How to enable a recursive function to avoid stack overflow?

Question

If I have a recursive function in Java, I can call it infinitely with the following code:

void recfunction()
{
    recfunction();
    System.gc();
}

How can I do this in C++?

You can do this in Java? Well, in C++, the above code, technically, is 'infinite', but, in practice will quickly exhaust your stack and crash. Not sure what the point of it is. — Stephen Quan
– Stephen Quan, Commented Apr 17, 2019 at 19:14
I'm not aware of any language using a garbage collector that would clean the stack - garbage collectors usually only manage heap allocated memory — UnholySheep
– UnholySheep, Commented Apr 17, 2019 at 19:24
Several misconceptions here: 1: The above breaks Java (unless the compiler optimizes out the tail recursion). Same thing happens in C++. 2: Garbage collection does not affect the stack (it cleans the heap). 3: C++ does have garbage collectors (they are just not very popular as we have a better method of cleaning up memory that is deterministic). — Loki Astari
– Loki Astari, Commented Apr 17, 2019 at 19:47

Richard Hodges · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-17 19:21:57Z

2

There is no standard way to force a c++ compiler to perform tail-call optimisation on a recursive function.

Having said that, gcc8 with -O2 will actually perform tail-call optimisation when possible.

answered Apr 17, 2019 at 19:21

Richard Hodges

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