[perl #118691] Allow defelem magic with neg indices

When a nonexistent array element is passed to a subroutine, a special
‘deferred element’ scalar (implemented using something called defelem
magic) is passed to the subroutine instead, which delegates to the
array element.  This allows some_benign_function($array[$nonexistent])
to avoid autovivifying unnecessarily.

Whether this magic would be triggered was based on whether the element
was within the range 0..$#array.  Since arrays can contain nonexistent
elements before $#array, this logic is incorrect.  It also makes sense
to allow $array[$neg] where the negative number points before the
beginning of the array to create a deferred element and only croak if
it is assigned to.

This commit fixes the logic for when deferred elements are created
and implements these deferred negative elements.

Since we have to be able to store negative values in xlv_targoff, it
is convenient to make it a union (with two types--signed and unsigned)
and use LvSTARGOFF for defelem array indices.

1 files changed, 7 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/sv.h b/sv.h
index cd15924ad2..6d8a40e8f6 100644
--- a/sv.h
+++ b/sv.h
@@ -528,7 +528,10 @@ struct xpvlv {
     _XPV_HEAD;
     union _xivu xiv_u;
     union _xnvu xnv_u;
-    STRLEN	xlv_targoff;
+    union {
+	STRLEN	xlvu_targoff;
+	SSize_t xlvu_stargoff;
+    } xlv_targoff_u;
     STRLEN	xlv_targlen;
     SV*		xlv_targ;
     char	xlv_type;	/* k=keys .=pos x=substr v=vec /=join/re
@@ -536,6 +539,8 @@ struct xpvlv {
     char	xlv_flags;	/* 1 = negative offset  2 = negative len */
 };
 
+#define xlv_targoff xlv_targoff_u.xlvu_targoff
+
 struct xpvinvlist {
     _XPV_HEAD;
     IV          prev_index;
@@ -1403,6 +1408,7 @@ sv_force_normal does nothing.
 #define LvTYPE(sv)	((XPVLV*)  SvANY(sv))->xlv_type
 #define LvTARG(sv)	((XPVLV*)  SvANY(sv))->xlv_targ
 #define LvTARGOFF(sv)	((XPVLV*)  SvANY(sv))->xlv_targoff
+#define LvSTARGOFF(sv)	((XPVLV*)  SvANY(sv))->xlv_targoff_u.xlvu_stargoff
 #define LvTARGLEN(sv)	((XPVLV*)  SvANY(sv))->xlv_targlen
 #define LvFLAGS(sv)	((XPVLV*)  SvANY(sv))->xlv_flags