Operator new and -fno-exceptions

[asl]

Current implementation of operator new in libcxx / libcxxabi effectively makes plain new and nothrow new to coincide when exceptions are disabled: both will return nullptr. However, there is one important difference: for nothrow new the constructor is not called when the return value is null. This does not happen for ordinary new in -fno-exceptions case making impossible to check the return value as constructor might just segfault. From the user perspective it might be better to stick to one of the following:

• Just call abort(). This seems what is currently done for things like std::__throw_out_of_range in -fno-except case
• Make operator new and nothrow operator new to behave identically and do not call constructor

Any thoughts on what might be the better solution?

[BetzalelG]

Calling abort() is the right call in my opinion.

• This is how libstdc++ and VS implementations handle it.
• This is how it's done for every other exception in libcxx, including other places where __throw_bad_alloc() is called.
• This will retain the C++ standard that says operator new shouldn't return a nullptr.