Re: [Swarm-Support] corrupt .swarmArchiver that's not there (lispProcessPairs error)

[Bill Northcott]

On 06/05/2005, at 5:12 PM, Paul Box wrote:
> I have a problem that was familiar a couple of years ago, but is  
> not familiar now.
>
> I am creating a simulation using OSX 10.3.8, with Bill Northcott's  
> Swarm 2.2 binaries.  In the debugging process, the following  
> message started appearing when I tried to run the program:
> ..................

> (gdb) r
> Starting program: /Users/paulbox/Documents/CSIRO/CSS/agist-model/agist
> Reading symbols for shared libraries ++.... done
> *** event raised for error: InvalidArgument
> *** function: -[LispArchiver_c lispLoadArchiver:](),  
> file: ../../../../src/defobj/LispArchiver.m, line: 232
> argument to Archiver lispIn not a list*** execution terminating due  
> to error
> ../../../../src/defobj/Symbol.m:187 -[Error_c raiseEvent:]
>
> Program received signal SIGABRT, Aborted.
> 0x900429ac in kill ()
> (gdb) bt
> #0  0x900429ac in kill ()
> #1  0x9009eb1c in abort ()
> #2  0x00a05a6c in debugabort (filename=0x0, lineno=10, function=0x2  
> <Address 0x2 out of bounds>) at ../../../../src/misc/debugabort.c:9
> #3  0x009956a0 in -[Error_c raiseEvent:].53 (self=0x520768,  
> _cmd=0x0, eventData=0xbffffa74) at ../../../../src/defobj/Symbol.m:187
> #4  0x00969708 in -[LispArchiver_c lispLoadArchiver:].44  
> (self=0x550488, _cmd=0x0, stream=0xb29638) at ../../../../src/ 
> defobj/LispArchiver.m:232
> #5  0x00969a48 in -[LispArchiver_c _load_].46 (self=0x550488,  
> _cmd=0x0) at ../../../../src/defobj/LispArchiver.m:269
> #6  0x00969474 in -[LispArchiver_c createEnd].40 (self=0x550488,  
> _cmd=0x0) at ../../../../src/defobj/LispArchiver.m:198
> #7  0x0093c7b8 in initDefobj (_arguments=0xa0009818) at ../../../../ 
> src/defobj/defobj.m:183
> #8  0x00933188 in -[SwarmEnvironment createEnd].41 (self=0x537508,  
> _cmd=0x0) at ../../../src/SwarmEnvironment.m:133
> #9  0x00002428 in main (argc=0, argv=0x0) at main.m:11
> (gdb)

> Incedentally, having an empty ~/.swarmArchiver file causes ALL  
> swarm applications on my machine to have that error.  When the file  
> is deleted, I only get the message on the application mentioned above.
>
> I am using OSX 10.3.8 with gcc 3.3.

This looks like the nested methods bug from the Apple gcc-3.x  
compilers.  All official Apple gcc-3.x compilers have the problem.   
The LispArchiver code has very deeply nested method calls.

I think the library is good but maybe the way you call it finds the  
problem.  The library was built with the patched gcc-3.3 which is on  
the Swarm download site.

Now that gcc-4.0 is officially released both by Apple and FSF, I will  
be switching to that.  It has fixes for many bugs including this one.

While you are waiting for a new binary, you might try getting the  
gcc-4061 code from the Darwin 8 Source code site and building that.   
It may solve your problem.  You will need the cctools package from  
Darwin 8 first to get an updated linker etc.

Bill

PS I have a new compiler, but it was built on Tiger and probably  
won't run on Panther.