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IDProjectCategoryView StatusDate SubmittedLast Update
0000168OCamlOCaml generalpublic2000-07-26 00:072000-07-28 14:15
Reporteradministrator 
Assigned To 
PrioritynormalSeverityminorReproducibilityalways
StatusclosedResolutionno change required 
PlatformOSOS Version
Product Version 
Target VersionFixed in Version 
Summary0000168: Re: error in marshalling
DescriptionHi,

Thank you for your message to the Caml mailing list.

However your message seems to be a bug report; hence I send it to the
relevant mailing list

caml-bugs@inria.fr

Thank again for your interest in Caml.

Pierre Weis

INRIA, Projet Cristal, Pierre.Weis@inria.fr, http://cristal.inria.fr/~weis/ [^]

> Hi,
>
>
>
> I'm currently programming a distributed application implementing
> Hewitt's and Agha's Actors.
>
> At some time, I try to send a 'behavior', that's to say a special
> function. Therefore, I first marshal it, then I send it. But it fails
> and an exception Invalid_argument is raised. I know the functions of
> module Marshal don't work with bytecode-threads, so I use a trick given
> by X. Leroy.
>
> Here is what happens:
>
> type address = { (* 4 fields, similar to IP *)
> mutable cluster : int;
> mutable machine : int;
> mutable process : int;
> mutable actor : int;
> }
>
> and actor = {
> box : mailbox;
> ego : address;
> mutable self : behavior;
> }
>
> and behavior = actor -> unit
>
> and mailbox = {
> mb_new_ones : packet Queue.t;
> mutable mb_new_max_size : int option;
> mb_old_ones : packet Mutable_queue.t; (* resizable array by M.Mottl
> *)
> mutable mb_old_max_size : int option;
> mutable mb_look_old_ones : bool;
> mutable mb_accept_msg : packet -> bool;
> mb_mutex : Mutex.t;
> mb_cond : Condition.t;
> }
>
> and packet = packet_type * packet_arg
>
> and packet_type =
> | NOTIFY_SUICIDE (* ego -> NS *)
> ... many constructors ...
> | PERFORM_RUN (* PS -> PS *)
> | MESSAGE of string
>
> and packet_arg =
> | PA_unit
> ... many constructors ...
> | PA_addr_beh of address * behavior
> | PA_msg_arg of argument
>
> and argument (* abstract *)
>
>
> The rewritten marshalling function :
>
> let to_channel oc v =
> Pervasives.output_string oc (Marshal.to_string v [Marshal.Closures])
>
> The sending function:
>
> let send_on cout from dest (pcktype, data) =
> Mutex.lock cout.mto_mutex;
> send_dest cout dest;
> send_pcktype cout pcktype;
> send_from cout from;
> send_data cout data; (* the exception will be raise here *)
> Mutex.unlock cout.mto_mutex
>
> The send_data function :
>
> let send_data chan data =
> Marshalling.to_channel chan.mto_chan data;
> flush chan.mto_chan
>
>
>
> Then when the program is executed, it encounters this instruction:
>
> send_on cout ps_addr (upper_address addr) (PERFORM_RUN,
> PA_addr_beh (addr, beh))
>
>
> Here is what happens then:
> Fatal error: uncaught exception Invalid_argument("output_value: object
> value")
>
>
> I tried to look at the C code in byterun/extern.c in the OCaml 3.00
> distribution, but I didn't understand very much. I saw that the system
> finds an Object_tag which I wonder where the system finds it :-)
>
>
> Any comment or idea will be strongly appreciated ;-)
>
> dc
>
>
>
> --
> David Chemouil [mailto:chemouil@enseeiht.fr] [mobile: 06 84 16 26 65]
>
> Laboratoire d'informatique et de mathématiques appliquées (IRIT-INPT)


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-  Notes
(0002146)
administrator (administrator)
2000-07-28 12:00

 > > At some time, I try to send a 'behavior', that's to say a special
> > function. Therefore, I first marshal it, then I send it. But it fails
> > and an exception Invalid_argument is raised. I know the functions of
> > module Marshal don't work with bytecode-threads, so I use a trick given
> > by X. Leroy.

Right. The Marshall module will be thread-safe in future releases.

> > Here is what happens:
> > Fatal error: uncaught exception Invalid_argument("output_value: object
> > value")
> > I tried to look at the C code in byterun/extern.c in the OCaml 3.00
> > distribution, but I didn't understand very much. I saw that the system
> > finds an Object_tag which I wonder where the system finds it :-)

Well, it means that the data structure you gave to the marshaller
contains an object somewhere (including in the closures of the
functions that you're marshalling). Maybe in the Mutable_queue.t type?
Also, it seems that your data may contain mutexes and conditions,
which you cannot marshal reliably.

Generally speaking, the OCaml marshaller works only for pure, passive
data structures: no functions, no objects, no stateful things like
file descriptors and mutexes. The Marshal.Closures flag allows
functions to be marshaled under some circumstances, but it's really a
hack that works only for very simple SPMD programming.

I agree this makes the marshaller insufficient for advanced
distributed programming -- the Join Calculus / JoeCaml people also
have problems with this. But there is no ideal solution known
currently.

- Xavier Leroy
(0002147)
administrator (administrator)
2000-07-28 14:15

 Inherent limitations of the marshaler.

- Issue History
Date Modified Username Field Change
2005-11-18 10:13 administrator New Issue

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