[perl #63284] Win32 /regexp/i performance degradation in fork'd code

# New Ticket Created by  alex.davies@talktalk.net 
# Please include the string:  [perl #63284]
# in the subject line of all future correspondence about this issue. 
# <URL: http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Ticket/Display.html?id=63284 >


This is a bug report for perl from alex@Amelie,
generated with the help of perlbug 1.36 running under perl 5.10.0.


-----------------------------------------------------------------
[Please enter your report here]

This is on Win32...

I noticed a slowdown in performance of C< /pat/i  > case
insensitive regular expressions when used in fork code.
Interestingly if the regexp was compiled within the fork'd
code it ran at the expected rate. NB. the same results were
obtained in either case - it was just the time taken that was
different.

The following testcase shows an interesting difference in behaviour
which i suspect is the culprit of the difference in time taken:

# %<

use re qw(Debug All);

my $pid = fork; defined $pid or die;

if ($pid == 0) {
 $_ = "abcNEEDLE123\n";

 print STDERR "\n## 1 ##\n\n";
 /needle/i;

 print STDERR "\n## 2 ##\n\n";
 eval q{ /needle/i };

 exit;
}

while (wait() != -1) {}

$_ = "abcNEEDLE123\n";

print STDERR "\n## 3 ##\n\n";
/needle/i;

# >%


And here is the output:


# %<

Compiling REx "needle"
Final program:
   1: EXACTF <needle> (4)
   4: END (0)
stclass EXACTF <needle> minlen 6
Compiling REx "needle"
Final program:
   1: EXACTF <needle> (4)
   4: END (0)
stclass EXACTF <needle> minlen 6

## 1 ##

Matching REx "needle" against "abcNEEDLE123%n"
   0 <> <abcNEEDLE1>         |  1:EXACTF <needle>(4)
                                  failed...
   1 <a> <bcNEEDLE12>        |  1:EXACTF <needle>(4)
                                  failed...
   2 <ab> <cNEEDLE123>       |  1:EXACTF <needle>(4)
                                  failed...
   3 <abc> <NEEDLE123>       |  1:EXACTF <needle>(4)
   9 <bcNEEDLE> <123%n>      |  4:END(0)
Match successful!

## 2 ##

Compiling REx "needle"
Final program:
   1: EXACTF <needle> (4)
   4: END (0)
stclass EXACTF <needle> minlen 6
Matching REx "needle" against "abcNEEDLE123%n"
Matching stclass EXACTF <needle> against "abcNEEDLE123%n" (13 chars)
   3 <abc> <NEEDLE123>       |  1:EXACTF <needle>(4)
   9 <bcNEEDLE> <123%n>      |  4:END(0)
Match successful!
Freeing REx: "needle"

## 3 ##

Matching REx "needle" against "abcNEEDLE123%n"
Matching stclass EXACTF <needle> against "abcNEEDLE123%n" (13 chars)
   3 <abc> <NEEDLE123>       |  1:EXACTF <needle>(4)
   9 <bcNEEDLE> <123%n>      |  4:END(0)
Match successful!

# >%

So it appears the /regexp/i is 'run' differently within the child
thread if it was compiled in the main thread.

Additionally, running the testcase on my Strawberry 5.10 perl
also gave some assert warnings:

Assertion ((svtype)((_svi)->sv_flags & 0xff)) >= SVt_PV failed: file 
"re_exec.c", line 2561



Is this a bug, or simply a necesary change in the code path taken
to get /regexp/i to work in a threaded environment?


Thanks for taking a look.

Cheers, alex.


[Please do not change anything below this line]
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---
Flags:
    category=core
    severity=low
---
This perlbug was built using Perl 5.10.0 - Mon Aug 11 04:41:10 2008
It is being executed now by  Perl 5.10.0 - Mon Dec  1 16:53:12 2008.

Site configuration information for perl 5.10.0:

Configured by alex at Mon Dec  1 16:53:12 2008.

Summary of my perl5 (revision 5 version 10 subversion 0) configuration:
  Platform:
    osname=MSWin32, osvers=5.1, archname=MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
    uname=''
    config_args='undef'
    hint=recommended, useposix=true, d_sigaction=undef
    useithreads=define, usemultiplicity=define
    useperlio=define, d_sfio=undef, uselargefiles=define, usesocks=undef
    use64bitint=undef, use64bitall=undef, uselongdouble=undef
    usemymalloc=n, bincompat5005=undef
  Compiler:
    cc='cl', ccflags 
='-nologo -GF -W3 -MD -Zi -DNDEBUG -O1 -DWIN32 -D_CONSOLE -DNO_STRICT -DHAVE_DES_FCRYPT 
  -DPERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT -DPERL_IMPLICIT_SYS -DUSE_PERLIO -DPERL_MSVCRT_READFIX',
    optimize='-MD -Zi -DNDEBUG -O1',
    cppflags='-DWIN32'
    ccversion='12.00.8804', gccversion='', gccosandvers=''
    intsize=4, longsize=4, ptrsize=4, doublesize=8, byteorder=1234
    d_longlong=undef, longlongsize=8, d_longdbl=define, longdblsize=10
    ivtype='long', ivsize=4, nvtype='double', nvsize=8, Off_t='__int64', 
lseeksize=8
    alignbytes=8, prototype=define
  Linker and Libraries:
    ld='link', ldflags 
'-nologo -nodefaultlib -debug -opt:ref,icf  -libpath:"c:\perl\lib\CORE"  -machine:x86'
    libpth=C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~4\VC98\lib
    libs=  oldnames.lib kernel32.lib user32.lib gdi32.lib winspool.lib 
comdlg32.lib advapi32.lib shell32.lib ole32.lib oleaut32.lib  netapi32.lib 
uuid.lib ws2_32.lib mpr.lib winmm.lib  version.lib odbc32.lib odbccp32.lib 
msvcrt.lib
    perllibs=  oldnames.lib kernel32.lib user32.lib gdi32.lib winspool.lib 
comdlg32.lib advapi32.lib shell32.lib ole32.lib oleaut32.lib  netapi32.lib 
uuid.lib ws2_32.lib mpr.lib winmm.lib  version.lib odbc32.lib odbccp32.lib 
msvcrt.lib
    libc=msvcrt.lib, so=dll, useshrplib=true, libperl=perl510.lib
    gnulibc_version=''
  Dynamic Linking:
    dlsrc=dl_win32.xs, dlext=dll, d_dlsymun=undef, ccdlflags=' '
    cccdlflags=' ', 
ddlflags='-dll -nologo -nodefaultlib -debug -opt:ref,icf  -libpath:"c:\perl\lib\CORE" 
  -machine:x86'

Locally applied patches:


---
@INC for perl 5.10.0:
    C:/alex/src/perl/perl-5.10.0.tar/perl-5.10.0/lib
    .

---
Environment for perl 5.10.0:
    HOME=C:\alex
    LANG (unset)
    LANGUAGE (unset)
    LD_LIBRARY_PATH (unset)
    LOGDIR (unset)
    PATH=C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~4\Common\msdev98\BIN;C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~4\VC98\BIN;C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~4\Common\TOOLS\WINNT;C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~4\Common\TOOLS;C:\Program 
Files\Ruby-185-21\bin;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\alex\bin;C:\Program 
Files\Microsoft SDK\Bin\.;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\Bin\WinNT\.;C:\Program 
Files\Tcl-8.5.0\bin;C:\PerlAPPv9\bin;C:\Program 
Files\QuickTime\QTSystem\;C:\strawberry\c\bin;C:\strawberry\perl\bin;C:\Program 
Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Bin;C:\Program Files\Microsoft 
SDK\Bin\.;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\Bin\WinNT;C:\cygwin\bin
    PERL_BADLANG (unset)
    SHELL (unset)

• [perl #63284] Win32 /regexp/i performance degradation in fork'd code by perlbug-followup
• Re: [perl #63284] Win32 /regexp/i performance degradation infork'd code by Dave Mitchell