Abnormal exit with threads, LWP and the Perl Debugger

chrestomanci has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Greeting wise brothers.

I am experiencing a problem debugging code that uses threads and LWP::UserAgent. I have reduced my failing code to this snippet:

#!/usr/bin/perl

# Setup Pragmas.
use strict;
use warnings;
use threads;
use HTTP::Request;
use LWP::UserAgent;

sub main ()
{
    print "Starting a thread to find all SHAs \n";
    threads->create( sub{ findAndQ_sha() } )->detach();
    print "This line should be reached without error messages.\n";
    return 0;
}

sub findAndQ_sha
{
    print "Worker thread findAndQ_sha() running.\n";
    sleep 1_000_000_000;    # For testing, sleep for a long time.
    return;
}

exit main();
[download]

If in the debugger, I attempt to step over the line where the thread is created, I get an error: Thread 1 terminated abnormally: Undefined subroutine &Devel::CLONE called at demoLWP_threadBug.pl line 13. and a breakpoint in the findAndQ_sha() function is not reached. If I run without the debugger the script runs normally.

I am testing with perl 5.12.4 on Ubuntu Oneiric Linux, AMD64

If I comment out the use HTTP::Request; and use LWP::UserAgent; lines, then the code runs correctly in the debugger.

The script I am working on is using a Thread_pool design pattern. One thread is created to populate a queue of URLs that need fetching and processing, and a number of other worker threads are created to read from the queue and process each URL in turn. In the full (non reduced) version of the script, the package where the undefined CLONE subroutine was searched for varies.

Can anyone shed any light on this problem? is it a bug in LWP?

Comment on Abnormal exit with threads, LWP and the Perl Debugger Select or Download Code

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Re: Abnormal exit with threads, LWP and the Perl Debugger by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Jan 27, 2012 at 11:11 UTC
Did you get any resolution to this problem? I don't have anything to offer -- I haven't had a debugger that worked with threads for many builds; but then I didn't find it useful when it did work -- but I'd be interested to know what if any progress you've made? With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday' Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error. "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice. The start of some sanity?	[reply]
Re^2: Abnormal exit with threads, LWP and the Perl Debugger by chrestomanci (Priest) on Jan 27, 2012 at 11:39 UTC
No, I did not get a resolution. At the moment I am using a work around where if I want to debug the parts of the code that do http requests I run a single threaded version of the script, and if I want to debug the threading stuff, I comment out the http stuff and replace it with dummy placeholder code. It would be nice to know where the bug lies so that I can report it to the correct place, though seeing as LWP is core, perhaps I should just report it as a bug against perl, and not concern myself with which module is to blame.	[reply]
Re^3: Abnormal exit with threads, LWP and the Perl Debugger by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Jan 27, 2012 at 11:52 UTC
Perhaps the simplest workaround -- and potentially quick way to trace the origin -- would be to satisfy the missing call: `## somewhere at the top of your application. BEGIN { package Devel; use Carp qw[ cluck ]; sub CLONE { cluck "Devel::CLONE called with args [ @_ ]"; } }` [download] That ought to both get you passed the symptom and provide a full trace-back to the originating cause. You might have to experiment with return values to prevent some error action being taken. With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday' Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error. "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice. The start of some sanity?	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Abnormal exit with threads, LWP and the Perl Debugger by chrestomanci (Priest) on Jan 28, 2012 at 10:16 UTC
I have tested again using the recent perl 5.15.7 release (Locally compiled with perlbrew), and the bug has disappeared, so it looks like someone else has found and fixed it.	[reply]
Re^3: Abnormal exit with threads, LWP and the Perl Debugger by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Jan 28, 2012 at 10:28 UTC
I'd still be interested to see the traceback from the call to Devel::CLONE. it might shed some light on why when I try to run your sample above under the debugger, it segfaults before it ever reached the DB prompt. It would also be nice to track the cure of the bug back to the change that fixed it to give us a more sure feeling that it has been fixed and not just moved, With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday' Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error. "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice. The start of some sanity?	[reply]
Re^4: Abnormal exit with threads, LWP and the Perl Debugger by chrestomanci (Priest) on Jan 28, 2012 at 12:04 UTC
Re^5: Abnormal exit with threads, LWP and the Perl Debugger by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Jan 28, 2012 at 12:59 UTC
Some notes below your chosen depth have not been shown here
Re^3: Abnormal exit with threads, LWP and the Perl Debugger by Anonymous Monk on Jan 28, 2012 at 10:17 UTC
and the bug has disappeared, so it looks like someone else has found and fixed it. or it just moved to some other bit of memory	[reply]
Re: Abnormal exit with threads, LWP and the Perl Debugger by Anonymous Monk on Jan 20, 2012 at 12:19 UTC
is it a bug in LWP? I doubt it, it is more likely a bug in the debugger	[reply]