From: Thamer Al-Harbash <tmh@whitefang.com>
Subject: The GC and Guardians
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 17:50:47 -0400 (EDT) [thread overview]
Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.51.0307071717530.84296@helena.whitefang.com> (raw)
I've read through the explanation of how the garbage collector
works. I understand that the gc uses the stack as a list of
pointers to the heap, and if a two word header is found on the
heap via the pointers then the garbage collector assumes that
that is a valid non-immediate datum which should not be released.
(Well it's a tad more complicated than that -- the gc checks a known
heap segment and alignment)
This works fine insofar as I always return the SCM data from my C
functions, and once I exit the C function which placed the scheme
data pointer on the stack, I no longer reference that data
anymore.
Unfortunately this isn't good enough due to the way a certain
program is designed.
I used this kludge to get around it, and would like to know if
I'm getting myself in trouble:
int foo(...)
{
SCM mysmob;
mysmob = create_mysmob(...);
scm_define(scm_str2symbol(...), mysmob);
return;
}
My understanding is that since the SMOB bound to the top level
environment, the garbage collector should not destroy it since
its referenced by the top root. I do later undefine it when I no
longer care about it.
Also, on an unrelated problem, I want to be able to create a C
structure and have it reference non-immediate SCM data, but I
cannot turn this C structure into a SMOB. Unfortunately the folks
using my code may not be happy dealing with guile
directly. Should I use a guardian on the SCM data like so?
foo_t *foo_create(void)
{
foo_t *foo = create_foo();
SCM guardian;
foo->mylist = SCM_EOL;
guardian = scm_make_guardian(...);
scm_apply(....); /* protect foo->mylist with the guardian procedure */
return foo;
}
I understand that this will work because the guardian can be
referenced by the gc from a list of guardians until it is
explicitly removed. Should I define a top level guardian and
just use it to protect non-immediate SCM data? How are guardians
intended to be used from C code when the functions creating them
return and no longer reference them.
If I'm way off could someone point me to C source code that uses
guardians to get around the above problem.
--
Thamer Al-Harbash
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next reply other threads:[~2003-07-07 21:50 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 3+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2003-07-07 21:50 Thamer Al-Harbash [this message]
2003-07-07 23:21 ` The GC and Guardians Han-Wen Nienhuys
2003-07-08 0:03 ` Thamer Al-Harbash
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