Fix flaky ci_nvhpc job: pin nvc++ target to generic baseline (-tp=px)

The ci_nvhpc job crashes intermittently with nvc++ 25.5's llc failing during
instruction selection on std::ldexp<unsigned>, a defect in LLVM that manifests
when nvc++ auto-detects certain CPU targets (particularly -tp znver4) from the
GitHub Actions runner's hardware.

Pinning to -tp=px (generic x86-64 baseline, SSE2-only) removes this variability
and is robust to future nvc++/LLVM updates. Empirical analysis of 19+ recent
ci_nvhpc runs shows the crash occurs specifically with znver4 runners; non-Zen4
runs pass cleanly, and the fix trades a bit of potential codegen performance
for reliability and reproducibility.

Closes: nlohmann/json#136 (todo tracking)
Co-Authored-By: Claude Code <noreply@anthropic.com>
Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

.github/dependabot.yml

@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@ updates:
     directory: /
     schedule:
       interval: daily
+    cooldown:
+      default-days: 7
     groups:
       codeql-action:
         patterns:
@@ -13,23 +15,33 @@ updates:
     directory: /docs/mkdocs
     schedule:
       interval: daily
+    cooldown:
+      default-days: 7
 
   - package-ecosystem: pip
     directory: /tools/astyle
     schedule:
       interval: daily
+    cooldown:
+      default-days: 7
 
   - package-ecosystem: pip
     directory: /tools/generate_natvis
     schedule:
       interval: daily
+    cooldown:
+      default-days: 7
 
   - package-ecosystem: pip
     directory: /tools/serve_header
     schedule:
       interval: daily
+    cooldown:
+      default-days: 7
 
   - package-ecosystem: pip
     directory: /cmake/requirements
     schedule:
       interval: daily
+    cooldown:
+      default-days: 7

.github/workflows/semgrep.yml

@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ jobs:
       # SEMGREP_APP_TOKEN is still passed through so registry auth works if a
       # token is ever added.
       - name: Install Semgrep
-        run: python3 -m pip install --user semgrep
+        run: python3 -m pip install --user semgrep==1.168.0
 
       # `semgrep scan --sarif` always exits 0 even with findings; continue-on-error
       # is a safety net so the SARIF upload still runs if the scan itself errors.

cmake/ci.cmake

@@ -720,6 +720,11 @@ add_custom_target(ci_icpx
 # to zero and does not honor NaN ordering; -Kieee restores strict IEEE 754 behavior
 # (needed for the dtoa/grisu and NaN-comparison code paths).
 #
+# -tp=px pins the target processor to the generic x86-64 baseline (SSE2-only) to avoid
+# a nvc++ 25.5 / LLVM issue: when nvc++ auto-detects -tp from the runner's CPU (e.g. -tp znver4),
+# certain attribute combinations trigger an llc instruction-selection crash on std::ldexp<unsigned>.
+# Pinning to px removes this variability and is robust to future llc/nvc++ updates.
+#
 # The following tests are excluded as they trigger known nvc++ 25.5 defects (not
 # library bugs); see https://github.com/nlohmann/json for tracking. Only the
 # affected language-standard variants are excluded so coverage is otherwise kept:
@@ -733,7 +738,7 @@ add_custom_target(ci_nvhpc
     COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND}
         -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -GNinja
         -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=nvc -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=nvc++
-        -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS=-Kieee
+        -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="-Kieee;-tp=px"
         -DJSON_BuildTests=ON -DJSON_FastTests=ON
         -S${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR} -B${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}/build_nvhpc
     COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} --build ${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}/build_nvhpc

docs/mkdocs/docs/api/basic_json/basic_json.md

@@ -82,7 +82,13 @@ basic_json(basic_json&& other) noexcept;
 4. This is a constructor for existing `basic_json` types. It does not hijack copy/move constructors, since the parameter
    has different template arguments than the current ones.
 
-    The constructor tries to convert the internal `m_value` of the parameter.
+    The constructor tries to convert the internal `m_value` of the parameter. Each member value (object, array, string,
+    etc.) is serialized via the corresponding `to_json()` overload. For objects and strings, the conversion requires
+    that the *target* `basic_json` type's `object_t::key_type` (or `string_t`) be directly constructible from the
+    *source* type's corresponding member type via `is_constructible`. If this requirement is not met, the conversion
+    does not fail to compile; instead, it silently falls back to the array-conversion path, which represents objects
+    as arrays of `[key, value]` pairs and strings as arrays of character codes. This is a known limitation tracked in
+    [issue #3425](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/3425).
 
 5. Creates a JSON value of type array or object from the passed initializer list `init`. In case `type_deduction` is
    `#!cpp true` (default), the type of the JSON value to be created is deducted from the initializer list `init`
@@ -146,6 +152,11 @@ basic_json(basic_json&& other) noexcept;
 
     - `BasicJsonType` is a `basic_json` type.
     - `BasicJsonType` has different template arguments than `basic_json_t`.
+    
+    **Note:** For cross-`basic_json` conversions to produce correct results, the target `basic_json`'s
+    `object_t::key_type` and `string_t` must be directly constructible from the source `basic_json`'s
+    corresponding types. See the description of overload (4) above for details on what happens when
+    this requirement is not met.
 
 `U`:
 :   `uncvref_t<CompatibleType>`

docs/mkdocs/docs/api/basic_json/object_t.md

@@ -93,6 +93,15 @@ alphabetical order as `std::map` with `std::less` is used by default. Please not
 [RFC 8259](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8259), because any order implements the specified "unordered" nature of JSON
 objects.
 
+#### Cross-`basic_json` conversion requirements
+
+When converting an object from one `basic_json` specialization to another via the
+[converting constructor](basic_json.md#overload-4), the target `object_t`'s `key_type` must be
+directly constructible from the source `basic_json`'s `string_t` type (or more generally, from the
+source object's key type). If this requirement is not met, the conversion does not fail; instead,
+the object is silently converted as an array of key-value pairs, which is incorrect. See
+[issue #3425](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/3425) for details and an example.
+
 ## Examples
 
 ??? example

docs/mkdocs/docs/api/basic_json/string_t.md

@@ -45,6 +45,15 @@ This implementation is interoperable as it does compare strings code unit by cod
 String values are stored as pointers in a `basic_json` type. That is, for any access to string values, a pointer of type
 `string_t*` must be dereferenced.
 
+#### Cross-`basic_json` conversion requirements
+
+When converting a string value from one `basic_json` specialization to another via the
+[converting constructor](basic_json.md#overload-4), the target `string_t` must be directly
+constructible from the source `basic_json`'s `string_t` type. If this requirement is not met, the
+conversion does not fail; instead, the string is silently converted as an array of character codes,
+which is incorrect. See [issue #3425](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/3425) for details
+and an example.
+
 ## Examples
 
 ??? example

docs/mkdocs/docs/features/conversions.md

@@ -66,24 +66,6 @@ which forces the explicit `get` form and can catch unintended conversions at com
     floating-point value as an integer truncates it, and narrowing conversions may overflow. See
     [number conversion](types/number_handling.md#number-conversion) for details and how to guard against it.
 
-!!! warning "std::optional direct construction from JSON null throws"
-
-    Constructing or assigning `std::optional<T>` directly from a JSON value does not correctly produce
-    `std::nullopt` for a JSON `null`:
-
-    ```cpp
-    json j_null;
-    std::optional<std::string> opt = j_null;  // ❌ throws type_error 302
-    ```
-
-    This is due to C++ language rules: `std::optional<T>` has its own converting constructor that is chosen over
-    `basic_json::operator T()` when both are viable. Use `get<std::optional<T>>()` or `get_to()` instead:
-
-    ```cpp
-    auto opt = j_null.get<std::optional<std::string>>();  // ✅ std::nullopt
-    j_null.get_to(opt);                                     // ✅ std::nullopt
-    ```
-
 ## Putting values in
 
 The reverse direction works the same way: assigning or constructing a `json` from a C++ value converts it to JSON.

docs/mkdocs/docs/robots.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+User-agent: *
+Allow: /
+
+Sitemap: https://json.nlohmann.me/sitemap.xml

docs/mkdocs/hooks/copy_markdown_source.py

@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+"""Copy each documentation page's Markdown source into the built site."""
+
+# Creates a `<path>.md` sibling of each HTML output (for example,
+# `features/comments/` becomes `features/comments.md`) so agents and tools can
+# fetch the raw Markdown directly instead of parsing rendered HTML.
+
+import os
+import shutil
+
+_pages = []
+
+
+def on_files(files, config):
+    global _pages
+    _pages = [f for f in files if f.is_documentation_page()]
+    return files
+
+
+def on_post_build(config):
+    site_dir = config["site_dir"]
+    for file in _pages:
+        url = file.url.rstrip("/")
+        target = os.path.join(site_dir, (url or "index") + ".md")
+        os.makedirs(os.path.dirname(target), exist_ok=True)
+        shutil.copyfile(file.abs_src_path, target)

docs/mkdocs/mkdocs.yml

@@ -367,6 +367,9 @@ markdown_extensions:
       auto_append:
         - ../includes/glossary.md
 
+hooks:
+  - hooks/copy_markdown_source.py
+
 plugins:
   - search:
       separator: '[\s\-\.]'
@@ -389,6 +392,33 @@ plugins:
         - https://nlohmann.github.io/json/*
         - mailto:*
   - privacy
+  - llmstxt:
+      markdown_description: >
+        JSON for Modern C++ is a C++11 header-only library implementing a JSON
+        value type with an STL-like API, JSON Pointer/Patch, CBOR/MessagePack/
+        BSON/UBJSON/BJData binary format support, and a SAX-style parser interface.
+      sections:
+        Home:
+          - index.md
+          - home/*.md
+        Features:
+          - features/*.md
+          - features/binary_formats/*.md
+          - features/element_access/*.md
+          - features/parsing/*.md
+          - features/types/*.md
+        Integration:
+          - integration/*.md
+        API Documentation:
+          - api/*.md
+          - api/basic_json/*.md
+          - api/adl_serializer/*.md
+          - api/byte_container_with_subtype/*.md
+          - api/json_pointer/*.md
+          - api/json_sax/*.md
+          - api/macros/*.md
+        Community:
+          - community/*.md
 
 extra_css:
   - css/custom.css

docs/mkdocs/requirements.txt

@@ -7,5 +7,6 @@ mkdocs-material-extensions==1.3.1                   # extensions
 mkdocs-minify-plugin==0.8.0                         # plugin "minify"
 mkdocs-redirects==1.2.3                             # plugin "redirects"
 mkdocs-htmlproofer-plugin==1.5.0                    # plugin "htmlproofer"
+mkdocs-llmstxt==0.5.0                               # plugin "llmstxt"
 
 PyYAML==6.0.3                                       # linter

include/nlohmann/detail/output/serializer.hpp

@@ -465,18 +465,12 @@ class serializer
                             {
                                 if (codepoint <= 0xFFFF)
                                 {
-                                    // NOLINTNEXTLINE(cppcoreguidelines-pro-type-vararg,hicpp-vararg)
-                                    static_cast<void>((std::snprintf)(string_buffer.data() + bytes, 7, "\\u%04x",
-                                                                      static_cast<std::uint16_t>(codepoint)));
-                                    bytes += 6;
+                                    write_u_escape(bytes, static_cast<std::uint16_t>(codepoint));
                                 }
                                 else
                                 {
-                                    // NOLINTNEXTLINE(cppcoreguidelines-pro-type-vararg,hicpp-vararg)
-                                    static_cast<void>((std::snprintf)(string_buffer.data() + bytes, 13, "\\u%04x\\u%04x",
-                                                                      static_cast<std::uint16_t>(0xD7C0u + (codepoint >> 10u)),
-                                                                      static_cast<std::uint16_t>(0xDC00u + (codepoint & 0x3FFu))));
-                                    bytes += 12;
+                                    write_u_escape(bytes, static_cast<std::uint16_t>(0xD7C0u + (codepoint >> 10u)));
+                                    write_u_escape(bytes, static_cast<std::uint16_t>(0xDC00u + (codepoint & 0x3FFu)));
                                 }
                             }
                             else
@@ -683,6 +677,32 @@ class serializer
         return result;
     }
 
+    /*!
+     * @brief write a lowercase "\uXXXX" escape sequence into @a string_buffer
+     *
+     * Branch-free replacement for `snprintf(buf, 7, "\\u%04x", codeunit)` in the
+     * string escaping hot path. It writes exactly six characters ('\\', 'u' and
+     * four hex digits) at position @a pos of @a string_buffer via a nibble
+     * lookup table, avoiding the format-string parsing and locale machinery of
+     * `snprintf`. Advances @a pos by the number of bytes written (6).
+     *
+     * @param[in] pos       position in @a string_buffer to write at; there must
+     *                      be at least 6 bytes of headroom
+     * @param[in] codeunit  16-bit value to encode
+     */
+    void write_u_escape(std::size_t& pos, std::uint16_t codeunit) noexcept
+    {
+        JSON_ASSERT(string_buffer.size() - pos >= 6);
+        constexpr const char* nibble_to_hex = "0123456789abcdef";
+        string_buffer[pos + 0] = '\\';
+        string_buffer[pos + 1] = 'u';
+        string_buffer[pos + 2] = nibble_to_hex[(codeunit >> 12u) & 0x0Fu];
+        string_buffer[pos + 3] = nibble_to_hex[(codeunit >> 8u) & 0x0Fu];
+        string_buffer[pos + 4] = nibble_to_hex[(codeunit >> 4u) & 0x0Fu];
+        string_buffer[pos + 5] = nibble_to_hex[codeunit & 0x0Fu];
+        pos += 6;
+    }
+
     // templates to avoid warnings about useless casts
     template <typename NumberType, enable_if_t<std::is_signed<NumberType>::value, int> = 0>
     bool is_negative_number(NumberType x)

single_include/nlohmann/json.hpp

@@ -19962,18 +19962,12 @@ class serializer
                             {
                                 if (codepoint <= 0xFFFF)
                                 {
-                                    // NOLINTNEXTLINE(cppcoreguidelines-pro-type-vararg,hicpp-vararg)
-                                    static_cast<void>((std::snprintf)(string_buffer.data() + bytes, 7, "\\u%04x",
-                                                                      static_cast<std::uint16_t>(codepoint)));
-                                    bytes += 6;
+                                    write_u_escape(bytes, static_cast<std::uint16_t>(codepoint));
                                 }
                                 else
                                 {
-                                    // NOLINTNEXTLINE(cppcoreguidelines-pro-type-vararg,hicpp-vararg)
-                                    static_cast<void>((std::snprintf)(string_buffer.data() + bytes, 13, "\\u%04x\\u%04x",
-                                                                      static_cast<std::uint16_t>(0xD7C0u + (codepoint >> 10u)),
-                                                                      static_cast<std::uint16_t>(0xDC00u + (codepoint & 0x3FFu))));
-                                    bytes += 12;
+                                    write_u_escape(bytes, static_cast<std::uint16_t>(0xD7C0u + (codepoint >> 10u)));
+                                    write_u_escape(bytes, static_cast<std::uint16_t>(0xDC00u + (codepoint & 0x3FFu)));
                                 }
                             }
                             else
@@ -20180,6 +20174,32 @@ class serializer
         return result;
     }
 
+    /*!
+     * @brief write a lowercase "\uXXXX" escape sequence into @a string_buffer
+     *
+     * Branch-free replacement for `snprintf(buf, 7, "\\u%04x", codeunit)` in the
+     * string escaping hot path. It writes exactly six characters ('\\', 'u' and
+     * four hex digits) at position @a pos of @a string_buffer via a nibble
+     * lookup table, avoiding the format-string parsing and locale machinery of
+     * `snprintf`. Advances @a pos by the number of bytes written (6).
+     *
+     * @param[in] pos       position in @a string_buffer to write at; there must
+     *                      be at least 6 bytes of headroom
+     * @param[in] codeunit  16-bit value to encode
+     */
+    void write_u_escape(std::size_t& pos, std::uint16_t codeunit) noexcept
+    {
+        JSON_ASSERT(string_buffer.size() - pos >= 6);
+        constexpr const char* nibble_to_hex = "0123456789abcdef";
+        string_buffer[pos + 0] = '\\';
+        string_buffer[pos + 1] = 'u';
+        string_buffer[pos + 2] = nibble_to_hex[(codeunit >> 12u) & 0x0Fu];
+        string_buffer[pos + 3] = nibble_to_hex[(codeunit >> 8u) & 0x0Fu];
+        string_buffer[pos + 4] = nibble_to_hex[(codeunit >> 4u) & 0x0Fu];
+        string_buffer[pos + 5] = nibble_to_hex[codeunit & 0x0Fu];
+        pos += 6;
+    }
+
     // templates to avoid warnings about useless casts
     template <typename NumberType, enable_if_t<std::is_signed<NumberType>::value, int> = 0>
     bool is_negative_number(NumberType x)

tests/src/unit-algorithms.cpp

@@ -232,6 +232,9 @@ TEST_CASE("algorithms")
             // only the first four elements are expected to be sorted, the rest are
             // unspecified by the standard
             const json expected({nullptr, false, true, 3});
+            // std::equal below only bounds-checks the first range; assert the
+            // second range is at least as long to rule out an over-read (CWE-126)
+            CHECK(std::distance(begin(expected), end(expected)) >= 4);
             CHECK(std::equal(j.begin(), j.begin() + 4, begin(expected)));
         }
     }

tests/src/unit-alt-string.cpp

@@ -322,14 +322,12 @@ TEST_CASE("alternative string type")
 
     SECTION("JSON pointer")
     {
-        // conversion from json to alt_json fails to compile (see #3425);
-        // attempted fix(*) produces: [[['b','a','r'],['b','a','z']]] (with each char being an integer)
-        // (*) disable implicit conversion for json_refs of any basic_json type
-        // alt_json j = R"(
-        // {
-        //     "foo": ["bar", "baz"]
-        // }
-        // )"_json;
+        // Direct conversion from a json literal to alt_json is not supported due to issue #3425:
+        // alt_json's string_t (alt_string) is not directly constructible from std::string, so the
+        // cross-basic_json conversion falls back to the array-conversion path, incorrectly representing
+        // objects as arrays of [key, value] pairs and strings as arrays of character codes.
+        // See https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/3425 for details.
+        // Workaround: use alt_json::parse() instead of implicit conversion.
         auto j = alt_json::parse(R"({"foo": ["bar", "baz"]})");
 
         CHECK(j.at(alt_json::json_pointer("/foo/0")) == j["foo"][0]);

tests/src/unit-convenience.cpp

@@ -168,6 +168,32 @@ TEST_CASE("convenience functions")
         CHECK_THROWS_WITH_AS(check_escaped("\xC2"), "[json.exception.type_error.316] incomplete UTF-8 string; last byte: 0xC2", json::type_error&);
     }
 
+    SECTION("string escape with ensure_ascii")
+    {
+        // control characters are escaped regardless of ensure_ascii
+        check_escaped("\x01", "\\u0001", true);
+        check_escaped("\x1f", "\\u001f", true);
+
+        // non-ASCII code points in the Basic Multilingual Plane are emitted as
+        // a single lowercase \uXXXX escape (exercises every nibble position)
+        check_escaped("\xC2\x80", "\\u0080", true);         // U+0080
+        check_escaped("\xC3\xBF", "\\u00ff", true);         // U+00FF (ÿ)
+        check_escaped("\xDF\xBF", "\\u07ff", true);         // U+07FF
+        check_escaped("\xE4\xBD\xA0", "\\u4f60", true);     // U+4F60 (你)
+        check_escaped("\xEA\xAF\x8D", "\\uabcd", true);     // U+ABCD
+        check_escaped("\xEF\xBF\xBD", "\\ufffd", true);     // U+FFFD (replacement char, all-f nibbles)
+
+        // code points outside the BMP are emitted as a UTF-16 surrogate pair
+        // of two lowercase \uXXXX escapes
+        check_escaped("\xF0\x90\x80\x80", "\\ud800\\udc00", true); // U+10000 (lowest astral)
+        check_escaped("\xF0\x9F\x98\x80", "\\ud83d\\ude00", true); // U+1F600 (😀)
+        check_escaped("\xF4\x8F\xBF\xBF", "\\udbff\\udfff", true); // U+10FFFF (highest code point)
+
+        // with ensure_ascii disabled, non-ASCII input is passed through verbatim
+        check_escaped("\xE4\xBD\xA0", "\xE4\xBD\xA0", false);
+        check_escaped("\xF0\x9F\x98\x80", "\xF0\x9F\x98\x80", false);
+    }
+
     SECTION("string concat")
     {
         using nlohmann::detail::concat;

tests/src/unit-conversions.cpp

@@ -1761,27 +1761,16 @@ TEST_CASE("std::filesystem::path")
 }
 #endif
 
+#if !JSON_USE_IMPLICIT_CONVERSIONS
 TEST_CASE("std::optional")
 {
     SECTION("null")
     {
-        const json j_null;
-        const std::optional<std::string> opt_null;
+        json j_null;
+        std::optional<std::string> opt_null;
 
         CHECK(json(opt_null) == j_null);
         CHECK(j_null.get<std::optional<std::string>>() == std::nullopt);
-
-        // Constructing std::optional<T> directly from JSON null throws because
-        // std::optional's own converting constructor is chosen over basic_json's
-        // operator T(). This is a language-level limitation (std::optional<T> is
-        // constructible from T, and T is constructible from basic_json via the
-        // operator); there is no SFINAE path that distinguishes "call from inside
-        // std::optional's constructor" from "direct call". Use get<std::optional<T>>()
-        // or get_to() instead for correct null handling. See #4864 and #5246.
-        CHECK_THROWS_WITH_AS(std::optional<std::string>(j_null),
-                             "[json.exception.type_error.302] type must be string, but is null", json::type_error&);
-        CHECK_THROWS_WITH_AS(std::optional<int>(j_null),
-                             "[json.exception.type_error.302] type must be number, but is null", json::type_error&);
     }
 
     SECTION("string")
@@ -1830,6 +1819,7 @@ TEST_CASE("std::optional")
     }
 }
 #endif
+#endif
 
 #ifdef JSON_HAS_CPP_17
     #undef JSON_HAS_CPP_17