================
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+.. title:: clang-tidy - bugprone-bit-cast-pointers
+
+bugprone-bit-cast-pointers
+==========================
+
+Warns about usage of ``std::bit_cast`` when the input and output types are
+pointers.
+
+The motivation is that ``std::bit_cast`` is advertised as the safe alternative
+to type punning via ``reinterpret_cast`` in modern C++. However, one should not
+blindly replace ``reinterpret_cast`` with ``std::bit_cast``, as follows:
+
+.. code-block:: c++
+
+ int x{};
+ -float y = *reinterpret_cast<float*>(&x);
+ +float y = *std::bit_cast<float*>(&x);
+
+The drop-in replacement behaves exactly the same as ``reinterpret_cast``, and
+Undefined Behavior is still invoked. ``std::bit_cast`` is copying the bytes of
+the input pointer, not the pointee, into an output pointer of a different type,
+which may violate the strict aliasing rules. However, simply looking at the
+code, it looks "safe", because it uses ``std::bit_cast`` which is advertised as
+safe.
+
+The solution to safe type punning is to apply ``std::bit_cast`` on value types,
+not on pointer types:
+
+.. code-block:: c++
+
+ int x{};
+ float y = std::bit_cast<float>(x);
+
+This way, the bytes of the input object are copied into the output object,
which
+is safe from Undefined Behavior. Compilers are able to optimize this copy and
----------------
5chmidti wrote:
> safe from undefined Behavior
Seems to be not technically the case, according to
https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/numeric/bit_cast
> If there is no value of type To corresponding to the value representation
> produced, the behavior is undefined.
> <c++26 For each bit in the value representation of the result that is
> indeterminate, the smallest object containing that bit has an indeterminate
> value; the behavior is undefined unless that object is of an
> [uninitialized-friendly
> type](https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/default_initialization#Special_cases).
> \>=c++26 if [bit] b is indeterminate, the behavior is undefined.
I think `[much] safer` would be correctly qualified.
https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/pull/108083
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