[tor-bugs] #17161 [Tor]: Conform to C++ Core Guidelines for C?

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#17161: Conform to C++ Core Guidelines for C?
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 Reporter:  mikeperry                            |          Owner:
     Type:  enhancement                          |         Status:  new
 Priority:  normal                               |      Milestone:
Component:  Tor                                  |        Version:
 Keywords:  028-triage security flamewar         |  Actual Points:
  holywar jihad Coup++ seriously-not-trolling-   |         Points:
  xkeyscore                                      |
Parent ID:                                       |
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 Every so often we daydream about a Tor reimplementation in a memory-safe
 language (Java, Javascript, Golang, Rust, etc). Several of these have even
 been attempted.

 However, it seems as though the C++ community wants to join the club. They
 are working on machine-enforceable subset of C++ that is meant to be
 safe(r) and fast:
 https://isocpp.org/blog/2015/09/bjarne-stroustrup-announces-cpp-core-
 guidelines

 At minimum, it seems as though we should conform to this rule:
 https://github.com/isocpp/CppCoreGuidelines/blob/master/CppCoreGuidelines.md
 #Rcpl-subset

 There's a ton of things in the tor source code like "int private", "static
 char zeroes[32];", bad autoconf tests, and so on that prevent tor from
 even compiling with a C++ compiler. We should fix these, even if we we're
 not ready to accept C++ code in tor.

 We should also discuss what we think about eventually allowing pieces of
 tor to be written in C++ (if nothing else for access to STL data
 structures and RAII), especially if the C++ Core Guidelines effort ends up
 producing something that does end up having safety properties that can be
 enforced by the compiler.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/17161>
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