72196 - eliminate |NS_QuickSort|, use C's standard |qsort| instead

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Core :: XPCOM, defect)

Description

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

NS_QuickSort is currently implemented in xpcom/ds.

I don't think this is the right place for it.

Here is my best explanation of logic for this.

NS_QuickSort requires that a function be passed into it. This function needs a 
calling convention set. The only two places in Mozilla where we really have the 
ability to specify calling conventions are NSPR and JS.

Currently, NS_QuickSort uses PR_EXTERN, but this is not correct, as there is no 
guarantee that NSPR and XPCOM will be compiled using the same calling 
convention. NSPR could even be compiled with a different compiler. so 
NS_QuickSort should either have its own calling convention created like 
NS_QS_EXTERN and NS_QS_CALLBACK, or it should be moved.

So NS_QuickSort needs to be in a place that allows calling convention to be set 
on the compilation of it, as well as the header and calling of it.

My personal suggestion would be NSPR, and I am attaching a diff for that.

Comment 1

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

Attachment: Add PR_QuickSort to NSPR

Comment 2

[timeless]

i'd recommend waiting until after NS_QuickSort drops off the topcrash reports 
:-(

Comment 3

[Wan-Teh Chang]

Mozilla should consider removing NS_QuickSort and just use
qsort in the standard C library.  The comments in the source
file:
    /* We need this because Solaris' version of qsort is broken and
     * causes array bounds reads.
     */
turned out to be wrong -- we were calling qsort with an
incorrect comparison function which only broke the Solaris
implementation of qsort.

Comment 4

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

Should we look at creating a patch for this?

Comment 5

[Jonas Sicking (:sicking) No longer reading bugmail consistently]

qsort doesn't provide a transparent |void* data| parameter that gets passed on
to the compare-function. At least transformiix uses this, possibly others too.