RFR (S): 8218483: Crash in "assert(_daemon_threads_count->get_value() > daemon_count) failed: thread count mismatch 5 : 5"

Thomas Stüfe thomas.stuefe at gmail.com
Wed Apr 3 07:37:34 UTC 2019


Hi David,

On Wed, Apr 3, 2019 at 9:20 AM David Holmes <david.holmes at oracle.com> wrote:

> Hi Thomas,
>
> On 3/04/2019 4:37 pm, Thomas Stüfe wrote:
> > Hi David,
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Apr 2, 2019 at 10:57 PM David Holmes <david.holmes at oracle.com
> > <mailto:david.holmes at oracle.com>> wrote:
> >
> >     Hi Thomas,
> >
> >     Thanks for taking a look at this.
> >
> >     On 3/04/2019 5:41 am, Thomas Stüfe wrote:
> >      > Hi David,
> >      >
> >      > first thanks for the good analysis!
> >      >
> >      > Is this not a problem with the usage of setDaemon():
> >      >
> >      >
> >
> https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/lang/Thread.html#setDaemon(boolean)
> >      >
> >      > "This method must be invoked before the thread is started."
> >
> >     Not the usage as such, but there is a problem with setDaemon - as
> per:
> >
> >     https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8221657
> >
> >     The test that causes the crash in the VM deliberately tests a case
> >     where
> >     it expects to get the IllegalThreadStateException.
> >
> >      > I think the real solution would be for setDaemon to distinguish
> >     between
> >      > not-yet-started, running and finished. It should not use
> >     isAlive(). It
> >      > should throw an exception if it has been started, regardless of
> >     whether
> >      > it finished already or not.
> >
> >     Yes that fix is needed at the Java level. The use of isAlive()
> >     pre-dates
> >     the existence of Thread.State.
> >
> >     But a change at the Java level may be some time coming given this is
> a
> >     day one bug in the spec and implementation of Thread.setDaemon, so I
> >     wanted to address this quickly in the VM as we are seeing these
> crashes
> >     in testing.
> >
> >
> > I think a simple patch could be very simply using
> >
> > if (threadStatus != 0)
> >
> > instead of
> >
> > isAlive()
> >
> > in Thread.setDaemon?
>
> Sure the fix is trivial (plus the method needs to be synchronized), but
> that assumes that this spec inconsistency:
>
>       * <p> This method must be invoked before the thread is started.
>       *
>       * @throws  IllegalThreadStateException
>       *          if this thread is {@linkplain #isAlive alive}
>
> is resolved in favour of the first statement. They may decide that after
> 25 years it's better to maintain the "not alive" semantics and permit
> you to modify a terminated thread.
>
>
Okay, I get it now. You are worried about backward compatibility. Someone
calling setDaemon() in this way would now get an exception where beforehand
he would not.

But how about this then:

public final void setDaemon(boolean on) {
    checkAccess();
    if (isAlive()) {
        throw new IllegalThreadStateException();
    } else if (threadStatus != 0) {
      // Not alive but not NEW - terminated?
      // do not change daemon state. Do not throw to not break backward
compatibility.
    }  else {
      daemon = on;
    }
}

Of course that would be observable from the outside (Thread::isDaemon()).

At the expense of some complexity (e.g. two variables, one "real", one
outward facing as source for isDaemon), this could be fixed.

--

But I do not want to stop your change. I think it is fine, I cannot see
anything wrong with it.

For a moment I wondered whether we are exposed to a similar thing here:

thread.cpp:1996  ThreadService::current_thread_exiting(this,
is_daemon(threadObj()));

But at this point isAlive() would still return true, yes? Since it seems it
only gets reset in ensure_join().

--

Cheers, Thomas



> We do this in other places in Thread.java too.
> >
> > --
> >
> > Also I think it makes sense to scan for similar errors in the code base
> > (isAlive being used as "has-been-started") and fix those too.
> >
> > For example:
> >
> > ApplicationShutdownHook.java:
> >
> > static synchronized void add(Thread hook) {
> >      if(hooks == null)
> >          throw new IllegalStateException("Shutdown in progress");
> >
> >      if (hook.isAlive())
> >          throw new IllegalArgumentException("Hook already running");
> >
> >      if (hooks.containsKey(hook))
> >          throw new IllegalArgumentException("Hook previously
> registered");
> >
> >      hooks.put(hook, hook);
> > }
> >
> > would register a terminated thread as shutdown hook. I found similar
> > looking code in ThreadPoolExecutor.
>
> Yeah that's a nasty bug - you can register a shutdown hook that will
> result in other shutdown hooks not getting started!
>
> > I really think the jdk would be really the right place to fix this.
>
> And it may get fixed there eventually. Meanwhile I just want to stop
> these fairly new assertions from triggering.
>
> Thanks,
> David
>
> >
> >     Thanks,
> >     David
> >
> >      > Not sure. Its late, I may not be thinking straight.
> >      >
> >      > Cheers, Thomas
> >      >
> >      >
> >      >
> >      > On Tue, Apr 2, 2019 at 12:33 AM David Holmes
> >     <david.holmes at oracle.com <mailto:david.holmes at oracle.com>
> >      > <mailto:david.holmes at oracle.com
> >     <mailto:david.holmes at oracle.com>>> wrote:
> >      >
> >      >     Bug: https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8218483
> >      >     webrev: http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~dholmes/8218483/webrev/
> >      >
> >      >     A bug in Thread.setDaemon (JDK-8221657) means that the daemon
> >     state
> >      >     of a
> >      >     thread can change after the thread is !isAlive() at the Java
> >     level. If
> >      >     this happens before the VM call to
> >     ThreadService::remove_thread then we
> >      >     have a situation where we incremented the thread counters
> >     when the
> >      >     thread was not a daemon, and we decrement the thread counters
> >     when the
> >      >     thread is a daemon - and so the counters are out of sync and
> the
> >      >     assertion fires.
> >      >
> >      >     The simple fix is to capture the daemon state of the thread
> >     while it is
> >      >     still alive and to pass that through to Threads::remove and
> thus
> >      >     ThreadService::remove_thread.
> >      >
> >      >     Testing:
> >      >         - manual test with modified VM (to delay Threads::remove
> >     call)
> >      >     as per
> >      >     the bug report
> >      >         - mach 5 tiers 1-3
> >      >
> >      >     Thanks,
> >      >     David
> >      >
> >
>


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