'format' attribute in gcc

We can check the format of a function against the set of arguments using 'format' attribute. This is is very much useful when we write our own logger function. The format attributes check for the format of a particular function against format of predefined function. The index of format and the variable arguments in the function have to be passed into the attribute.

Ex: void log_inline(const char* format, ...) __attribute__((format(printf,1,2)));

The format of log_inline is checked against the printf function. The format that has to be checked is the first argument of log_inline, while arguments start with second position of log_inline. This is specified as (1,2) in format attribute.

There is an example program:

#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdarg.h>

void log_inline(const char* format, ...) __attribute__((format(printf,1,2)));

void log_inline(const char* format, ...)
{
va_list args;
va_start(args, format);
vprintf(format, args);
va_end(args);
}

int main()
{
log_inline("%s\n", "SOMETHING");
log_inline("%s\n",1); //Generates warning message
}

We need to compile with -Wall option of gcc to identify the warning.

Note that without attribute in function declaration, warning is not produced.