Hi,

On Fri, Mar 27, 2026 at 01:15:29PM +0100, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> On 27.03.26 11:07, Bertrand Drouvot wrote:
> > That looks ok but I wonder if we should also add '-Werror=vla' to it (
> > and remove it from common_warning_flags) to be in sync with what 
> > configure.ac
> > is doing:
> > 
> > "
> >    PGAC_PROG_CC_CFLAGS_OPT([-Werror=vla])
> >    # -Wvla is not applicable for C++
> > "
> 
> Hmm.  This comment is not actually fully correct.  With g++, you can write a
> VLA and it will work, and also -Wvla will warn about it.  So we should
> actually add that option to C++ as well.  (It is true that VLAs are not in
> standard C++, and g++ with -pedantic will also warn about it.)

Oh right, just did a few tests and agree with your comment above. I agree that
it should also be added for C++ in autoconf then.

What about the attached?

That said, your patch LGTM given that the VLA remark was not appropriate.

Regards,

-- 
Bertrand Drouvot
PostgreSQL Contributors Team
RDS Open Source Databases
Amazon Web Services: https://aws.amazon.com
>From 4eec8268131d339b970ed1f694f33255fa114f62 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Bertrand Drouvot <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2026 12:39:33 +0000
Subject: [PATCH v1] configure: Apply -Werror=vla to C++ as well as C

The comment part of d9dd406fe281 mentioned that -Wvla is not applicable
for C++. That is not fully correct: it is true that VLAs are not part of the
C++ standard, and g++ with -pedantic will also warn about them as a non-standard
extension.  However, -Wvla itself works fine in C++ and will catch VLA
usage just as in C.

Fix configure.ac to apply -Werror=vla to C++ as well. There is no need to
fix meson.build as it already includes it in common_warning_flags.

Author: Bertrand Drouvot <[email protected]>
Suggested-by: Peter Eisentraut <[email protected]>
Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/7bf60ab1-2b5d-4a77-93ce-815072a0a014%40eisentraut.org
---
 configure    | 54 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
 configure.ac |  4 ++--
 2 files changed, 54 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 8e0e7483c1d..e022617cbdc 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -5300,7 +5300,7 @@ fi
     PERMIT_DECLARATION_AFTER_STATEMENT=-Wno-declaration-after-statement
   fi
 
-  # Really don't want VLAs to be used in our dialect of C
+  # Really don't want VLAs to be used
 
 { $as_echo "$as_me:${as_lineno-$LINENO}: checking whether ${CC} supports -Werror=vla, for CFLAGS" >&5
 $as_echo_n "checking whether ${CC} supports -Werror=vla, for CFLAGS... " >&6; }
@@ -5341,7 +5341,57 @@ if test x"$pgac_cv_prog_CC_cflags__Werror_vla" = x"yes"; then
 fi
 
 
-  # -Wvla is not applicable for C++
+  { $as_echo "$as_me:${as_lineno-$LINENO}: checking whether ${CXX} supports -Werror=vla, for CXXFLAGS" >&5
+$as_echo_n "checking whether ${CXX} supports -Werror=vla, for CXXFLAGS... " >&6; }
+if ${pgac_cv_prog_CXX_cxxflags__Werror_vla+:} false; then :
+  $as_echo_n "(cached) " >&6
+else
+  pgac_save_CXXFLAGS=$CXXFLAGS
+pgac_save_CXX=$CXX
+CXX=${CXX}
+CXXFLAGS="${CXXFLAGS} -Werror=vla"
+ac_save_cxx_werror_flag=$ac_cxx_werror_flag
+ac_cxx_werror_flag=yes
+ac_ext=cpp
+ac_cpp='$CXXCPP $CPPFLAGS'
+ac_compile='$CXX -c $CXXFLAGS $CPPFLAGS conftest.$ac_ext >&5'
+ac_link='$CXX -o conftest$ac_exeext $CXXFLAGS $CPPFLAGS $LDFLAGS conftest.$ac_ext $LIBS >&5'
+ac_compiler_gnu=$ac_cv_cxx_compiler_gnu
+
+cat confdefs.h - <<_ACEOF >conftest.$ac_ext
+/* end confdefs.h.  */
+
+int
+main ()
+{
+
+  ;
+  return 0;
+}
+_ACEOF
+if ac_fn_cxx_try_compile "$LINENO"; then :
+  pgac_cv_prog_CXX_cxxflags__Werror_vla=yes
+else
+  pgac_cv_prog_CXX_cxxflags__Werror_vla=no
+fi
+rm -f core conftest.err conftest.$ac_objext conftest.$ac_ext
+ac_ext=c
+ac_cpp='$CPP $CPPFLAGS'
+ac_compile='$CC -c $CFLAGS $CPPFLAGS conftest.$ac_ext >&5'
+ac_link='$CC -o conftest$ac_exeext $CFLAGS $CPPFLAGS $LDFLAGS conftest.$ac_ext $LIBS >&5'
+ac_compiler_gnu=$ac_cv_c_compiler_gnu
+
+ac_cxx_werror_flag=$ac_save_cxx_werror_flag
+CXXFLAGS="$pgac_save_CXXFLAGS"
+CXX="$pgac_save_CXX"
+fi
+{ $as_echo "$as_me:${as_lineno-$LINENO}: result: $pgac_cv_prog_CXX_cxxflags__Werror_vla" >&5
+$as_echo "$pgac_cv_prog_CXX_cxxflags__Werror_vla" >&6; }
+if test x"$pgac_cv_prog_CXX_cxxflags__Werror_vla" = x"yes"; then
+  CXXFLAGS="${CXXFLAGS} -Werror=vla"
+fi
+
+
   # On macOS, complain about usage of symbols newer than the deployment target
 
 { $as_echo "$as_me:${as_lineno-$LINENO}: checking whether ${CC} supports -Werror=unguarded-availability-new, for CFLAGS" >&5
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 2baac5e9da7..4c12ecb1078 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -547,9 +547,9 @@ if test "$GCC" = yes -a "$ICC" = no; then
     PERMIT_DECLARATION_AFTER_STATEMENT=-Wno-declaration-after-statement
   fi
   AC_SUBST(PERMIT_DECLARATION_AFTER_STATEMENT)
-  # Really don't want VLAs to be used in our dialect of C
+  # Really don't want VLAs to be used
   PGAC_PROG_CC_CFLAGS_OPT([-Werror=vla])
-  # -Wvla is not applicable for C++
+  PGAC_PROG_CXX_CFLAGS_OPT([-Werror=vla])
   # On macOS, complain about usage of symbols newer than the deployment target
   PGAC_PROG_CC_CFLAGS_OPT([-Werror=unguarded-availability-new])
   PGAC_PROG_CXX_CFLAGS_OPT([-Werror=unguarded-availability-new])
-- 
2.34.1

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