Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Bug in gr_scrambler?

[Martin Braun]

On Wed, Dec 08, 2010 at 12:55:20PM -0600, Brett L. Trotter wrote:
> I observed today with a controlled test using valve blocks that the
> scrambler block continues to output data even when no input data should
> be coming in. I then looked at the source:
> 
> int
> gr_scrambler_bb::work(int noutput_items,
>                       gr_vector_const_void_star &input_items,
>                       gr_vector_void_star &output_items)
> {
>   const unsigned char *in = (const unsigned char *) input_items[0];
>   unsigned char *out = (unsigned char *) output_items[0];
> 
>   for (int i = 0; i < noutput_items; i++)
>     out[i] = d_lfsr.next_bit_scramble(in[i]);
> 
>   return noutput_items;
> }
> 
> It seems to be looking only at the number of requested output items and
> outputting anyway. Unless the input_items[0] array is guaranteed to be
> filled with zeroes to the length of the number of output items, isn't
> this potentially reading past the end of the input items?

This is correct; gr_scrambler_bb is a gr_sync_block, which in turn
guarantees that noutput_items == ninput_items.

I'm pretty sure the bug isn't in gr_scrambler_bb. I bet if you connect a
vector_ or file_sink to both the input and output streams of
gr_scrambler_bb, they will have the same size.

Cheers,
MB

-- 
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Communications Engineering Lab (CEL)

Dipl.-Ing. Martin Braun
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