[Caml-list] Interfacing with C++: Gc pbm

[Caml-list] Interfacing with C++: Gc pbm

[Christophe TROESTLER]

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Dear Caml riders,

I am trying to access C++ code from OCaml.  I have read
http://caml.inria.fr/Hump/msg778-782 but then this message uses the
interface prior to OCaml 3.00 so I have been trying to rewrite the
example using custom blocks (also to eventually have the added sugar
of comparison,...).  It sort of work; I have problems with the Garbage
Collector giving me a Segmentation fault.  The code is attached below.
If somebody is kind enough to have a look at the files and to point to
me the mistake I made I will be very grateful.

I also want to take opportunity of this message to mention another
problem I met.  To avoid name collisions, it is sometimes desirable to
use a private namespace for Caml .h files, e.g.:

namespace ml {
    extern "C" {
#include <caml/mlvalues.h>
#include <caml/alloc.h>
#include <caml/custom.h>
#include <caml/memory.h>
#include <caml/fail.h>
    }
}

This however has two consequences:

* Some macros do not work anymore since the namespace is not
  "propagated" into the macros definitions.  As a consequence, lost of
  macros need to be redefined which is not robust w.r.t. software
  upgrades...

* One must know what is a macro and what if a function: for example on
  must write ml::value, ml::alloc_custom, and
  ml::custom_serialize_default but one stays with Field, String_val,
  and custom_deserialize_default

Maybe future versions of the header files could solve this problem by
adding automatically a prefix/namespace for C++ compilation, making
everything a macro and making the macros compatible with the prefix
(or maybe there is a better solution ?).

Cheers,
ChriS


[-- Attachment #2: Makefile --]
[-- Type: Text/Plain, Size: 493 bytes --]

LIBCAMLRUN=	-cclib /usr/lib/ocaml/libcamlrun.a
CAMLMKTOP=	ocamlmktop
CC=		g++

test: test.ml cell.cma
	ocamlc -cc $(CC) -o test.out  cell.cma test.ml
	./test.out

cell.cma: cell.ml cell.cpp  libcell.o
	$(CC) -c cell.cpp
	ocamlc -cc $(CC) -c cell.ml
	ocamlc -cc $(CC) -a -o cell.cma  -custom cell.o cell.cmo   \
		libcell.o $(LIBCAMLRUN)


libcell.o: libcell.cpp libcell.h
	$(CC) -c libcell.cpp

cell_ocaml: 
	$(CAMLMKTOP) -cc $(CC) -custom cell.cma  -o $@


clean:
	rm -f *~ *.out *.o *.cm[oi]

[-- Attachment #3: libcell.h --]
[-- Type: Text/Plain, Size: 283 bytes --]

// libcell interface                      -*-c++-*-

class Exc {
public:
    Exc(const char *m);
    const char *msg;
};

class Cell {
public:
    Cell(int);
    ~Cell();
    void set(int);
    int get();
private:
    int val;
};


extern Cell global_cell;

  
	
    
    


  
    

[-- Attachment #4: libcell.cpp --]
[-- Type: Text/Plain, Size: 487 bytes --]

// libcell implementation

extern "C" {
#include <stdio.h>
}
#include "libcell.h"

using namespace std;


Exc::Exc(const char *m) : msg(m) {}

Cell::Cell(int init) : val(init) 
{
    printf("(libcell) init %p = %i\n", this, init);
    fflush(stdout);
}

Cell::~Cell()
{
    printf("(libcell) free %p (was %i)\n", this, val);
    fflush(stdout);
}


void Cell::set(int x)
{
    if (x < 0) throw Exc("< 0");
    val = x;
}

int Cell::get()
{
    return val;
}

Cell global_cell(3141592);


[-- Attachment #5: cell.cpp --]
[-- Type: Text/Plain, Size: 1832 bytes --]

// Stub code to access libcell from OCaml

extern "C" {
#include <caml/mlvalues.h>
#include <caml/alloc.h>
#include <caml/custom.h>
#include <caml/memory.h>
#include <caml/fail.h>
#include <caml/callback.h>
}

#include "libcell.h"


#define CELL_PTR(v) ((Cell *) Data_custom_val(v))
#define CELL_VAL(v) (* CELL_PTR(v))

static void free_cell(value v)
{
    delete CELL_PTR(v);
}

int compare_cell(value v1, value v2)
{
    return CELL_VAL(v1).get() - CELL_VAL(v2).get();
}

struct custom_operations cell_ops = {
    /* identifier */ "Cell/v0.1",
    /* finalize */ &free_cell,
    /* compare */ &compare_cell,
    /* hash */ custom_hash_default,
    /* serialize */ custom_serialize_default,
    /* deserialize */ custom_deserialize_default
};



extern "C"
value cell_global(value v)
{
    CAMLparam1(v);
    CAMLlocal1(res);
    extern struct custom_operations cell_ops;
    extern Cell global_cell;
    
    res = alloc_custom(&cell_ops, sizeof(Cell), sizeof(Cell), 1000);
    CELL_VAL(res) = global_cell;
    CAMLreturn(res);
}


extern "C"
value cell_create(value v)
{
    CAMLparam1(v);
    CAMLlocal1(res);
    extern struct custom_operations cell_ops;
    Cell c(Int_val(v));
    
    res = alloc_custom(&cell_ops, sizeof(Cell), sizeof(Cell), 1000);
    CELL_VAL(res) = c;
    CAMLreturn(res);
}


extern "C"
value cell_set(value v1, value v2)
{
    try {
	CELL_VAL(v1).set( Int_val(v2) );
    } catch (Exc e) {
	failwith((char *) e.msg);
    }
    return(Val_unit);
}

extern "C"
value cell_get(value v)
{
    return( Val_int(CELL_VAL(v).get()) );
}



extern "C"
value cell_throw(value)
{
    throw Exc("cell_throw");
}

extern "C"
value cell_call(value v)
{
    value f = *caml_named_value(String_val(v));
    try {
	return callback(f, Val_unit);
    } catch (Exc e) {
	return copy_string((char *) e.msg);
    }
}


    

[-- Attachment #6: cell.ml --]
[-- Type: Text/Plain, Size: 384 bytes --]

(* Implementation of the module [Cell].  Since no interface is
   defined, all functions will be exported. *)

type t

external global : unit -> t = "cell_global"
external create : int -> t = "cell_create"
external set : t -> int -> unit = "cell_set"
external get : t -> int = "cell_get"

external throw : unit -> string = "cell_throw"
external call : string -> string = "cell_call"


[-- Attachment #7: test.ml --]
[-- Type: Text/Plain, Size: 672 bytes --]

open Printf

let test_cell c =
  printf "c = %d\n" (Cell.get c); flush stdout;
  printf "set c to 42... "; flush stdout;
  Cell.set c 42;
  printf "c = %d\n" (Cell.get c); flush stdout;
  try
    printf "set c to -1... "; flush stdout;
    Cell.set c (-1);
  with 
      e -> begin print_endline (Printexc.to_string e); flush stdout end
	

let () =
  print_endline "Start..."; flush stdout;
  test_cell (Cell.create 271828);
  Gc.full_major();
  print_newline(); flush stdout;
  test_cell (Cell.global());
  print_newline(); flush stdout

(*
let () =
  Callback.register "caml-throw" Cell.throw;
  print_endline ("callback: " ^ (Cell.call "caml_throw")); flush stdout 
*)

[Caml-list] Solution: Interfacing with C++: Gc pbm

[Christophe TROESTLER]

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Thanks to all who replied to me and especially to Olivier Andrieu for
great ideas and discussion.  Let me try to sum up what I understood as
it may help others.

The first and main misunderstanding I had was with Data_custom_val(v)
which is a pointer TO the data space IN THE ALLOCATED CUSTOM BLOCK and
not, for example, from the custom bloc to some data storage outside of
it.  So Data_custom_val(v) cannot be allocated, only
*Data_custom_val(v) can.  To be more precise, if one want to store
some data <data> of type 'mytype' into the custom block, one just has
to do

     r = alloc_custom(&mytype_ops, sizeof(mytype), <used>, <max>);
     *(mytype *) Data_custom_val(r) = <data>;

In that case, mytype_ops.finalize does NOT have to free memory --
reclaiming the custom block does that.

Now storing the data into the custom block is fine as long as one has
good understanding of how the data is freed.  For example, the
bigarray module does that (at least is stores the C struct, not the
actual data, in the custom block) but may not be suitable for more
complicated structures or objects.  For example, if the structure
points to some other data, one must make sure that this data is not
freed before the block is deleted.  Indeed, if so, the block would
still exist but trying to access the data would result in a segfault.
For example, doing

(1)
    objecttype *o = new objectype(<data>);
    r = alloc_custom(&objectype_ops, sizeof(objectype), <used>, <max>);
    *(objectype *) Data_custom_val(r) = *o;

may be problematic since, when o will be freed, that may also free a
lot of the data referenced by o and so *(objectype*)Data_custom_val(r)
will only contain a copy to the "top" object.  For the example given
in http://caml.inria.fr/Hump/msg778-782 that is not a problem since
the object is "self-contained".  The drawback however is that this
makes it impossible to have a global value.  The implementation
corresponding to that idea is in the file cell_stub1.cpp (and tested
via 'make test1').

Given the above, it is better to only store a pointer to the onject in
the custom bloc and thus to replace (1) with

(2)
    r = alloc_custom(&objectype_ops, sizeof(objectype *), <used>, <max>);
    *(objectype **) Data_custom_val(r) = new objectype(<data>);

This time however, freeing the custom block will not delete the object
(only the pointer in the custom block) and so objectype_ops.finalize(value v) 
must contain

    delete (*(objectype **) Data_custom_val(v));

This idea is implemented in cell_stub.cpp (to test it, just type
'make').

All comments are welcome.

Cheers,
ChriS

[-- Attachment #2: Makefile --]
[-- Type: Text/Plain, Size: 794 bytes --]

LIBCAMLRUN=	-cclib /usr/lib/ocaml/libcamlrun.a
CAMLMKTOP=	ocamlmktop
CC=		g++

test: test.ml cell.cma
	ocamlc -cc $(CC) -o test.out  cell.cma test.ml
	./test.out

cell.cma: cell.ml cell_stub.cpp  libcell.o
	$(CC) -c cell_stub.cpp
	ocamlc -cc $(CC) -c cell.ml
	ocamlc -cc $(CC) -a -o cell.cma  -custom cell_stub.o cell.cmo   \
		libcell.o $(LIBCAMLRUN)


test1: test.ml cell1.cma
	ocamlc -cc $(CC) -o test1.out  cell1.cma test.ml
	./test1.out

cell1.cma: cell.ml cell_stub1.cpp  libcell.o
	$(CC) -c cell_stub1.cpp
	ocamlc -cc $(CC) -c cell.ml
	ocamlc -cc $(CC) -a -o cell1.cma  -custom cell_stub1.o cell.cmo   \
		libcell.o $(LIBCAMLRUN)


libcell.o: libcell.cpp libcell.h
	$(CC) -c libcell.cpp

cell_ocaml: 
	$(CAMLMKTOP) -cc $(CC) -custom cell.cma  -o $@


clean:
	rm -f *~ *.out *.o *.cm[aoi]

[-- Attachment #3: libcell.h --]
[-- Type: Text/Plain, Size: 283 bytes --]

// libcell interface                      -*-c++-*-

class Exc {
public:
    Exc(const char *m);
    const char *msg;
};

class Cell {
public:
    Cell(int);
    ~Cell();
    void set(int);
    int get();
private:
    int val;
};


extern Cell global_cell;

  
	
    
    


  
    

[-- Attachment #4: libcell.cpp --]
[-- Type: Text/Plain, Size: 491 bytes --]

// libcell implementation

extern "C" {
#include <stdio.h>
}
#include "libcell.h"

using namespace std;


Exc::Exc(const char *m) : msg(m) {}

Cell::Cell(int init) : val(init) 
{
    printf("(libcell) init %p -> %i\n", this, init);
    fflush(stdout);
}

Cell::~Cell()
{
    printf("(libcell) free %p (was -> %i)\n", this, val);
    fflush(stdout);
}


void Cell::set(int x)
{
    if (x < 0) throw Exc("< 0");
    val = x;
}

int Cell::get()
{
    return val;
}

Cell global_cell(3141592);


[-- Attachment #5: cell_stub1.cpp --]
[-- Type: Text/Plain, Size: 2311 bytes --]

// Stub code to access libcell from OCaml

extern "C" {
#include <stdio.h>

#include <caml/mlvalues.h>
#include <caml/alloc.h>
#include <caml/custom.h>
#include <caml/memory.h>
#include <caml/fail.h>
#include <caml/callback.h>
}

#include "libcell.h"


#define CELL_PTR(v) ((Cell *) Data_custom_val(v))
#define CELL_VAL(v) (* CELL_PTR(v))

static void free_cell(value v)
{
    printf("(cell.cpp) free_cell called\n");
}

static int compare_cell(value v1, value v2)
{
    return CELL_VAL(v1).get() - CELL_VAL(v2).get();
}

static struct custom_operations cell_ops = {
    /* identifier */ "Cell/v0.1",
    /* finalize */ &free_cell,
    /* compare */ &compare_cell,
    /* hash */ custom_hash_default,
    /* serialize */ custom_serialize_default,
    /* deserialize */ custom_deserialize_default
};


extern "C"
value cell_create(value v)
{
    CAMLparam1(v);
    CAMLlocal1(res);
    extern struct custom_operations cell_ops;
    Cell c(Int_val(v));
    
    res = alloc_custom(&cell_ops, sizeof(Cell), sizeof(Cell), 1000);
    CELL_VAL(res) = c; /* store the object in the alloc. block.  This
			* may cause problems for some "structured"
			* objects -- if the object contains pointers,
			* when c get deleted it can also erase most of
			* the structure and so CELL_VAL(res) will only
			* contain a copy of the "top node" (access to
			* "subnodes" will cause a Segmentation
			* Fault. */
    CAMLreturn(res);
}


extern "C"
value cell_set(value v1, value v2)
{
    try {
	CELL_VAL(v1).set( Int_val(v2) );
    } catch (Exc e) {
	failwith((char *) e.msg);
    }
    return(Val_unit);
}

extern "C"
value cell_get(value v)
{
    return( Val_int(CELL_VAL(v).get()) );
}

extern "C"
value cell_global(value v)
{
    CAMLparam1(v);
    CAMLlocal1(res);
    extern struct custom_operations cell_ops;
    extern Cell global_cell;
    
    res = alloc_custom(&cell_ops, sizeof(Cell), sizeof(Cell), 1000);
    CELL_VAL(res) = global_cell; /* This is not really global since
				    only the value gets copied... */
    CAMLreturn(res); 
}




extern "C"
value cell_throw(value)
{
    throw Exc("cell_throw");
}

extern "C"
value cell_call(value v)
{
    value f = *caml_named_value(String_val(v));
    try {
	return callback(f, Val_unit);
    } catch (Exc e) {
	return copy_string((char *) e.msg);
    }
}


    

[-- Attachment #6: Recommended stub code --]
[-- Type: Text/Plain, Size: 2124 bytes --]

// Stub code to access libcell from OCaml

extern "C" {
#include <stdio.h> /* for debugging purposes (=> printf) only */

#include <caml/mlvalues.h>
#include <caml/alloc.h>
#include <caml/custom.h>
#include <caml/memory.h>
#include <caml/fail.h>
#include <caml/callback.h>
}

#include "libcell.h"


#define CELL_PTR(v) (*((Cell **) Data_custom_val(v)))
#define CELL_VAL(v) (* CELL_PTR(v))

static void free_cell(value v)
{
    printf("(cell_stub1.cpp) free_cell called on %p -> %i\n",
	   CELL_PTR(v), CELL_VAL(v).get() );
    delete CELL_PTR(v);
}

static int compare_cell(value v1, value v2)
{
    return CELL_VAL(v1).get() - CELL_VAL(v2).get();
}

static struct custom_operations cell_ops = {
    /* identifier */ "Cell/v0.1",
    /* finalize */ &free_cell,
    /* compare */ &compare_cell,
    /* hash */ custom_hash_default,
    /* serialize */ custom_serialize_default,
    /* deserialize */ custom_deserialize_default
};


extern "C"
value cell_create(value v)
{
    CAMLparam1(v);
    CAMLlocal1(res);
    extern struct custom_operations cell_ops;
    
    res = alloc_custom(&cell_ops, sizeof(Cell *), 1, 1000);
    CELL_PTR(res) = /* store a pointer to the object in the custom block */
	new Cell(Int_val(v));
    CAMLreturn(res);
}


extern "C"
value cell_set(value v1, value v2)
{
    CAMLparam2(v1, v2);
    try {
	CELL_VAL(v1).set( Int_val(v2) );
    } catch (Exc e) {
	failwith((char *) e.msg);
    }
    CAMLreturn(Val_unit);
}

extern "C"
value cell_get(value v)
{
    CAMLparam1(v);
    CAMLreturn( Val_int(CELL_VAL(v).get()) );
}




static struct custom_operations cell_global_ops = {
    /* identifier */ "Cell/v0.1",
    /* finalize */ NULL,
    /* compare */ &compare_cell,
    /* hash */ custom_hash_default,
    /* serialize */ custom_serialize_default,
    /* deserialize */ custom_deserialize_default
};

extern "C"
value cell_global(value v)
{
    CAMLparam1(v);
    CAMLlocal1(res);
    extern struct custom_operations cell_ops;
    extern Cell global_cell;
    
    res = alloc_custom(&cell_global_ops, sizeof(Cell *), 1, 1000);
    CELL_PTR(res) = &global_cell;
    CAMLreturn(res);
}



    

[-- Attachment #7: cell.ml --]
[-- Type: Text/Plain, Size: 290 bytes --]

(* Implementation of the module [Cell].  Since no interface is
   defined, all functions will be exported. *)

type t

external global : unit -> t = "cell_global"
external create : int -> t = "cell_create"
external set : t -> int -> unit = "cell_set"
external get : t -> int = "cell_get"



[-- Attachment #8: test.ml --]
[-- Type: Text/Plain, Size: 780 bytes --]

open Printf

let test_cell c =
  printf "c = %d\n" (Cell.get c); flush stdout;
  printf "set c to 42... "; flush stdout;
  Cell.set c 42;
  printf "c = %d\n" (Cell.get c); flush stdout;
  try
    printf "set c to -1... "; flush stdout;
    Cell.set c (-1);
  with 
      e -> begin print_endline (Printexc.to_string e); flush stdout end
	

let () =
  print_endline "Start..."; flush stdout;
  test_cell (Cell.create 271828);
  Gc.full_major();
  print_newline(); flush stdout;
  test_cell (Cell.global());
  print_newline(); flush stdout;
  Gc.full_major()

let () =
  let c1 = Cell.create 233
  and c2 = Cell.create 234 in
    if c1 = c2 then printf "c1 = c2\n"
    else if c1 < c2 then printf "c1 < c2\n"
    else if c1 > c2 then printf "c1 > c2\n"
    else printf "What?!\n"