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Re: (call-process ...) hangs in emacs


Hi Ken,

On Aug  7 07:51, Ken Brown wrote:
> Hi Corinna,
> 
> On 8/5/2014 2:40 PM, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
> >I'm glad to read that, but I'm still a little bit concerned.  If your
> >code works with ERRORCHECK mutexes but hangs with NORMAL mutexes, you
> >*might* miss an error case.
> >
> >I'd suggest to tweak the pthread_mutex_lock/unlock calls and log the
> >threads calling it.  It looks like the same thread calls malloc from
> >malloc for some reason and it might be interesting to learn how that
> >happens and if it's really ok in this scenario, because it seems to
> >be unexpected by the code.
> 
> I think I found the problem with NORMAL mutexes.  emacs calls pthread_atfork
> after initializing the mutexes, and the resulting 'prepare' handler locks
> the mutexes.  (The parent and child handlers unlock them.)  So when emacs
> calls fork, the mutexes are locked, and shortly thereafter the Cygwin DLL
> calls calloc, leading to a deadlock. Here's a gdb backtrace showing the
> sequence of calls:

First question:  Why does emacs use its own malloc on Cygwin rather 
than the system-provided one?  Is that really necessary?

> #0  malloc (size=size@entry=40) at gmalloc.c:919
> #1  0x0053fc28 in calloc (nmemb=1, size=40) at gmalloc.c:1510
> #2  0x61082074 in calloc (nmemb=1, size=40)
>     at /usr/src/debug/cygwin-1.7.31-3/winsup/cygwin/malloc_wrapper.cc:100
> #3  0x61003177 in operator new (s=s@entry=40)
>     at /usr/src/debug/cygwin-1.7.31-3/winsup/cygwin/cxx.cc:23
> #4  0x610fc9d3 in pthread_mutex::init (mutex=0x61187d34 <reent_data+852>,
>     attr=0x0, initializer=0x12)
>     at /usr/src/debug/cygwin-1.7.31-3/winsup/cygwin/thread.cc:3118
> #5  0x610fcc13 in pthread_mutex_lock (mutex=0x61187d34 <reent_data+852>)
>     at /usr/src/debug/cygwin-1.7.31-3/winsup/cygwin/thread.cc:3170
> #6  0x611319d8 in __fp_lock (ptr=0x61187cd0 <reent_data+752>)

Right, __fp_lock needs a pthread lock and since this lock hasn't been
used yet, it has to create it.  The pthread_mutex creation calls the
new operator which in turn calls calloc.

>     at /usr/src/debug/cygwin-1.7.31-3/newlib/libc/stdio/findfp.c:287
> #7  0x61154f75 in _fwalk (ptr=0x28d544,
>     function=function@entry=0x611319c0 <__fp_lock>)
>     at /usr/src/debug/cygwin-1.7.31-3/newlib/libc/stdio/fwalk.c:50
> #8  0x61131dea in __fp_lock_all ()
>     at /usr/src/debug/cygwin-1.7.31-3/newlib/libc/stdio/findfp.c:307
> #9  0x610fa45e in pthread::atforkprepare ()
>     at /usr/src/debug/cygwin-1.7.31-3/winsup/cygwin/thread.cc:2031
> #10 0x61076292 in lock_pthread (this=<synthetic pointer>)
>     at /usr/src/debug/cygwin-1.7.31-3/winsup/cygwin/sigproc.h:137
> #11 hold_everything (x=<synthetic pointer>, this=<synthetic pointer>)
>     at /usr/src/debug/cygwin-1.7.31-3/winsup/cygwin/sigproc.h:169
> #12 fork () at /usr/src/debug/cygwin-1.7.31-3/winsup/cygwin/fork.cc:582
> 
> Is there a better way to deal with this issue than using ERRORCHECK mutexes?

Did you check if you get an error from pthread_mutex_lock on the
second invocation of malloc?  Is it EDEADLK?  If so, you can
ignore the error, but if you want to go ahead without adding lots
of error checking you might be better off using a RECURSIVE mutex.


Corinna

-- 
Corinna Vinschen                  Please, send mails regarding Cygwin to
Cygwin Maintainer                 cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Red Hat

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