[Lldb-commits] [PATCH]race condition calling PushProcessIOHandler

[Matthew Gardiner]

Hi Shawn,

I use 64-bit linux and I see this issue a lot. It usually manifests 
itself as the prompt just not being printed (or perhaps it just gets 
overwritten) - regardless - I invoke a command, and I don't see an 
(lldb) prompt when I should. So I'm well pleased that you are looking at 
this!

Would it not be more robust to use a semaphore than usleep to 
synchronise the problematic threads?

Although I've not looked too deeply into this particular issue, whenever 
I've seen similar races, I found that it's almost impossible to pick the 
right value when using a sleep command. A semaphore, though, should 
always ensure the waiting thread will wake precisely.

I'd be happy to help to test such a fix.

Matt


Shawn Best wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have attached a patch which addresses 3 related race conditions that 
> cause the command line (lldb) prompt to get displayed inappropriately 
> and make it appear it is not working correctly.  This issue can be 
> seen on linux and FreeBSD.  I can also artificailly induce the problem 
> on OSX.
>
> The issue happens when the command handler (in the main thread) issues 
> a command such as run, step or continue.  After the command finishes 
> initiating its action, it returns up the call stack and goes back into 
> the main command loop waiting for user input.  Simultaneously, as the 
> inferior process starts up, the MonitorChildProcess thread picks up 
> the change and posts to the PrivateEvent thread.  HandePrivateEvent() 
> then calls PushProcessIOHandler() which will disable the command IO 
> handler and give the inferior control of the TTY.  To observe this on 
> OSX, put a
>
> usleep(100);
>
> immediately prior the PushProcessIOHandler() in HandlePrivateEvent.
>
>
> My proposed solution is that after a 'run', 'step', or 'continue' 
> command, insert a synchronization point and wait until 
> HandlePrivateEvent knows the inferior process is running and has 
> pushed the IO handler.  One context switch (<100us) is usually all the 
> time it takes on my machine.  As an additional safety, I have a 
> timeout (currently 1ms) so it will never hang the main thread.
>
> Any thoughts, or suggestions would be appreciated.
>
> Regards,
> Shawn.
>
>
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