```zig
const std = @import("std");
pub fn main() !void {
var addr: *u8 = @ptrFromInt(0xaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa);
addr.* = 1;
}
```
On x86_64-linux:
Before:
```
$ zig run x.zig
Segmentation fault at address 0x0
/home/wooster/Desktop/zig/x.zig:5:5: 0x21d887 in main (x)
addr.* = 1;
^
/home/wooster/Desktop/zig-linux-x86_64/lib/std/start.zig:583:37: 0x21d847 in posixCallMainAndExit (x)
const result = root.main() catch |err| {
^
/home/wooster/Desktop/zig-linux-x86_64/lib/std/start.zig:251:5: 0x21d371 in _start (x)
asm volatile (switch (native_arch) {
^
???:?:?: 0x0 in ??? (???)
Aborted (core dumped)
```
After:
```
$ zig run x.zig --zig-lib-dir lib
General protection exception
/home/wooster/Desktop/zig/x.zig:5:5: 0x21d907 in main (x)
addr.* = 1;
^
/home/wooster/Desktop/zig/lib/std/start.zig:583:37: 0x21d8c7 in posixCallMainAndExit (x)
const result = root.main() catch |err| {
^
/home/wooster/Desktop/zig/lib/std/start.zig:251:5: 0x21d3f1 in _start (x)
asm volatile (switch (native_arch) {
^
???:?:?: 0x0 in ??? (???)
Aborted (core dumped)
```
As @IntegratedQuantum pointed out in <https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/17745#issuecomment-1783815386>,
it seems that if `code` of the `siginfo_t` instance is a certain value (128), you are able to distinguish between
a general protection exception and a segmentation fault.
This does not seem to be documented on `man sigaction`:
```
The following values can be placed in si_code for a SIGSEGV signal:
SEGV_MAPERR
Address not mapped to object.
SEGV_ACCERR
Invalid permissions for mapped object.
SEGV_BNDERR (since Linux 3.19)
Failed address bound checks.
SEGV_PKUERR (since Linux 4.6)
Access was denied by memory protection keys. See pkeys(7). The protection key which applied to this access is available via si_pkey.
```
(those constants are 1, 2, 3, and 4; none of them are the 128)
I can't find a lot of documentation about this but it seems to work consistently for me on x86_64-linux.
Here is a gist which provides additional evidence that this is a reliable way of checking for a general protection fault:
https://gist.github.com/ytoshima/5682393 (read comment in first line)
See also: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/64309366/why-is-the-segfault-address-null-when-accessing-memory-that-has-any-of-the-16-mo
This only seems to affect x86_64 and on 32-bit x86 this does not seem to be a problem.
Helps with #17745 but doesn't close it because the issue still exists on Windows and other POSIX OSs.
I also limited this to x86_64-linux for now because that's the only platform where I tested it. Might work on more POSIX OSs.
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