When given certain input and certain comparator, nth_element enters in a loop or crash the program. The problem didn't appear when using less<double>. With the comparator:
not2<less<double> > it failed with an array of {1,1,1,1,2,3,4} worked with an array of {1,1,1,1,2,3,4,5} failed again with {1,1,1,1,2,2,2,3} Using built-in specs. Target: i486-linux-gnu Configured with: ../src/configure -v --enable-languages=c,c++,fortran,objc,obj-c++,treelang --prefix=/usr --enable-shared --with-system-zlib --libexecdir=/usr/lib --without-included-gettext --enable-threads=posix --enable-nls --program-suffix=-4.1 --enable-__cxa_atexit --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-mpfr --enable-checking=release i486-linux-gnu Thread model: posix gcc version 4.1.2 (Ubuntu 4.1.2-0ubuntu4) command line: g++ bug_nth_element.cpp && a.out content of bug_nth_element follows: <<EOF #include <vector> #include <iterator> #include <iostream> int main() { using namespace std; vector<double> a; // fill_n (back_inserter(a), 4, 1.0); // infinite loop fill_n (back_inserter(a), 4, 0.0); // segmentation fault nth_element (a.begin(), a.begin(), a.end(), not2(less<double>())); copy (a.begin(), a.end(), ostream_iterator<double>(cout, "\n")); } EOF -- Summary: nth_element failure: infinite loop or segmentation fault Product: gcc Version: unknown Status: UNCONFIRMED Severity: normal Priority: P3 Component: libstdc++ AssignedTo: unassigned at gcc dot gnu dot org ReportedBy: florent dot balestrieri at ofidea dot fr http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=34236