My program exits before entering the main() function

Question

What could be the cause for a program to crash/exit before entering the main() function?

I am working on a project that was running normally. I added some code that uses boost threads, I updated the makefiles (CMakeLists.txt), and everything compiles and links without issues.

When I launch the executable, all I get is the prompt.

To check if the programs starts doing something, I add a cerr << "TEST" << endl as the first instruction in main(), and nothing is printed.

Of course when I try to print that string no threads are created, yet.

Putting a break point at the beginning of main() is useless.

System:
Windows 7, MinGW, GCC, cmake

Most likely the reason is in some static initialization or trying to load a not found DLL then. — πάντα ῥεῖ
– πάντα ῥεῖ, Commented Jul 20, 2013 at 17:50
@PriteshAcharya: as you can see from the accepted answer, I had issues in a global class constructor. Putting the breakpoint there helped me find the bug. — Pietro
– Pietro, Commented Oct 2, 2014 at 9:59

Yu Hao · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-20 17:45:50Z

5

The problem is probably in some global class varible's constructor. They will be called before main.

edited Jul 20, 2013 at 17:45

answered Jul 20, 2013 at 17:39

Yu Hao

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Comments

ZijingWu · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-20 18:40:55Z

Another possible case is the output has been cached, and the process crash after enter main, please add flush output here after the out put line, or you can reapte print it 1000 times to make sure it doesn't cached.

In that case, the easy way is to run it in debugger, it will cache the error.

cerr is typically unbuffered, for this very reason. And in either case, the endl should flush the stream, at which point the message is sent, and will be output (barring a crash of the whole OS).

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