[squeak-dev] 4.0.3-2202 - core dump

David T. Lewis lewis at mail.msen.com
Tue Jan 4 16:18:40 UTC 2011


On Tue, Jan 04, 2011 at 08:59:57AM +0100, Levente Uzonyi wrote:
> On Mon, 3 Jan 2011, David T. Lewis wrote:
> 
> >On Mon, Jan 03, 2011 at 08:27:19PM -0600, Chris Muller wrote:
> >>After updating to 10853 I can run all tests and get the same few
> >>failures we've been seeing.
> >>
> >>However, after trying to run
> >>
> >>  ReleaseBuilderTrunk prepareNewBuild
> >>
> >>saving the image, and then running the tests, the VM crashes in the
> >>new FloatConsistencyTests>>#testCos.  Even when I run with the
> >>standard interpreter.
> >>
> >>Is this the proper script we execute to create new (semi-compact)
> >>images?  It does shave about 5MB off the image size, which is nice,
> >>but something may have got broke with the new Float changes.
> >>
> >> - Chris
> >
> >Eeek! Now I see the problem. This is a problem in the FloatMathPlugin
> >that is present in many of the current VMs, and that will affect
> >users who run the updated image with the older (existing) VM. Details
> >are on Mantis here:
> > http://bugs.squeak.org/view.php?id=7592
> >
> >and discussed on the list in this thread:
> > http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/squeak-dev/2010-December/156124.html
> >
> >The issue will not be present in future VM builds, but if definitely
> >affects the current installed base.
> >
> >In my view, we should revert the FloatMathPlugin changes in
> >Kernel-ar.531 for the Squeak 4.2 release, then reapply them to
> >the update stream immediately after the release.
> >
> >I believe that Matthew Fulmer indicated that this would be OK for
> >his Cobalt work (if I interpret his message correctly):
> > http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/squeak-dev/2010-December/156139.html
> >
> >Does anyone disagree with this? i.e. that the FloatMathPlugin fixes
> >in Kernel-ar.531 should be temporarily reverted, then reapplied
> >after the Squeak 4.2 image is released?
> 
> I don't think we should revert all the changes, just the primitives that 
> are broken on some platforms. This way we can keep all other improvements.

>From a change management point of view, I think it may be less confusing
to revert and re-apply the changes as a complete set. That way your
image either has the FloatMathPlugin fixes or it does not. If it has
them, you cannot use a broken VM, period.

> Btw, is there a way to use an external plugin instead of the internal 
> version? If yes, then we can provide prebuilt versions of FloatMathPlugin 
> to patch existing VMs.
>

This should not be necessary. The issue is has been diagnosed, Ian has
applied the fixes to Subversion, and it is fixed for all new VMs.

My concern is for the installed base of VMs that people have on their
systems today. People will download the new release and try the image.
They may or may not install an updated VM. For all the folks who download
the 4.2 release and try out the new image, we don't want to have it
crash just because they are using the VM that is already installed on
their system.

I would expect that most of the folks who care about the FloatMathPlugin
fixes are going to be following the update stream anyway, so reapplying
the fixes immediately after the 4.2 release should work fine for them
too.

Dave
 



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