GeneralPurpose-StringLiteralToNonConstPointer

String literals shall not be assigned to non-constant pointers

Required inputs: IR

String literals in C++ have type const char[] and should never be modified. Assigning them to non-const pointers is a deprecated conversion that loses type safety and suggests intent to modify immutable data. The correct approach is to use const char* or std::string_view for string literals.

Bad code (deprecated conversion):

char* ptr = "hello";                // ERROR: assigning const char[] to char*
ptr[0] = 'H';                       // Undefined behavior: modifying string literal

Good code (using const pointer):

const char* ptr = "hello";          // OK: const char* for string literal
// ptr[0] = 'H';                    // Compiler error: cannot modify const data
std::cout << ptr;

Good code (using std::string_view):

std::string_view view = "hello";    // OK: string_view for string literal
std::cout << view;                 // Safe to read

Good code (using std::string):

std::string str = "hello";          // OK: creates modifiable copy
str[0] = 'H';                       // Safe to modify
std::cout << str;

Good code (using char array):

char arr[] = "hello";               // OK: a char array is created on the stack
arr[0] = 'H';

Possible Messages

Key	Text	Severity	Disabled
cafe_message	{}	None	False

Options

• This rule shares the following common options: exclude_in_macros, exclude_messages_in_system_headers, excludes, extend_exclude_to_macro_invocations, includes, justification_checker, languages, post_processing, provider, report_at, severity

• The following places define options that affect this rule: Stylechecks, Analysis-GlobalOptions

message_predicate

message_predicate : typing.Callable[[Cafe_Message], bool] | None = None

If provided, a custom predicate to filter relevant messages. Receives the message node and should return True for messages to report.

 

reported_messages

reported_messages : set[int] | None = {2464}

If provided, only messages of these types are reported.

 

reported_severities

reported_severities : set[str] = {'error', 'remark', 'warning'}

List of severities to display.

 

use_error_number

use_error_number : bool = False

Whether the error number from the frontend should be used.

 

use_rule_severity

use_rule_severity : bool = True

Whether the rule's severity or the compiler's severity should be used.