ActiveRecord Unexplainable SystemStackError - Only in WEBrick

Rails
1

This SystemStackError is driving me crazy. It only takes place when
testing with WEBrick - I can’t reproduce it with any tests. It is
caused by calling the “missing” id method (base.rb:2435) on my
ActiveRecord class.

WEBrick and my tests are running as the same user, with a ulimit -s
of 10240. Plus the query works sometimes so I don’t think this
matters.

Here’s the trace:

/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/set.rb:93:in empty?' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.1.0/lib/active_record/ attribute_methods.rb:64:ingenerated_methods?’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.1.0/lib/active_record/
attribute_methods.rb:237:in method_missing' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.1.0/lib/active_record/ attribute_methods.rb:245:inmethod_missing’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.1.0/lib/active_record/
base.rb:2435:in hash' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.1.0/lib/active_record/ association_preload.rb:13:inuniq’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.1.0/lib/active_record/
association_preload.rb:13:in preload_associations' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.1.0/lib/active_record/ base.rb:1343:infind_every’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.1.0/lib/active_record/
base.rb:536:in find' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.1.0/lib/active_record/ association_preload.rb:254:infind_associated_records’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.1.0/lib/active_record/
association_preload.rb:154:in preload_has_many_association' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.1.0/lib/active_record/ association_preload.rb:40:insend’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.1.0/lib/active_record/
association_preload.rb:40:in preload_one_association' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.1.0/lib/active_record/ association_preload.rb:38:ineach’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.1.0/lib/active_record/
association_preload.rb:38:in preload_one_association' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.1.0/lib/active_record/ association_preload.rb:17:inpreload_associations’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.1.0/lib/active_record/
association_preload.rb:16:in preload_associations' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.1.0/lib/active_record/ association_preload.rb:16:ineach’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.1.0/lib/active_record/
association_preload.rb:16:in preload_associations' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.1.0/lib/active_record/ base.rb:1343:infind_every’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.1.0/lib/active_record/
base.rb:536:in find' app/models/package.rb:29:insearch’

The thing is, sometimes it works -at first. And usually results in the
trace ending before Set.empty?
at:
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.1.0/lib/active_record/
attribute_methods.rb:64:in

Here’s the relevant parts of my code:

class Package < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :deliveries, #,:select=>‘id, user, host, delivered,
region_id, package_id’,
:include=>:region,
:dependent=>:delete_all

def self.search(criteria)
raise ArgumentError, ‘argument must be of type SearchCriteria’
unless criteria.is_a
?(SearchCriteria)
clause = build_search_where_clause(criteria)
find(:all, :include=>[:deliveries], :conditions=>clause)
end
end

class Delivery < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :package
belongs_to :region
end

class Region < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :deliveries
end

Looking at the SQL output, the exception is occurring after
the :deliveries relation is queried.
At first I though it was because I left out the id field from the
has_many :deliveries, :select=>’…’
But I commented it out and still no luck.

Any suggestions/ideas are greatly appreciated.

2

Why not use a search plugin like thinking sphinx to do your searching
for you?

3

On Feb 2, 1:33 pm, Ryan B. [email protected] wrote:

Why not use a search plugin like thinking sphinx to do your searching
for you?

Overkill. The searching is rudimentary so I just quickly created
something.

In any case, I take it you had no thoughts as to why I’m receiving the
stack error -other than possibly implying it was because of the
SearchCriteria class?

4

On 2 Feb 2009, at 22:39, MaggotChild wrote:

SearchCriteria class?

Does it only happen when class caches is false ?

Fred

5

On Feb 2, 2:54 pm, Frederick C. [email protected]
wrote:

Does it only happen when class caches is false ?

Why yes Fredrick, it does. I wonder why that can be. Your thoughts
would be appreciated.

Regardless, you have provided me with a new area to look into.

Thanks!

6

On Feb 3, 7:33 pm, MaggotChild [email protected] wrote:

On Feb 2, 2:54 pm, Frederick C. [email protected]
wrote:

Does it only happen when class caches is false ?

Why yes Fredrick, it does. I wonder why that can be. Your thoughts
would be appreciated.

That pretty much means that the automated reloading is bollocksed. For
example this can happen if rails clears out a class you were still
using or something like that.
It can be quite hard to pinpoint what exactly the problem is. Areas to
look out for are using require when you should use require_dependency
and associations between models in your app and models in plugins

Fred

7

So how is the conditions clause built. can you log it before passing it
to
find?

Al

On Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 12:06 PM, MaggotChild [email protected]
wrote:

Here’s the trace:
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.1.0/lib/active_record/
association_preload.rb:154:in `preload_has_many_association’
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.1.0/lib/active_record/

has_many :deliveries, #,:select=>'id, user, host, delivered,
end

–
Available for Ruby on Rails development opportunities

8

On Feb 3, 7:20 pm, Alan B. [email protected] wrote:

So how is the conditions clause built. can you log it before passing it to
find?

Yes I can see the clause in the development log. The query is valid,
it executes fine. It’s when the Delivery class is assembled by
ActiveRecord that the stack exception occurs, Well, only when the
action is processed by WEBrick.

9

On Feb 3, 2:18 pm, Frederick C. [email protected]
wrote:

On Feb 3, 7:33 pm, MaggotChild [email protected] wrote:

On Feb 2, 2:54 pm, Frederick C. [email protected]

Does it only happen when class caches is false ?
Why yes Fredrick, it does.
That pretty much means that the automated reloading is bollocksed.

OK, I understand this require_dependency thing but in my case I don’t
see how this applies.
I thought that this code, in my lib dir, might be the cause:

require ‘activerecord’
class Validator < ActiveRecord::Base
def self.columns
@columns ||= [];
end
#snip …
end

require ‘validator’
class SearchCriteria < Validator
#snip attribs
end

But, the source of my pain, this call:

Package.search(criteria)

executes:

SHOW FIELDS FROM packages
Delivery Load (0.000409) SELECT deliveries.* FROM deliveries
WHERE (deliveries.package_id IN (319089123))
Delivery Columns (0.000961) SHOW FIELDS FROM deliveries
Region Load (0.000370) SELECT * FROM regions WHERE (regions.id
IN (‘4803144’,‘5750247’))

when the Delivery class is being assembled by ActiveRecord -
SystemStackError

This has nothing to do with the above classes and or
require_dependency… I think.

class Package < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :deliveries, #,:select=>‘id, user, host, delivered,
region_id, package_id’,
:include=>:region,
:dependent=>:delete_all

def self.search(criteria)
raise ArgumentError, ‘argument must be of type SearchCriteria’
unless criteria.is_a?(SearchCriteria)
clause = build_search_where_clause(criteria)
find(:all, :include=>[:deliveries], :conditions=>clause)
end

def self.build_search_where_clause(criteria)
where = []
[:region,:date,:status].each do |prop|
case prop
when :region
where << send(:sanitize_sql, [ ‘deliveries.region_id in (?)’,
value ])
#snip clauses
end
where.join(’ and ')
end

class Delivery < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :package
belongs_to :region
end

class Region < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :deliveries
end

I’m at a loss -still.

Thanks for your help.

10

On 5 Feb 2009, at 19:54, MaggotChild wrote:

when the Delivery class is being assembled by ActiveRecord -
SystemStackError

This has nothing to do with the above classes and or
require_dependency… I think.

It could for example be problematic if the parent class of
SearchCriteria isn’t being reloaded by SearchCriteria is. Assuming
these things are all in appropriate files you don’t need that “require
‘validator’” at all.

Fred