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

Experimentation with VanillaPerl 5.8.8 on Win32 uncovered a surprising bug: fork under taint caused a major crash, with the dreaded dialog box saying "perl.exe has encountered an error and needs to close". This was isolated to and replicated with: 

perl -Te "fork"

[download]

I posted it to perlbug, but I'd like to see if others on Win32 can replicate (or refute) this for other Win32 perls. (E.g. ActiveState, cygwin, different perl versions, etc.)

If you have a Win32 perl, could you please give that snippet a try and post your platform, distribution and version and whether or not it worked?

Thanks!

-xdg

Code written by xdg and posted on PerlMonks is public domain. It is provided as is with no warranties, express or implied, of any kind. Posted code may not have been tested. Use of posted code is at your own risk.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Tainted fork crash on Win32
by Corion (Patriarch) on May 04, 2006 at 07:03 UTC

    No crashes with a home-built 5.8.2 (MSVC6 I think) and ActiveState build 809:

    5.8.2

    Q:\>perl -Te "fork"

Q:\>perl -V
Summary of my perl5 (revision 5 version 8 subversion 2) configuration:
  Platform:
    osname=MSWin32, osvers=4.0, archname=MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
    uname=''
    config_args='undef'
    hint=recommended, useposix=true, d_sigaction=undef
    usethreads=undef use5005threads=undef useithreads=define usemultip
+licity=def
ine
    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 -DNDEBUG -O1 -DWIN32 -D_CON
+SOLE -DNO_
STRICT -DHAVE_DES_FCRYPT  -DPERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT -DPERL_IMPLICIT_SYS 
+-DUSE_PERL
IO -DPERL_MSVCRT_READFIX',
    optimize='-MD -DNDEBUG -O1',
    cppflags='-DWIN32'
    ccversion='', 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
+', lseeksi
ze=8
    alignbytes=8, prototype=define
  Linker and Libraries:
    ld='link', ldflags ='-nologo -nodefaultlib -release  -libpath:"s:\
+os\osi\osi
i\systeme\tools\perl-5.8\5.8.2\lib\CORE"  -machine:x86'
    libpth=C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~3\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 uui
+d.lib wsoc
k32.lib mpr.lib winmm.lib  version.lib odbc32.lib odbccp32.lib msvcrt.
+lib
    perllibs=  oldnames.lib kernel32.lib user32.lib gdi32.lib winspool
+.lib  comd
lg32.lib advapi32.lib shell32.lib ole32.lib oleaut32.lib  netapi32.lib
+ uuid.lib
wsock32.lib mpr.lib winmm.lib  version.lib odbc32.lib odbccp32.lib msv
+crt.lib
    libc=msvcrt.lib, so=dll, useshrplib=yes, libperl=perl58.lib
    gnulibc_version='undef'
  Dynamic Linking:
    dlsrc=dl_win32.xs, dlext=dll, d_dlsymun=undef, ccdlflags=' '
    cccdlflags=' ', lddlflags='-dll -nologo -nodefaultlib -release  -l
+ibpath:"s:
\os\osi\osii\systeme\tools\perl-5.8\5.8.2\lib\CORE"  -machine:x86'


Characteristics of this binary (from libperl):
  Compile-time options: MULTIPLICITY USE_ITHREADS USE_LARGE_FILES PERL
+_IMPLICIT_
CONTEXT PERL_IMPLICIT_SYS
  Built under MSWin32
  Compiled at Nov  6 2003 12:48:55
  @INC:
    s:/OS/OSI/OSII/Systeme/tools/perl-5.8/5.8.2/lib
    s:/OS/OSI/OSII/Systeme/tools/perl-5.8/site/5.8.2/lib
    .

    [download]

    5.8.3

    Q:\>perl -Te "fork"

Q:\>perl -V
Summary of my perl5 (revision 5 version 8 subversion 3) configuration:
  Platform:
    osname=MSWin32, osvers=4.0, archname=MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
    uname=''
    config_args='undef'
    hint=recommended, useposix=true, d_sigaction=undef
    usethreads=undef use5005threads=undef useithreads=define usemultip
+licity=def
ine
    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  -DNO_HASH_SEED -DPERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT -
+DPERL_IMPL
ICIT_SYS -DUSE_PERLIO -DPERL_MSVCRT_READFIX',
    optimize='-MD -Zi -DNDEBUG -O1',
    cppflags='-DWIN32'
    ccversion='', 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
+', lseeksi
ze=8
    alignbytes=8, prototype=define
  Linker and Libraries:
    ld='link', ldflags ='-nologo -nodefaultlib -debug -opt:ref,icf  -l
+ibpath:"C:
\Programme\Perl\lib\CORE"  -machine:x86'
    libpth=C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~3\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 uui
+d.lib wsoc
k32.lib mpr.lib winmm.lib  version.lib odbc32.lib odbccp32.lib msvcrt.
+lib
    perllibs=  oldnames.lib kernel32.lib user32.lib gdi32.lib winspool
+.lib  comd
lg32.lib advapi32.lib shell32.lib ole32.lib oleaut32.lib  netapi32.lib
+ uuid.lib
wsock32.lib mpr.lib winmm.lib  version.lib odbc32.lib odbccp32.lib msv
+crt.lib
    libc=msvcrt.lib, so=dll, useshrplib=yes, libperl=perl58.lib
    gnulibc_version='undef'
  Dynamic Linking:
    dlsrc=dl_win32.xs, dlext=dll, d_dlsymun=undef, ccdlflags=' '
    cccdlflags=' ', lddlflags='-dll -nologo -nodefaultlib -debug -opt:
+ref,icf  -
libpath:"C:\Programme\Perl\lib\CORE"  -machine:x86'


Characteristics of this binary (from libperl):
  Compile-time options: MULTIPLICITY USE_ITHREADS USE_LARGE_FILES PERL
+_IMPLICIT_
CONTEXT PERL_IMPLICIT_SYS
  Locally applied patches:
        ActivePerl Build 809
        22218 Remove the caveat about detached threads crashing on Win
+dows
        22201 Avoid threads+win32 crash by freeing Perl interpreter sl
+ightly lat
er
        22169 Display 'out of memeory' errors using low-level I/O
        22159 Upgrade to Time::Hires 1.55
        22120 Make 'Configure -Dcf_by=...' work
        22051 Upgrade to Time::HiRes 1.54
        21540 Fix backward-compatibility issues in if.pm
  Built under MSWin32
  Compiled at Feb  3 2004 00:28:51
  @INC:
    C:/Programme/Perl/lib
    C:/Programme/Perl/site/lib
    .

    [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
Re: Tainted fork crash on Win32
by ikegami (Patriarch) on May 04, 2006 at 01:08 UTC
    No crashes here: 
    >perl -Te "fork"
>perl -v
This is perl, v5.8.0 built for MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
(with 1 registered patch, see perl -V for more detail)

>perl -Te "fork"
>perl -v
This is perl, v5.6.1 built for MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
(with 1 registered patch, see perl -V for more detail)

    [download]
[reply]
[d/l]

      ActiveState? If so, which builds?

      -xdg

      Code written by xdg and posted on PerlMonks is public domain. It is provided as is with no warranties, express or implied, of any kind. Posted code may not have been tested. Use of posted code is at your own risk.

[reply]

        oops, I cut the messages short in my rush to leave. 

        This is perl, v5.8.0 built for MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
(with 1 registered patch, see perl -V for more detail)

Copyright 1987-2002, Larry Wall

Binary build 806 provided by ActiveState Corp. http://www.ActiveState.
+com
Built 00:45:44 Mar 31 2003

        [download]

        and 

        This is perl, v5.6.1 built for MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
(with 1 registered patch, see perl -V for more detail)

Copyright 1987-2001, Larry Wall

Binary build 635 provided by ActiveState Corp. http://www.ActiveState.
+com
Built 15:34:21 Feb  4 2003

        [download]

        On WinXP.

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
Re: Tainted fork crash on Win32
by GrandFather (Saint) on May 04, 2006 at 01:43 UTC

    The following crashed with Windows XP and ActiveState Perl:

    C:\>perl -Te "fork"

C:\>perl -v

This is perl, v5.8.7 built for MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
(with 7 registered patches, see perl -V for more detail)

    [download]
    DWIM is Perl's answer to Gödel
[reply]
[d/l]
Re: Tainted fork crash on Win32
by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on May 04, 2006 at 02:32 UTC

    XP. AS811 (5.8.6) doesn't crash, AS817 (5.8.8) does. 

    C:\TEST>perl -v
This is perl, v5.8.6 built for MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
(with 3 registered patches, see perl -V for more detail)
Copyright 1987-2004, Larry Wall
Binary build 811 provided by ActiveState Corp. http://www.ActiveState.
+com
ActiveState is a division of Sophos.
Built Dec 13 2004 09:52:01

C:\AS817\perl\bin>perl -v
This is perl, v5.8.8 built for MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
(with 25 registered patches, see perl -V for more detail)
Copyright 1987-2006, Larry Wall
Binary build 817 [257965] provided by ActiveState http://www.ActiveSta
+te.com
Built Mar 20 2006 17:54:25

    [download]
    Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
    Lingua non convalesco, consenesco et abolesco. -- Rule 1 has a caveat! -- Who broke the cabal?
    "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
    In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
[reply]
[d/l]
Re: Tainted fork crash on Win32
by Anonymous Monk on Jun 30, 2006 at 18:16 UTC
    fork() and async{} with "use threads", both crash on ActivePerl 5.8.8 build 817 with Apache2 under Windows 2000 Pro FR SP4.
[reply]
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