Bug in #map

Ruby JRuby
#1

I have run across a bug in Enumerable#map. It affects 1.5-dev but is
okay in 1.4.0.

Unfortunately, I can’t figure out how to reproduce it to a simple
example. I’ll show in pseudo-code what I’m doing and the incorrect
behavior I am seeing. I hope that is enough to find the problem.

loop do
ladders = @strategies.map { |strategy| strategy.crank(bar) }
if verbose && ladders.any? { |ladder| ladder.changed? }
ladder = Ladder.consolidate ladders
write ladder
end

 # unrelated work

end

This code calls #crank on my strategy class and returns a Ladder object.
Obviously, it should assign a new array to the +ladders+ variable each
time. However, I see a situation where on one pass through the loop
+ladders+ gets 2 Ladder objects assigned. The next time through one
strategy goes away so #crank is called once and returns a single
Ladder object. This time the +ladders+ variable is assigned [Ladder,
nil] for some reason. This causes my code to crash because I don’t check
for nil (it should never return a nil).

I tried to “fix” this by calling #compact after the map operation but
that crashes jruby with an exception [1] which proves to me it isn’t my
code.

I also tried to shine some light on this by creating another local +i+
and incrementing it inside the map block, but when I run it that way the
block is never called. It’s all very weird.

map block never gets called!

  i = 0
  ladders = @strategies.map { |strategy|
    i += 1
    strategy.crank(bar)
  }
  puts "ladders.size [#{ladders.size}] i [#{i}]" # always prints

‘ladders.size [0] i [0]’
if verbose && ladders.any? { |ladder| ladder.changed? }
ladder = Ladder.consolidate ladders
write ladder
end

Any ideas?

cr

[1] http://gist.github.com/302710

To unsubscribe from this list, please visit:

http://xircles.codehaus.org/manage_email
#2

On Feb 12, 2010, at 10:30 AM, Chuck R. wrote:

   ladder = Ladder.consolidate ladders
   write ladder
 end

Oops, this was my mistake. I reused the variable +i+ which caused this
particular issue.

When I use a new local variable, ithe code prints:

ladders.size [2] j [1]

This proves the block is called only once yet it somehow has a length of
2 and members [Ladder, nil] which isn’t possible.

cr

To unsubscribe from this list, please visit:

http://xircles.codehaus.org/manage_email
#3

On Feb 12, 2010, at 10:30 AM, Chuck R. wrote:

# unrelated work

end

I have a little more information on this problem, but unfortunately not
enough to create a JIRA.

I reduced the code to a simple call to #each to expose the problem. (The
+ladders+ array is still generated by a call to #map where I believe the
fault originates.)

ladders.each { |ladder| ladder.reset }

This was failing with the same error as the original. I then changed the
code to check for nil in the block.

ladders.each { |ladder| ladder.reset unless ladder.nil? }

This now prints a warning.

warning: multiple values for a block parameter (0 for 1)

This indicates to me that there is something screwed up with the
underlying array. Somehow #each is yielding NO ARGUMENT to the block
which then raises this warning.

There’s a bug here somewhere but for the life of me I cannot reduce it
to a simple case.

cr

To unsubscribe from this list, please visit:

http://xircles.codehaus.org/manage_email
#4

On Mar 6, 2010, at 2:08 PM, Vladimir S. wrote:

Hi Chuck,

Do you have complete example for me to try?

I wish I did. This happens inside of a much larger program. I have
tried, without success, in reducing it to a small sample program.

I’ll try again to reduce it. :frowning:

cr

To unsubscribe from this list, please visit:

http://xircles.codehaus.org/manage_email
#5

Hi Chuck,

Do you have complete example for me to try?

Thanks,
–Vladimir

On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 8:49 PM, Chuck R. [email protected]
wrote:

   ladder = Ladder.consolidate ladders

ladders.each { |ladder| ladder.reset }

To unsubscribe from this list, please visit:

http://xircles.codehaus.org/manage_email
#6

On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 1:49 PM, Chuck R. [email protected]
wrote:

This now prints a warning.

 warning: multiple values for a block parameter (0 for 1)

This indicates to me that there is something screwed up with the underlying array. Somehow #each is yielding NO ARGUMENT to the block which then raises this warning.

This points more and more toward the array size being off (realSize
incorrect, allowing it to read pass the actual end of the array) or to
a null getting into the array’s backing store.

  • Charlie

To unsubscribe from this list, please visit:

http://xircles.codehaus.org/manage_email
#7

On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 10:30 AM, Chuck R. [email protected]
wrote:

I have run across a bug in Enumerable#map. It affects 1.5-dev but is okay in 1.4.0.

Unfortunately, I can’t figure out how to reproduce it to a simple example. I’ll show in pseudo-code what I’m doing and the incorrect behavior I am seeing. I hope that is enough to find the problem.

I’ll take the case, Watson!

On your end, you should of course keep trying to get a reduced case,
but you could also help us a lot by bisecting to a specific
revision. Given either a reproducible case (which we could bisect) or
a specific revision (that you have bisected) we could have a fix in no
time at all.

And you should file a bug right now anyway since it is a regression.

This code calls #crank on my strategy class and returns a Ladder object. Obviously, it should assign a new array to the +ladders+ variable each time. However, I see a situation where on one pass through the loop +ladders+ gets 2 Ladder objects assigned. The next time through one strategy goes away so #crank is called once and returns a single Ladder object. This time the +ladders+ variable is assigned [Ladder, nil] for some reason. This causes my code to crash because I don’t check for nil (it should never return a nil).
I assume you’ve confirmed that #crank only gets called once and
@strategies only contains one element on that second pass. If we’re
still creating a two-element array, that would certainly be a bug.

I tried to “fix” this by calling #compact after the map operation but that crashes jruby with an exception [1] which proves to me it isn’t my code.

Your line numbers don’t line up with master, but looking at
compact_bang there’s only a few things that could be null and cause
this:

  • The values array (highly unlikely)
  • One of the array elements (more likely, since it tries to call
    .isNil())

Is @strategies an Array or some other Enumerable collection?

There have been a few changes to RubyArray in the past couple months,
and some of them were against map/collect. There have been fewer
changes to Enumerable#map, though quite a few additions for 1.9
behavior. Are you running in 1.9 mode?

    ladder = Ladder.consolidate ladders
    write ladder
   end

Now that’s peculiar. What is @strategies.size at that point? If it’s
empty, this would be expected behavior (of course).

  • Charlie

To unsubscribe from this list, please visit:

http://xircles.codehaus.org/manage_email