[External] : Re: JEP 411, removal of finalizers, a path forward.

[Peter Firmstone]

Wow, thanks Andrew,

There's certainly some complexity there, I appreciate your guidance.

Regards,

Peter.

On 3/08/2021 7:11 pm, Andrew Dinn wrote:
> On 03/08/2021 02:30, Peter Firmstone wrote:
>> Just curious, when using Agents, what are the recommendations for 
>> line numbers in code, for exceptions etc, how are these affected when 
>> instrumenting?
>
> For Byteman I use ASM to inject bytecode sequences into methods 
> without any (significant) modification to existing bytecodes. ASM 
> successfully adjusts line number info to allow for the injected code 
> without the need for my agent to take any action.
>
> I also add extra exception handling around injected regions and 
> propagate exceptions through enclosing regions to an outer handler. 
> ASM updates the exception table according to where the method visitor 
> notifies new try and catch region boundaries while retaining the 
> regions determined by existing notifications.
>
> ASM provides mechanism for more complex cases. If you are rewriting 
> existing bytecodes or exception regions then you can use the ASM 
> visitor pattern to process and then renotify both line numbers and try 
> catch boundaries as you visit the bytecode stream. Of course, the 
> logic of how to do that can be as complex as (or more so than) the 
> rewrite logic.
>
> n.b. Remapping exception regions at load time is tricky for two 
> reasons. Firstly, you cannot afford to load exception classes to 
> investigate the exception class hierarchy without losing the 
> opportunity to transform the exception class's bytecode. So, you have 
> to identify exception shadowing by parsing the bytecode as a resource 
> to establish exception super relationships. Secondly, if you tinker 
> with or inject extra try regions you need to a) ensure they are 
> properly nested inside containing try regions b) make sure that new  
> exception exit paths out of synchronized regions include monitorexits.
>
> regards,
>
>
> Andrew Dinn
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