[Vm-dev] Frequent SegFaults in PharoVM with Pharo 3.0

[Max Leske]

Interesting development: no SegFaults (while using exactly the same code) when using an older Pharo image (version 30321 instead of latest).
This obviously suggests that the problem lies with the image and not necessarily the vm.

Max

On 10.11.2013, at 20:10, Max Leske <maxleske at gmail.com> wrote:

> 
> On 07.11.2013, at 08:20, Max Leske <maxleske at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> On 07.11.2013, at 00:27, vm-dev-request at lists.squeakfoundation.org wrote:
>> 
>>> Date: Wed, 6 Nov 2013 19:23:47 -0200
>>> From: Mariano Martinez Peck <marianopeck at gmail.com>
>>> Subject: Re: [Vm-dev] Frequent SegFaults in PharoVM with Pharo 3.0
>>> To: Squeak Virtual Machine Development Discussion
>>> 	<vm-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org>
>>> Message-ID:
>>> 	<CAA+-=mWDtHGQWSHx-m4u37Kj0UAMx=UG=qUCz+wMvgDT8BaQZQ at mail.gmail.com>
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"
>>> 
>>> Max, did you try with Eliot VMs besides the pharo ones?
>> 
>> No, I haven’t. I can try (though only on my machine), but if I can’t reproduce the SegFault that doesn’t mean much unfortunately. It took me 10 to 20 tries with the PharoVM too…
>> 
>> I’ll try anyway and let you know what I find.
>> 
>> Max
> 
> I just gave CogVM and NBCog a shot. Unfortunately I can’t use the images because they’ve been built with PharoVM and hang after load. At least on the Pharo CI there are no jobs that create Cog / NBCog images.
> 
> So no luck with different VMs.
> 
> Max
> 
>> 
>>> 
>>> Thanks
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Wed, Nov 6, 2013 at 6:04 PM, Max Leske <maxleske at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Hi
>>>> 
>>>> We’ve been encountering frequent SegFaults when running the Fuel tests on
>>>> the Pharo CI (https://ci.inria.fr/pharo-contribution/job/Fuel/). Since
>>>> today I’ve also been able to reproduce the SegFaults on my MacBook Pro (OS
>>>> X 10.9) too. We have not been able to determine the cause of the SegFault
>>>> but we can produce SegFaults often, although not reliable (more reliable on
>>>> the CI).
>>>> 
>>>> The CI uses the stable VM:
>>>> http://files.pharo.org/vm/pharo/linux/stable.zip
>>>> I use a newer version from October on my machine:
>>>> http://files.pharo.org/vm/pharo/mac/273.zip
>>>> 
>>>> I’ve attached all the dumps of the crashes I was able to produce on my
>>>> machine, together with Apple’s crash logs.
>>>> 
>>>> I’ve been able to deduce the following:
>>>> - garbage collection seems to be a trigger for the SegFault. When one of
>>>> the methods FLMethodContextSerialization>>testFuelShouldIgnoreFuel and
>>>> FLMethodContextSerialization>>testMethodContextWithNilPc contain the line
>>>> “3 timesRepeat: [Smalltalk garbageCollect]” the SegFault appears nearly
>>>> always (on CI). When I remove the line the builds run through.
>>>> - Not all methods with the garbage collect line trigger a SegFault (I
>>>> could only identify those two)
>>>> - the garbage collect line itself suffices as a trigger in the mentioned
>>>> methods.
>>>> - The number of tests (amount of used memory?) seems to influence the
>>>> appearence of the SegFault (e.g. loading "DevelopmentGroup" seems to
>>>> trigger it more often than loading “Benchmarks”)
>>>> - the SegFault always appears after the tests with the garbage collect
>>>> line have been run, never before
>>>> - the VM can’t write the crash.dmp every time
>>>> 
>>>> Since the SegFaults are so random I cannot give you an image to reproduce
>>>> the problem. I’ve had the best results using a fresh 3.0 image (
>>>> http://files.pharo.org/image/30/30549.zip) and then evaluating the
>>>> following in a workspace:
>>>> 
>>>> Gofer it
>>>>        smalltalkhubUser: 'Pharo' project:  'Fuel';
>>>>        package: 'ConfigurationOfFuel';
>>>>        load.
>>>> 
>>>> ((Smalltalk at: #ConfigurationOfFuel) project version: #bleedingEdge)
>>>> load: 'DevelopmentGroup'.
>>>> 
>>>> HDTestReport
>>>>        runClasses: (TestCase allSubclasses select: [ :class | class name
>>>> beginsWith: 'FL'])
>>>>        named: ‘foo'
>>>> 
>>>> If it doesn’t work, try using the TestRunner manually. Select the default
>>>> Fuel tests (alphabetically at F) and the additional Fuel tests (at the
>>>> bottom of the list) and run them.
>>>> 
>>>> If anybody has any clue about what could be going on I’d really appreciate
>>>> any input. I’ll happily provide more information if I can.
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks for reading :)
>>>> Max
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> Mariano
>>> http://marianopeck.wordpress.com

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