8215759: java/math/BigInteger/ModPow.java can throw an ArithmeticException

[Peter Levart]

Hi Brian,

This is really highly unlikely (1 in 2^800). In fact, it was not 
possible for this particular test to produce zero BigInteger. That's 
because the test uses a pseudo-random generator with deterministic 
algorithm and it uses a constant seed to initialize it before generating 
the next 2000 BigInteger random numbers with magnitude 0 ... 2^800 - 1:

   33         Random rnd = new Random(1234);
   34
   35         for (int i=0; i<2000; i++) {
   36             BigInteger m = new BigInteger(800, rnd);

So if this test didn't fail with zero BigInteger when it is was run for 
the 1st time, then it can't fail in any other run, because the random 
numbers produced are the same in any run.

But for the sake of correctness, let's pretend that the numbers are 
really random. Why pretend? Why not make them really random? By using 
SecureRandom instead with really random seed?

Is it important for such test to be deterministic? Perhaps, so it can be 
re-executed with repeatable results in case it fails.

So the middle ground would be to make the test undeterministic, but 
repeatable. By calculating a really random seed (using SecureRandom) and 
use that seed in a known deterministic pseudo-random generator 
(java.util.Random) while printing the used seed to the output log before 
executing the the test logic. In case the test fails, it can be repeated 
by providing the seed from the log of the failed execution...

Just thinking loud. Not suggesting you really do anything like that to 
this test...

Regards, Peter

On 12/21/18 1:36 AM, Brian Burkhalter wrote:
> https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8215759
> http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~bpb/8215759/webrev.00/
>
> Although highly unlikely, the modulus parameter of modPow() can be zero which would provoke an ArithmeticException.
> Unsure whether I need this bug ID in the @bug list.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Brian