GNU bug report logs - #16576
Binding `standard-output' to a function doesn't work -- function sometimes called with garbage

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From: Anders Lindgren <andlind <at> gmail.com>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 16576-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#16576: Binding `standard-output' to a function doesn't work -- function sometimes called with garbage
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 22:12:29 +0100

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Thanks for fixing the bug!

As soon as I realised that there was a problem with binding
`standard-output' to a function, I rewrote the code to use a buffer
instead. Also, thanks for pointing out the excessive memory usage when
accumulating a string -- one can learn something new every day (even after
20 years)...

    -- Anders

Ps. I just released the package I've been working in for a couple of weeks,
it's an interactive debugger for font-lock keywords. If you want to try it
you can get it from https://github.com/Lindydancer/font-lock-studio



On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 7:01 PM, Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org> wrote:

> > Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 23:00:32 +0100
> > From: Anders Lindgren <andlind <at> gmail.com>
> > Cc: 16576 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> >
> > Well, the main issue here is if this is a real bug or not. You originally
> > thought this was simply a mistake in the example I provided -- do you
> still
> > think so?
>
> There was indeed a bug, now fixed on the trunk, which caused the
> problem.  It was a very old bug, it went unnoticed until now because,
> I guess, no one conses a string one character at a time -- this is a
> terrible idea in Emacs Lisp.  Use a temporary buffer instead.
>
> There was nothing wrong with prin1 per se, btw, it's just that its
> subroutine which prints a string wasn't safe when GC hit in the middle
> of a prin1 call.  The code protected the string from GC, but that
> doesn't preclude relocation of string data, so holding to C 'char *'
> pointers is not safe in these situations.  And printing a
> 800-character string like you did triggers GC every time, because it
> creates 800 string objects for a grand total of about 320000 bytes.
>
> Anyway, problem solved, and I'm closing the bug.  Thanks.
>

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