fault. Removing thevirtual` part of the inheritance solves the problem (but that is not an option in my case).

The code compiles and runs fine with gcc but fails with Visual Studio 2017 Win64

Reproducible example code

#include <memory>

#include <pybind11/pybind11.h>

namespace py = pybind11;

class Base {
 public:
  virtual ~Base() = default;
  virtual int foo() = 0;
  // virtual int bar(std::shared_ptr<Base> ptr) = 0;
  virtual int bar(Base& ptr) = 0;
  virtual int bar(Base* ptr) = 0;
};

# Remove the 'virtual' in the next line and it will won't crash anymore
class Derived : public virtual Base {
 public:
  virtual ~Derived() = default;
  // int bar(std::shared_ptr<Base> ptr) override { return ptr->foo() + 88; }
  int bar(Base* ptr) override { return ptr->foo() + 88; }
  int bar(Base& ptr) override { return ptr.foo() + 88; }
  int foo() override { return 44; }
};

PYBIND11_MODULE(test_foo, m) {
  py::class_<Base
             //,std::shared_ptr<Base>
             >(m,
               "Base");  // .def("bar", &Base::bar);

  py::class_<Derived, Base
             //, std::shared_ptr<Derived>
             >(m, "Derived")
      .def(py::init<>());
  //.def("bar", &Derived::bar);

  // m.def("get_sptr", [](std::shared_ptr<Base> b) { return b->bar(b); });
  m.def("get_ref", [](Base& b) { return b.bar(b); });
  m.def("get_ptr", [](Base* b) { return b->bar(b); });
  // m.def("run_cpp", []() {
  //  auto b = std::make_shared<Derived>();
  //  return b->bar(b);
  //});
}

Python code

import test_foo

# This version works for shared pointers
#print(test_foo.run_cpp())

d = test_foo.Derived()
print(test_foo.get_ptr(d))
print(test_foo.get_ref(d))
#print(test_foo.get_sptr(d))

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Research direction

The issue includes a self-contained C++/pybind11 reproducer and the Python entry points get_ptr and get_ref. Build it with Visual Studio 2017 Win64 first, then compare with GCC while tracing the wrapped Base pointer and reference calls under virtual inheritance. Done means the supplied Python example no longer crashes on MSVC and its calls complete as they do with GCC.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp, python
Domain
backend-api-design
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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