Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!convex!usenet
From: tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Re: Differences between 3.0 @41 and 44???
Message-ID: <1991Jan31.013659.26210@convex.com>
Date: 31 Jan 91 01:36:59 GMT
References: <1991Jan31.001253.7441@sdd.hp.com>
Sender: usenet@convex.com (news access account)
Reply-To: tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen)
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Organization: CONVEX Software Development, Richardson, TX
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Nntp-Posting-Host: pixel.convex.com

From the keyboard of harless@sdd.hp.com (Mike Harless):
:Was there some change with perl and passing file descriptors in and out of
:subroutines?  I've applied the 42-44 patches and now one of my backup
:scripts is failing with 'memory fault, core dump'.  In it, I'm creating a 
:socket, and then passing it by reference to various subroutines.  If I make 
:the socket descriptor global or go back to 3.0@41 the problem goes away.  
:I'm on an HP 9000/370 with hp-ux 7.0.
:
:
:Here's an example of what I'm doing:
:
:	make_socket(S) ;
:
:where subroutine make_socket() looks like:
:
:	sub make_socket() {
:
:	    local(*S) = shift(@_) ;             # what socket to connect with
:
:	    socket(S, &PF_INET, &SOCK_STREAM, $proto) || 
:		die "socket failed, $!" ;

I assume you mean

	&make_socket(S);

That's actually the same as 

	&make_socket('S');

which isn't a very good symbol table entry to absorb with your local(*S)
assignment.  Make sure that if you to a local(*x) that you're assigning
a *y to it, not a plain $y.  You probably want one of these:

	&make_socket(*S);
	...
	local(*sock) = shift;
	socket(sock, ...)

or
    
	&make_socket('S');
	...
	local($sock) = shift;
	socket($sock, ...)

I don't personally like passing naked file handles around
and letting them turn into strings.  I also like to name
my subroutine local different than what gets passed into them.
	

--tom
--
"Hey, did you hear Stallman has replaced /vmunix with /vmunix.el?  Now
 he can finally have the whole O/S built-in to his editor like he
 always wanted!" --me (Tom Christiansen <tchrist@convex.com>)