16273 - [MLK] proxy events need to copy string arguments

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: General, defect, P3)

Description

[Gagan]

To handle passing strings correctly across using proxy objects, we need to make
a copy of them in the proxy events. When this gets fixed, pls assign this back
to me so that I can remove the extra delete that is there in webshell (with my
checkins for status code messages #10333)

Comment 1

[Robert John Churchill]

Adding [MLK] in this bug's summary line to mark this as a memory leak since its

showing up in Boehm.

Comment 2

[Doug Turner (:dougt)]

who is passing strings using an async proxy?

Comment 3

[Doug Turner (:dougt)]

gagan, is this a show stopper for you?

Comment 4

[Cathleen]

need to fix by beta.  (10-25-99 meeting)

Comment 5

[Doug Turner (:dougt)]

it would be safe and quicker for you to change your interface than me coping
strings.

Comment 6

[Gagan]

nope its not a show stopper but I think this should still be deferred not
wontfix. Fix it someday damnit! :)

Comment 7

[Doug Turner (:dougt)]

for you gagan.

Comment 8

[Robert John Churchill]

Hey Doug, you promised me before I left on vacation that you'd fix this SOON!
:^)

Comment 9

[Warren Harris]

I really think this needs to be fixed. It's problematic to have one piece of
code allocate a string and put it into an event, and have another piece of code
running asynchronously delete the string. It's inconsistent, leads to bugs, and
is a maintenance nightmare. Please fix.

Comment 10

[Doug Turner (:dougt)]

coping strings is a HUGE time waste.  I suggested changing your parameters so
that they can be addrefed, not to have some out of other piece of code that
cleans up "almost leaked" strings.

In necko's case, every async notification to the UI would have to do an strlen
and an allocation.  This would be a significate time hit on your critical
threads.  I would must rather see a string interface that would do this for
you.

Comment 11

[Warren Harris]

Back in ancient history, someone decided that refcounting strings was bad.
Copying is the price we pay today. Revisiting this is not possible now.

Given this decision, the proxy code should copy the string when constructing the
event, and delete the string when deleting the event. That's the only way to
deal with this consistently (until I can re-raise the nsIString issue. ;-)

Comment 12

[Doug Turner (:dougt)]

I still disagree, but will argue later.  Moving this to m13.

Comment 13

[Doug Turner (:dougt)]

*** Bug 20666 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 14

[Doug Turner (:dougt)]

fix in hand.

Comment 15

[Doug Turner (:dougt)]

fix checked in.

will now copy strings (string | wstring) defined in an interface.

Comment 16

[leger]

Adding verifyme keyword.

Comment 17

[leger]

Basedon last eng comments, and not reopen of thie bug. I am marking Verified.