[IronPython] blocker: objects deleted when they shouldn't be

[Dino Viehland]

Very cool bug and great analysis - thanks for reporting this.  BTW That code lives in MetaPythonType.Calls now.

It seems like this logic needs to be moved into PythonType.CreateInstance instead instead of in the generated rule code.

-----Original Message-----
From: users-bounces at lists.ironpython.com [mailto:users-bounces at lists.ironpython.com] On Behalf Of William Reade
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 7:11 AM
To: users at lists.ironpython.com
Subject: [IronPython] blocker: objects deleted when they shouldn't be

Hi all

I'm about to file this on Codeplex, but I think I've tracked down a
subtle and nasty bug, which is blocking Ironclad with numpy (it fatally
breaks matrices and masked arrays), and I feel compelled to shout loudly
about it to ensure it doesn't get lost in the noise of the impending 2.0
release.

In short, the following code:
-------------------------------------------------------------
from System import GC

class C(object):
    _instance = None
    def __new__(cls):
        if C._instance is None:
            C._instance = object.__new__(cls)
        return C._instance

    def __del__(self):
        print 'deleting object with id', id(self)

c = C()
print 'created a C with id', id(c)
d = C()
print 'created another C with id', id(d)

for _ in range(3):
    GC.Collect()
    GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers()

print id(c), id(d)
print c
print d
-------------------------------------------------------------

...produces the following output:
-------------------------------------------------------------
C:\dev\ironclad\build>ipy deltest.py
created a C with id 43
created another C with id 43
deleting object with id 43
43 43
<C object at 0x000000000000002B>
<C object at 0x000000000000002B>
-------------------------------------------------------------

...and I don't think that the 'deleting...' message should be printed at
that point.

My suspicion is that c's 'magic_finalization_wossname'* slot is being
overwritten with a new instance after __new__ returns, leaving the
original 'magic_finalization_wossname' unreferenced; in the fullness of
time, that gets finalized and calls c.__del__, even though c itself
still exists.

Cheers
William

* This is probably not the actual member name, but I couldn't find the
relevant code today, even though I remember reading it in the past...
hopefully the implementers know what I'm trying to refer to, even if
nobody else does.
_______________________________________________
Users mailing list
Users at lists.ironpython.com
http://lists.ironpython.com/listinfo.cgi/users-ironpython.com