Deleting pointer to QwtPlot segmentation fault

Hello, I have become the new maintainer of an old Qt/QWT project.
I am almost done porting it to Qt 5 from Qt 4 and from Qwt 4 to Qwt 6.

However, i'm getting a segmentation fault when deleting the pointer to a QwtPlot.

The code is very old and i have yet to clean it up as it is quite large and right now i'm just trying to get it to work.

Constructor for the class "axes"

Code:

---

Axes::Axes(const QString& title, QTabWidget* tabwidget, QMenu* menu){
      title_ = title;
      tabwidget_ = tabwidget;
      menu_ = menu;
      //QScopedPointer<QwtPlot> axes_(new QwtPlot(title_));
 
      axes_ = new QwtPlot(title_); // This is the pointer i cannot delete
 
      graphdialog_ = new GraphDialog(title_);
      xpicker_ = new QwtPicker(static_cast<QWidget*>(axes_->axisWidget(2)));
      ypicker_ = new QwtPicker(static_cast<QWidget*>(axes_->axisWidget(0)));
      canvaspicker_ = new QwtPlotPicker(axes_->canvas());
      axes_->insertLegend(new QwtLegend());
      windowaction_ = new QAction(title_, this);
      autoscaleaction_ = new QAction("Autoscale", this);
      gridaction_ = new QAction("Show grid", this);
      xaxislimitsaction_ = new QAction("Set x scale", this);
      yaxislimitsaction_ = new QAction("Set y scale", this);
      grid_ = new QwtPlotGrid();
      grid_->hide();
      grid_->show();
      tabwidget_->addTab(axes_, title_);
      menu_->insertAction(0,autoscaleaction_);
      menu_->insertAction(0,gridaction_);
      graphdialog_->menu()->insertAction(0,autoscaleaction_);
      graphdialog_->menu()->insertAction(0,gridaction_);
      pickermachine_ = new QwtPickerClickPointMachine();
      xpicker_->setStateMachine(pickermachine_);
      xpicker_->setTrackerMode(QwtPicker::ActiveOnly);
      ypicker_->setStateMachine(pickermachine_);
      ypicker_->setTrackerMode(QwtPicker::ActiveOnly);
      canvaspicker_->setStateMachine(pickermachine_);
      canvaspicker_->setTrackerMode(QwtPicker::ActiveOnly);
      graphsNum_ = 0;
      QFont font = axes_->axisFont(0);
      font.setPointSize(8);
      axes_->setAxisFont(0,font);
      axes_->setAxisFont(1,font);
      axes_->setAxisFont(2,font);
      axes_->setAxisFont(3,font);
      axes_->legend()->setFont(font);
      font = axes_->titleLabel()->font();
      font.setPointSize(12);
      axes_->titleLabel()->setFont(font);
      axes_->setAutoFillBackground(true);
      axes_->setAutoDelete(false);
      grid_->setMajorPen(QColor(Qt::black),0.5,Qt::DashLine);
      grid_->attach(axes_);
      autoscaleaction_->setCheckable(true);
      autoscaleaction_->setChecked(false);
      gridaction_->setCheckable(true);
      gridaction_->setChecked(true);
      windowaction_->setCheckable(true);
      windowaction_->setChecked(true);
      connect(xpicker_, SIGNAL(selected(const QPolygon &)), this, SLOT(xAxisClicked(QPolygon)));
      connect(ypicker_, SIGNAL(selected(const QPolygon &)), this, SLOT(yAxisClicked(QPolygon)));
      connect(canvaspicker_, SIGNAL(selected(const QPolygon &)), this, SLOT(canvasClicked(QPolygon)));
      connect(windowaction_, SIGNAL(toggled(bool)), this, SLOT(setDocked(bool)));
      connect(autoscaleaction_, SIGNAL(toggled(bool)), this, SLOT(setAutoscale(bool)));
      connect(gridaction_, SIGNAL(toggled(bool)), this, SLOT(showGrid(bool)));
      connect(xaxislimitsaction_, SIGNAL(triggered()), this, SLOT(xAxisClicked()));
      connect(yaxislimitsaction_, SIGNAL(triggered()), this, SLOT(yAxisClicked()));
 
      axes_->axisWidget(QwtPlot::xBottom)->setMinBorderDist(0,20);
      axes_->plotLayout()->setAlignCanvasToScales(true);
 
      xhistory_ = 30;
      xmax_ = 0;
      ymin_ = 1e10;
      ymax_ = -1e10;
      axes_->setContextMenuPolicy(Qt::CustomContextMenu);
      connect(axes_, SIGNAL(customContextMenuRequested(QPoint)), this, SLOT(customContextMenuRequested(QPoint)));
   }

---

The destructor:

Code:

---

Axes::~Axes(){
#ifdef SHOW_DESTRUCTORS
      qDebug() << "Destroying " << axes_->title().text();
#endif
 
      foreach(Graph* graph, graphs_)
         delete graph;
      graphs_.clear();
      barplots_.clear();
      graphsNum_ = 0;
      delete graphdialog_;
      delete windowaction_;
      delete autoscaleaction_;
      delete gridaction_;
      delete axes_; // this line causes the segmentation fault
 
#ifdef SHOW_DESTRUCTORS
      qDebug() << "Destroyed!!";
#endif
   }

---

Basically every forum I have read with "deleting pointer causes segmentation fault" is because it hasn't been assigned with "new" - but it is in my case.
I also tried using a smart pointer but couldn't get it to work.

I hope you can help me

Edit: I forgot to mention, we have an old compiled version of the project, where this works - so something, either in Qt or Qwt has changed so it doesn't work anymore.

Best Regards

David

I found a solutions, though I'm not entirely sure I understand why.

But editing the deconstructor from :

Code:

---

Axes::~Axes(){
#ifdef SHOW_DESTRUCTORS
      qDebug() << "Destroying " << axes_->title().text();
#endif
 
      foreach(Graph* graph, graphs_)
         delete graph;
      graphs_.clear();
      barplots_.clear();
      graphsNum_ = 0;
      delete graphdialog_;
      delete windowaction_;
      delete autoscaleaction_;
      delete gridaction_;
      delete axes_; // this line causes the segmentation fault
 
#ifdef SHOW_DESTRUCTORS
      qDebug() << "Destroyed!!";
#endif
   }

---

to

Code:

---

Axes::~Axes(){
#ifdef SHOW_DESTRUCTORS
      qDebug() << "Destroying " << axes_->title().text();
#endif
 
tabwidget_->clear();
 
#ifdef SHOW_DESTRUCTORS
      qDebug() << "Destroyed!!";
#endif
   }

---

seems to fix it and it works now.
My guess is that tabwidget was the parent of everything and telling it to clear all works.
I guess since the old times a lot more has been done to help automatically clear up any data on the heap/stack, such as pointers.

I hope this can help someone else too.

Best regards

David

You can verify using valgrind if indeed nothing is "leaking", e.g. if indeed you don't have to free anything extra.

Hi, you probably get the segfault because you don't own "axes_" anymore. The QTabWidget takes ownership when you call addTab(), and will take care of destruction.

Ginsengelf

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by flok

You can verify using valgrind if indeed nothing is "leaking", e.g. if indeed you don't have to free anything extra.

---

Thank you, I will try out Valgrind

Best regards
David

I don't know if any of you care.
But the project is finally succesfully ported to Qt5.10 and Qwt6.1.3
I now have both a compiled Windows and Linux version
It's been though, but I got through!

Thanks to everyone who has help me out underway.

Best regards

David