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Bug #9847

closed

Cannot create new String when using File.read(size, buffer)

Added by Feldmarschal (Kenneth Guerin) almost 10 years ago. Updated over 9 years ago.

Status:
Closed
Assignee:
-
Target version:
ruby -v:
2.1.2p95
[ruby-core:62643]

Description

This bug was first noticed in version 1.9.2 and is still present in 2.1.2p95

The attached script does the following to highlight this bug:

  • create a file of 13 fixed-length records of a specific size: all records contain a repeated letter, A for the first, B for the second, through M
  • Test #1: read all records from the file and store them into an array of Strings, using File.read(size) and storing via 'cache << buffer'
  • Test #2: read all records from the file and store them into an Array of Strings, using File.read(size, buffer) and storing via 'cache << String.new(buffer)'; buffer will be reused during each read, cache will hold copies
  • test cycle is run using a record length of 23 and a record length of 24, highlighting Ruby's optimization of short strings

Results of running this script:

  • with a record size of 23, Tests #1 & #2 show the cache containing all records: [ A, B, ... M ]
  • with a record size of 24, Test #1 shows the cache containing all records: [ A, B, ... M ]
  • with a record size of 24, Test #2 shows the cache containing: [ M, M, ... M ]

Diagnosis & Notes:

  • with a record size > 23 and reading a file using File.read(size, buffer), buffer is in such a state as to prevent a new unique String from being derived
  • variations of this script showed that String.new was a creating new String object on each record read, but the contents of all of the Strings stored in the cache Array were being overwritten on each call to File.read
  • this shows that String.new(buffer) is creating new String objects, but that the underlying values of all strings based on buffer were sharing the same internal memory
  • this behavior exists in the "long string" variation of String; short optimized Strings do not share this property

Files

strbug.rb (2.07 KB) strbug.rb Feldmarschal (Kenneth Guerin), 05/17/2014 06:04 PM

Related issues 1 (0 open1 closed)

Has duplicate Ruby master - Bug #10007: IO#read does not respect String Copy-On-Write in some casesClosed07/02/2014Actions
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