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digitalmars.D - structs, ~this(), this(this) and reference counting

reply =?ISO-8859-15?Q?S=F6nke_Ludwig?= <ludwig informatik.uni-luebeck.de> writes:
After implementing automatic reference counting for resource management 
and spending the last two days with trying to figure out where the 
crashes and leaks come from and write workarounds for the corresponding 
compiler bugs, I came to the conclusion that this approach is futile. 
The code base is too large, as is the number of patterns that lead to 
compiler bugs.

Since the number of issues unusually high, instead of posting one bug 
report for each (posted two), I compiled a small test suite with a 
number of bug patterns that I discovered (and some working patterns). 
The list is probably not complete and I know that some cases that are OK 
in the test suite now failed for me in real code.

Anyway, do you think it makes sense to post this test suite as a meta 
bug for reference counting (excluding phobos RefCounted), so that 
somebody can look into it as a whole?

I get the feeling that otherwise it might take a very long time until 
everything is stable in this area - and IMO this is an extremely 
important area for anyone who needs to (partially or fully) avoid the 
GC. And, last but not least, just like linker crashes and ICEs, it may 
cause a very fragile impression for anyone who encounters this.

Test suite: http://pastebin.com/niZwRKpc
(Run with "dmd -g -run" or "dmd -g -version=BAILOUT -run")
Feb 18 2012
next sibling parent reply bearophile <bearophileHUGS lycos.com> writes:
S. Ludwig:


 Since the number of issues unusually high, instead of posting one bug 
 report for each (posted two), I compiled a small test suite with a 
 number of bug patterns that I discovered (and some working patterns).



I suggest to also post every single bug in single Bugzilla entries. Fixing
single bugs is already a not easy thing to do.

Bye,
bearophile
Feb 18 2012
parent =?ISO-8859-15?Q?S=F6nke_Ludwig?= <ludwig informatik.uni-luebeck.de> writes:
Am 18.02.2012 14:15, schrieb bearophile:

 S. Ludwig:


 Since the number of issues unusually high, instead of posting one bug
 report for each (posted two), I compiled a small test suite with a
 number of bug patterns that I discovered (and some working patterns).



 I suggest to also post every single bug in single Bugzilla entries. Fixing
single bugs is already a not easy thing to do.

 Bye,
 bearophile



Some cases are for existing bugs, but many of them are difficult to tell 
apart. I would just like to avoid useless overhead if possible.
Feb 18 2012
prev sibling next sibling parent reply Benjamin Thaut <code benjamin-thaut.de> writes:
Am 18.02.2012 11:32, schrieb Sönke Ludwig:

 After implementing automatic reference counting for resource management
 and spending the last two days with trying to figure out where the
 crashes and leaks come from and write workarounds for the corresponding
 compiler bugs, I came to the conclusion that this approach is futile.
 The code base is too large, as is the number of patterns that lead to
 compiler bugs.

 Since the number of issues unusually high, instead of posting one bug
 report for each (posted two), I compiled a small test suite with a
 number of bug patterns that I discovered (and some working patterns).
 The list is probably not complete and I know that some cases that are OK
 in the test suite now failed for me in real code.

 Anyway, do you think it makes sense to post this test suite as a meta
 bug for reference counting (excluding phobos RefCounted), so that
 somebody can look into it as a whole?

 I get the feeling that otherwise it might take a very long time until
 everything is stable in this area - and IMO this is an extremely
 important area for anyone who needs to (partially or fully) avoid the
 GC. And, last but not least, just like linker crashes and ICEs, it may
 cause a very fragile impression for anyone who encounters this.

 Test suite: http://pastebin.com/niZwRKpc
 (Run with "dmd -g -run" or "dmd -g -version=BAILOUT -run")



You did not implement the assignment operator for your refcounted 
struct. If you do that it should heavily reduce the number of issues you 
have. I actually only run into 1 severe issue with refcounting and that 
is that array slice copying does not call any copy constructor / 
assignment operator
Feb 18 2012
next sibling parent reply Michel Fortin <michel.fortin michelf.com> writes:
On 2012-02-18 13:25:54 +0000, Benjamin Thaut <code benjamin-thaut.de> said:


 Am 18.02.2012 11:32, schrieb Sönke Ludwig:

 After implementing automatic reference counting for resource management
 and spending the last two days with trying to figure out where the
 crashes and leaks come from and write workarounds for the corresponding
 compiler bugs, I came to the conclusion that this approach is futile.
 The code base is too large, as is the number of patterns that lead to
 compiler bugs.
 
 Since the number of issues unusually high, instead of posting one bug
 report for each (posted two), I compiled a small test suite with a
 number of bug patterns that I discovered (and some working patterns).
 The list is probably not complete and I know that some cases that are OK
 in the test suite now failed for me in real code.
 
 Anyway, do you think it makes sense to post this test suite as a meta
 bug for reference counting (excluding phobos RefCounted), so that
 somebody can look into it as a whole?
 
 I get the feeling that otherwise it might take a very long time until
 everything is stable in this area - and IMO this is an extremely
 important area for anyone who needs to (partially or fully) avoid the
 GC. And, last but not least, just like linker crashes and ICEs, it may
 cause a very fragile impression for anyone who encounters this.
 
 Test suite: http://pastebin.com/niZwRKpc
 (Run with "dmd -g -run" or "dmd -g -version=BAILOUT -run")
 



 You did not implement the assignment operator for your refcounted 
 struct. If you do that it should heavily reduce the number of issues 
 you have. I actually only run into 1 severe issue with refcounting and 
 that is that array slice copying does not call any copy constructor / 
 assignment operator



It'd be nice though if the default assignment operator for structs 
would be generated like this:

	if (&other != &this)
	{
		~this(); // destruct
		memcpy(&this, &other, other.sizeof); // blit
		this(this); // postblit
	}

because this is the correct thing to do on assignment 99% of the time. 
So you'd have less boilerplate code to write.


-- 
Michel Fortin
michel.fortin michelf.com
http://michelf.com/
Feb 18 2012
parent Andrei Alexandrescu <SeeWebsiteForEmail erdani.org> writes:
On 2/18/12 7:59 AM, Michel Fortin wrote:

 It'd be nice though if the default assignment operator for structs would
 be generated like this:

 if (&other != &this)
 {
 ~this(); // destruct
 memcpy(&this, &other, other.sizeof); // blit
 this(this); // postblit
 }

 because this is the correct thing to do on assignment 99% of the time.
 So you'd have less boilerplate code to write.



Heh, we discussed this years ago but it was forgotten.

Andrei
Feb 18 2012
prev sibling next sibling parent =?ISO-8859-15?Q?S=F6nke_Ludwig?= <ludwig informatik.uni-luebeck.de> writes:
Am 18.02.2012 14:25, schrieb Benjamin Thaut:

 Am 18.02.2012 11:32, schrieb Sönke Ludwig:

 After implementing automatic reference counting for resource management
 and spending the last two days with trying to figure out where the
 crashes and leaks come from and write workarounds for the corresponding
 compiler bugs, I came to the conclusion that this approach is futile.
 The code base is too large, as is the number of patterns that lead to
 compiler bugs.

 Since the number of issues unusually high, instead of posting one bug
 report for each (posted two), I compiled a small test suite with a
 number of bug patterns that I discovered (and some working patterns).
 The list is probably not complete and I know that some cases that are OK
 in the test suite now failed for me in real code.

 Anyway, do you think it makes sense to post this test suite as a meta
 bug for reference counting (excluding phobos RefCounted), so that
 somebody can look into it as a whole?

 I get the feeling that otherwise it might take a very long time until
 everything is stable in this area - and IMO this is an extremely
 important area for anyone who needs to (partially or fully) avoid the
 GC. And, last but not least, just like linker crashes and ICEs, it may
 cause a very fragile impression for anyone who encounters this.

 Test suite: http://pastebin.com/niZwRKpc
 (Run with "dmd -g -run" or "dmd -g -version=BAILOUT -run")



 You did not implement the assignment operator for your refcounted
 struct. If you do that it should heavily reduce the number of issues you
 have. I actually only run into 1 severe issue with refcounting and that
 is that array slice copying does not call any copy constructor /
 assignment operator



Can you show your assignment operator?

For me it just causes 3 cases to crash, which were simply failing before.

But apart from that, if the assignment operator is defined differently 
than what Michel suggested that's of course one of the bugs.
Feb 18 2012
prev sibling parent =?ISO-8859-15?Q?S=F6nke_Ludwig?= <ludwig informatik.uni-luebeck.de> writes:
Updated test with two different opAssign versions:

http://pastebin.com/3EcZf4DS
Feb 18 2012
prev sibling parent "Martin Nowak" <dawg dawgfoto.de> writes:
On Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:32:07 +0100, S=C3=B6nke Ludwig  =

<ludwig informatik.uni-luebeck.de> wrote:


 After implementing automatic reference counting for resource managemen=





 and spending the last two days with trying to figure out where the  =




 crashes and leaks come from and write workarounds for the correspondin=





 compiler bugs, I came to the conclusion that this approach is futile. =





 The code base is too large, as is the number of patterns that lead to =





 compiler bugs.

 Since the number of issues unusually high, instead of posting one bug =





 report for each (posted two), I compiled a small test suite with a  =




 number of bug patterns that I discovered (and some working patterns). =





 The list is probably not complete and I know that some cases that are =





 in the test suite now failed for me in real code.

 Anyway, do you think it makes sense to post this test suite as a meta =





 bug for reference counting (excluding phobos RefCounted), so that  =




 somebody can look into it as a whole?

 I get the feeling that otherwise it might take a very long time until =





 everything is stable in this area - and IMO this is an extremely  =




 important area for anyone who needs to (partially or fully) avoid the =





 GC. And, last but not least, just like linker crashes and ICEs, it may=





 cause a very fragile impression for anyone who encounters this.

 Test suite: http://pastebin.com/niZwRKpc
 (Run with "dmd -g -run" or "dmd -g -version=3DBAILOUT -run")



How about integrating it into dmd's testsuite with
failing parts deactivated based on the bug number.
Feb 18 2012