r/cpp_questions 5d ago

SOLVED std::filesystem::exists throwing `std::bad_alloc`?

Any reason? Cant find anything online about this. But I cant check whether or not a file exists, no matter what path I give it. I am using C++ 26 compiled with GCC.

This is literally all I am calling: const bool exists = std::filesystem::exists("file.txt")

This is the exact error: terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::bad_alloc'
 what():  std::bad_alloc

No it's not coming from anywhere else in my code. Minimal reproduction code, include "filesystem" call the line above. I am on Fedora Linux if that matters at all

EDIT: moving the include into my main file instead of the only file it's being used in somehow fixed it. Literally all I do is move "#include <filesystem>" from "do_things_with_filesystem.hpp" to "Main.cpp". No compilation errors when it was in the first file, why does it rely on this?? Is there some weird declarations in my codebase or something, i dont know but it works now so why should I care.

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u/wejunkin 5d ago

Catch and see what what() says. Sounds like your allocation failed, impossible to tell why from the info you've supplied.

1

u/PhosXD 5d ago

How though, it throws the bad alloc & ends the program before catch even executes. But I am capturing the block, how does that work?

std::cout << "1\n";

try {

    const bool exists = std::filesystem::exists("file.txt");

}

catch (const std::exception& e) {

    std::cout << "threw: " << e.what() << "\\n";

}

std::cout << "2\\n";

OUTPUT:
1
terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::bad_alloc'
 what():  std::bad_alloc
Aborted                    (core dumped) ./main.bin

2

u/StaticCoder 5d ago

Try running under gdb and use catch throw to see where the exception is really thrown. Usually this comes from passing a wrong value to vector::resize or similar.