1654 lines
		
	
	
		
			88 KiB
		
	
	
	
		
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			1654 lines
		
	
	
		
			88 KiB
		
	
	
	
		
			Plaintext
		
	
	
	
	
	
This is a rough history of garbage collector bugs and versions.
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This has been maintained with varying diligence over the years.
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I made an attempt to include recent contributors here.  I apologize for any
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omissions.
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-------------------------
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  Version 1.3 and immediately preceding versions contained spurious
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assembly language assignments to TMP_SP.  Only the assignment in the PC/RT
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code is necessary.  On other machines, with certain compiler options,
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the assignments can lead to an unsaved register being overwritten.
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Known to cause problems under SunOS 3.5 WITHOUT the -O option.  (With
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-O the compiler recognizes it as dead code.  It probably shouldn't,
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but that's another story.)
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  Version 1.4 and earlier versions used compile time determined values
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for the stack base.  This no longer works on Sun 3s, since Sun 3/80s use
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a different stack base.  We now use a straightforward heuristic on all
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machines on which it is known to work (incl. Sun 3s) and compile-time
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determined values for the rest.  There should really be library calls
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to determine such values.
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  Version 1.5 and earlier did not ensure 8 byte alignment for objects
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allocated on a sparc based machine.
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  Version 1.8 added ULTRIX support in gc_private.h.
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  Version 1.9 fixed a major bug in gc_realloc.
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  Version 2.0 introduced a consistent naming convention for collector
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routines and added support for registering dynamic library data segments
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in the standard mark_roots.c.  Most of the data structures were revamped.
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The treatment of interior pointers was completely changed.  Finalization
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was added.  Support for locking was added.  Object kinds were added.
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We added a black listing facility to avoid allocating at addresses known
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to occur as integers somewhere in the address space.  Much of this
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was accomplished by adapting ideas and code from the PCR collector.
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The test program was changed and expanded.
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  Version 2.1 was the first stable version since 1.9, and added support
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for PPCR.
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  Version 2.2 added debugging allocation, and fixed various bugs.  Among them:
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- GC_realloc could fail to extend the size of the object for certain large object sizes.
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- A blatant subscript range error in GC_printf, which unfortunately
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  wasn't exercised on machines with sufficient stack alignment constraints.
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- GC_register_displacement did the wrong thing if it was called after
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  any allocation had taken place.
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- The leak finding code would eventually break after 2048 byte
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  byte objects leaked.
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- interface.c didn't compile.
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- The heap size remained much too small for large stacks.
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- The stack clearing code behaved badly for large stacks, and perhaps
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  on HP/PA machines.
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  Version 2.3 added ALL_INTERIOR_POINTERS and fixed the following bugs:
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- Missing declaration of etext in the A/UX version.
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- Some PCR root-finding problems.
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- Blacklisting was not 100% effective, because the plausible future
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  heap bounds were being miscalculated.
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- GC_realloc didn't handle out-of-memory correctly.
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- GC_base could return a nonzero value for addresses inside free blocks.
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- test.c wasn't really thread safe, and could erroneously report failure
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  in a multithreaded environment.  (The locking primitives need to be
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  replaced for other threads packages.)
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- GC_CONS was thoroughly broken.
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- On a SPARC with dynamic linking, signals stayed diabled while the
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  client code was running.
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  (Thanks to Manuel Serrano at INRIA for reporting the last two.)
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  Version 2.4 added GC_free_space_divisor as a tuning knob, added
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  support for OS/2 and linux, and fixed the following bugs:
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- On machines with unaligned pointers (e.g. Sun 3), every 128th word could
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  fail to be considered for marking.
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- Dynamic_load.c erroneously added 4 bytes to the length of the data and
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  bss sections of the dynamic library.  This could result in a bad memory
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  reference if the actual length was a multiple of a page.  (Observed on
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  Sun 3.  Can probably also happen on a Sun 4.)
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  (Thanks to Robert Brazile for pointing out that the Sun 3 version
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  was broken.  Dynamic library handling is still broken on Sun 3s
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  under 4.1.1U1, but apparently not 4.1.1.  If you have such a machine,
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  use -Bstatic.)
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  Version 2.5 fixed the following bugs:
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- Removed an explicit call to exit(1)
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- Fixed calls to GC_printf and GC_err_printf, so the correct number of
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  arguments are always supplied.  The OS/2 C compiler gets confused if
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  the number of actuals and the number of formals differ.  (ANSI C
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  doesn't require this to work.  The ANSI sanctioned way of doing things
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  causes too many compatibility problems.)
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  Version 3.0  added generational/incremental collection and stubborn
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  objects.
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  Version 3.1 added the following features:
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- A workaround for a SunOS 4.X SPARC C compiler
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  misfeature that caused problems when the collector was turned into
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  a dynamic library.  
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- A fix for a bug in GC_base that could result in a memory fault.
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- A fix for a performance bug (and several other misfeatures) pointed
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  out by Dave Detlefs and Al Dosser.
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- Use of dirty bit information for static data under Solaris 2.X.
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- DEC Alpha/OSF1 support (thanks to Al Dosser).
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- Incremental collection on more platforms.
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- A more refined heap expansion policy.  Less space usage by default.
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- Various minor enhancements to reduce space usage, and to reduce
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  the amount of memory scanned by the collector.
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- Uncollectable allocation without per object overhead.
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- More conscientious handling of out-of-memory conditions.
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- Fixed a bug in debugging stubborn allocation.
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- Fixed a bug that resulted in occasional erroneous reporting of smashed
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  objects with debugging allocation.
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- Fixed bogus leak reports of size 4096 blocks with FIND_LEAK.
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  Version 3.2 fixed a serious and not entirely repeatable bug in
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  the incremental collector.  It appeared only when dirty bit info
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  on the roots was available, which is normally only under Solaris.
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  It also added GC_general_register_disappearing_link, and some
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  testing code.  Interface.c disappeared.
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  Version 3.3 fixes several bugs and adds new ports:
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- PCR-specific bugs.
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- Missing locking in GC_free, redundant FASTUNLOCK
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  in GC_malloc_stubborn, and 2 bugs in
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  GC_unregister_disappearing_link.
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  All of the above were pointed out by Neil Sharman
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  (neil@cs.mu.oz.au).
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- Common symbols allocated by the SunOS4.X dynamic loader
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  were not included in the root set.
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- Bug in GC_finalize (reported by Brian Beuning and Al Dosser)
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- Merged Amiga port from Jesper Peterson (untested)
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- Merged NeXT port from Thomas Funke (significantly
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  modified and untested)
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  Version 3.4:
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- Fixed a performance bug in GC_realloc.
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- Updated the amiga port.
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- Added NetBSD and 386BSD ports.
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- Added cord library.
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- Added trivial performance enhancement for
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  ALL_INTERIOR_POINTERS.  (Don't scan last word.)
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  Version 3.5
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- Minor collections now mark from roots only once, if that
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  doesn't cause an excessive pause.
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- The stack clearing heuristic was refined to prevent anomalies
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  with very heavily recursive programs and sparse stacks.
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- Fixed a bug that prevented mark stack growth in some cases.
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  GC_objects_are_marked should be set to TRUE after a call
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  to GC_push_roots and as part of GC_push_marked, since
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  both can now set mark bits.  I think this is only a performance
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  bug, but I wouldn't bet on it.  It's certainly very hard to argue
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  that the old version was correct.
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- Fixed an incremental collection bug that prevented it from
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  working at all when HBLKSIZE != getpagesize()
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- Changed dynamic_loading.c to include gc_priv.h before testing
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  DYNAMIC_LOADING.  SunOS dynamic library scanning
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  must have been broken in 3.4.
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- Object size rounding now adapts to program behavior.
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- Added a workaround (provided by Manuel Serrano and
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  colleagues) to a long-standing SunOS 4.X (and 3.X?) ld bug
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  that I had incorrectly assumed to have been squished.
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  The collector was broken if the text segment size was within
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  32 bytes of a multiple of 8K bytes, and if the beginning of
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  the data segment contained interesting roots.  The workaround
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  assumes a demand-loadable executable.  The original may have
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  have "worked" in some other cases.
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- Added dynamic library support under IRIX5.
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- Added support for EMX under OS/2 (thanks to Ari Huttunen).
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Version 3.6:
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- fixed a bug in the mark stack growth code that was introduced
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  in 3.4.
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- fixed Makefile to work around DEC AXP compiler tail recursion
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  bug.
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Version 3.7:
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- Added a workaround for an HP/UX compiler bug.
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- Fixed another stack clearing performance bug.  Reworked
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  that code once more.
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Version 4.0:
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- Added support for Solaris threads (which was possible
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  only by reimplementing some fraction of Solaris threads,
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  since Sun doesn't currently make the thread debugging
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  interface available).
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- Added non-threads win32 and win32S support.
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- (Grudgingly, with suitable muttering of obscenities) renamed
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  files so that the collector distribution could live on a FAT
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  file system.  Files that are guaranteed to be useless on
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  a PC still have long names.  Gc_inline.h and gc_private.h
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  still exist, but now just include  gc_inl.h and gc_priv.h.
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- Fixed a really obscure bug in finalization that could cause
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  undetected mark stack overflows.  (I would be surprised if
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  any real code ever tickled this one.)
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- Changed finalization code to dynamically resize the hash
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  tables it maintains.  (This probably does not matter for well-
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  -written code.  It no doubt does for C++ code that overuses
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  destructors.)
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- Added typed allocation primitives.  Rewrote the marker to
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  accommodate them with more reasonable efficiency.  This
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  change should also speed up marking for GC_malloc allocated
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  objects a little.  See gc_typed.h for new primitives.
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- Improved debugging facilities slightly.  Allocation time
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  stack traces are now kept by default on SPARC/SUNOS4.
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  (Thanks to Scott Schwartz.)
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- Added better support for small heap applications.
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- Significantly extended cord package.  Fixed a bug in the
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  implementation of lazily read files.  Printf and friends now
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  have cord variants.  Cord traversals are a bit faster.
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- Made ALL_INTERIOR_POINTERS recognition the default.
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- Fixed de so that it can run in constant space, independent
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  of file size.  Added simple string searching to cords and de.
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- Added the Hull-Ellis C++ interface.
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- Added dynamic library support for OSF/1.
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  (Thanks to Al Dosser and Tim Bingham at DEC.)
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- Changed argument to GC_expand_hp to be expressed
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  in units of bytes instead of heap blocks.  (Necessary
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  since the heap block size now varies depending on
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  configuration.  The old version was never very clean.)
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- Added GC_get_heap_size().  The previous "equivalent"
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  was broken.
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- Restructured the Makefile a bit.  
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Since version 4.0:
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- Changed finalization implementation to guarantee that
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  finalization procedures are called outside of the allocation
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  lock, making direct use of the interface a little less dangerous.
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  MAY BREAK EXISTING CLIENTS that assume finalizers
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  are protected by a lock.  Since there seem to be few multithreaded
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  clients that use finalization, this is hopefully not much of
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  a problem.
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- Fixed a gross bug in CORD_prev.
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- Fixed a bug in blacklst.c that could result in unbounded
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  heap growth during startup on machines that do not clear
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  memory obtained from the OS (e.g. win32S).
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- Ported de editor to win32/win32S.  (This is now the only
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  version with a mouse-sensitive UI.)
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- Added GC_malloc_ignore_off_page to allocate large arrays
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  in the presence of ALL_INTERIOR_POINTERS.
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- Changed GC_call_with_alloc_lock to not disable signals in
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  the single-threaded case.
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- Reduced retry count in GC_collect_or_expand for garbage
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  collecting when out of memory.
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- Made uncollectable allocations bypass black-listing, as they
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  should.
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- Fixed a bug in typed_test in test.c that could cause (legitimate)
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  GC crashes.
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- Fixed some potential synchronization problems in finalize.c
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- Fixed a real locking problem in typd_mlc.c.
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- Worked around an AIX 3.2 compiler feature that results in
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  out of bounds memory references.
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- Partially worked around an IRIX5.2 beta problem (which may
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  or may not persist to the final release).
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- Fixed a bug in the heap integrity checking code that could
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  result in explicitly deallocated objects being identified as
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  smashed.  Fixed a bug in the dbg_mlc stack saving code
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  that caused old argument pointers to be considered live.
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- Fixed a bug in CORD_ncmp (and hence CORD_str).
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- Repaired the OS2 port, which had suffered from bit rot
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  in 4.0.  Worked around what appears to be CSet/2 V1.0
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  optimizer bug.
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- Fixed a Makefile bug for target "c++".
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Since version 4.1:
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- Multiple bug fixes/workarounds in the Solaris threads version.
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  (It occasionally failed to locate some register contents for
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  marking.  It also turns out that thr_suspend and friends are
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  unreliable in Solaris 2.3.  Dirty bit reads appear
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  to be unreliable under some weird 
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  circumstances.  My stack marking code
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  contained a serious performance bug.  The new code is
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  extremely defensive, and has not failed in several cpu
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  hours of testing.  But  no guarantees ...)
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- Added MacOS support (thanks to Patrick Beard.)
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- Fixed several syntactic bugs in gc_c++.h and friends.  (These
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  didn't bother g++, but did bother most other compilers.)
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  Fixed gc_c++.h finalization interface.  (It didn't.)
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- 64 bit alignment for allocated objects was not guaranteed in a
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  few cases in which it should have been.
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- Added GC_malloc_atomic_ignore_off_page.
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- Added GC_collect_a_little.
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- Added some prototypes to gc.h.
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- Some other minor bug fixes (notably in Makefile).
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- Fixed OS/2 / EMX port (thanks to Ari Huttunen).
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- Fixed AmigaDOS port. (thanks to Michel Schinz).
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- Fixed the DATASTART definition under Solaris.  There
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  was a 1 in 16K chance of the collector missing the first
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  64K of static data (and thus crashing).
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- Fixed some blatant anachronisms in the README file.
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- Fixed PCR-Makefile for upcoming PPCR release.
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Since version 4.2:
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- Fixed SPARC alignment problem with GC_DEBUG.
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- Fixed Solaris threads /proc workaround.  The real
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  problem was an interaction with mprotect.
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- Incorporated fix from Patrick Beard for gc_c++.h (now gc_cpp.h).
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- Slightly improved allocator space utilization by
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  fixing the GC_size_map mechanism.
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- Integrated some Sony News and MIPS RISCos 4.51
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  patches.  (Thanks to Nobuyuki Hikichi of
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  Software Research Associates, Inc. Japan)
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- Fixed HP_PA alignment problem.  (Thanks to
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  xjam@cork.cs.berkeley.edu.)
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- Added GC_same_obj and friends.  Changed GC_base
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  to return 0 for pointers past the end of large objects.
 | 
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  Improved GC_base performance with ALL_INTERIOR_POINTERS
 | 
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  on machines with a slow integer mod operation.
 | 
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  Added GC_PTR_ADD, GC_PTR_STORE, etc. to prepare
 | 
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  for preprocessor.
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- changed the default on most UNIX machines to be that
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  signals are not disabled during critical GC operations.
 | 
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  This is still ANSI-conforming, though somewhat dangerous
 | 
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  in the presence of signal handlers. But the performance
 | 
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  cost of the alternative is sometimes problematic.
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  Can be changed back with a minor Makefile edit.
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- renamed IS_STRING in gc.h, to CORD_IS_STRING, thus
 | 
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  following my own naming convention.  Added the function
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  CORD_to_const_char_star.
 | 
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- Fixed a gross bug in GC_finalize.  Symptom: occasional
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  address faults in that function.  (Thanks to Anselm
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  Baird-Smith (Anselm.BairdSmith@inria.fr)
 | 
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- Added port to ICL DRS6000 running DRS/NX.  Restructured
 | 
						|
  things a bit to factor out common code, and remove obsolete
 | 
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  code.  Collector should now run under SUNOS5 with either
 | 
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  mprotect or /proc dirty bits.  (Thanks to Douglas Steel
 | 
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  (doug@wg.icl.co.uk)).
 | 
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- More bug fixes and workarounds for Solaris 2.X.  (These were
 | 
						|
  mostly related to putting the collector in a dynamic library,
 | 
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  which didn't really work before.  Also SOLARIS_THREADS
 | 
						|
  didn't interact well with dl_open.)  Thanks to btlewis@eng.sun.com.
 | 
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- Fixed a serious performance bug on the DEC Alpha.  The text
 | 
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  segment was getting registered as part of the root set.
 | 
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  (Amazingly, the result was still fast enough that the bug
 | 
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  was not conspicuous.) The fix works on OSF/1, version 1.3.
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  Hopefully it also works on other versions of OSF/1 ...
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- Fixed a bug in GC_clear_roots.
 | 
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- Fixed a bug in GC_generic_malloc_words_small that broke
 | 
						|
  gc_inl.h.  (Reported by Antoine de Maricourt.  I broke it
 | 
						|
  in trying to tweak the Mac port.) 
 | 
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- Fixed some problems with cord/de under Linux.
 | 
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- Fixed some cord problems, notably with CORD_riter4.
 | 
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- Added DG/UX port.
 | 
						|
  Thanks to Ben A. Mesander (ben@piglet.cr.usgs.gov)
 | 
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- Added finalization registration routines with weaker ordering
 | 
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  constraints.  (This is necessary for C++ finalization with
 | 
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  multiple inheritance, since the compiler often adds self-cycles.)
 | 
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- Filled the holes in the SCO port. (Thanks to Michael Arnoldus
 | 
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  <chime@proinf.dk>.)
 | 
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- John Ellis' additions to the C++ support:  From John:
 | 
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 | 
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* I completely rewrote the documentation in the interface gc_c++.h
 | 
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(later renamed gc_cpp.h).  I've tried to make it both clearer and more
 | 
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precise.
 | 
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 | 
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* The definition of accessibility now ignores pointers from an
 | 
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finalizable object (an object with a clean-up function) to itself.
 | 
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This allows objects with virtual base classes to be finalizable by the
 | 
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collector.  Compilers typically implement virtual base classes using
 | 
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pointers from an object to itself, which under the old definition of
 | 
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accessibility prevented objects with virtual base classes from ever
 | 
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being collected or finalized.
 | 
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 | 
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* gc_cleanup now includes gc as a virtual base.  This was enabled by
 | 
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the change in the definition of accessibility.
 | 
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 | 
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* I added support for operator new[].  Since most (all?) compilers
 | 
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don't yet support operator new[], it is conditionalized on
 | 
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-DOPERATOR_NEW_ARRAY.  The code is untested, but its trivial and looks
 | 
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correct.
 | 
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 | 
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* The test program test_gc_c++ (later renamed test_cpp.cc)
 | 
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tries to test for the C++-specific functionality not tested by the
 | 
						|
other programs.
 | 
						|
- Added <unistd.h> include to misc.c.  (Needed for ppcr.)
 | 
						|
- Added PowerMac port. (Thanks to Patrick Beard again.)
 | 
						|
- Fixed "srcdir"-related Makefile problems.  Changed things so
 | 
						|
  that all externally visible include files always appear in the
 | 
						|
  include subdirectory of the source.  Made gc.h directly
 | 
						|
  includable from C++ code.  (These were at Per
 | 
						|
  Bothner's suggestion.)
 | 
						|
- Changed Intel code to also mark from ebp (Kevin Warne's
 | 
						|
  suggestion).
 | 
						|
- Renamed C++ related files so they could live in a FAT
 | 
						|
  file system. (Charles Fiterman's suggestion.)
 | 
						|
- Changed Windows NT Makefile to include C++ support in
 | 
						|
  gc.lib.  Added C++ test as Makefile target.
 | 
						|
  
 | 
						|
Since version 4.3:
 | 
						|
 - ASM_CLEAR_CODE was erroneously defined for HP
 | 
						|
   PA machines, resulting in a compile error.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed OS/2 Makefile to create a library.  (Thanks to
 | 
						|
   Mark Boulter (mboulter@vnet.ibm.com)).
 | 
						|
 - Gc_cleanup objects didn't work if they were created on
 | 
						|
   the stack.  Fixed.
 | 
						|
 - One copy of Gc_cpp.h in the distribution was out of 
 | 
						|
   synch, and failed to document some known compiler
 | 
						|
   problems with explicit destructor invocation.  Partially
 | 
						|
   fixed.  There are probably other compilers on which
 | 
						|
   gc_cleanup is miscompiled.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed Makefile to pass C compiler flags to C++ compiler.
 | 
						|
 - Added Mac fixes.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed os_dep.c to work around what appears to be
 | 
						|
   a new and different VirtualQuery bug under newer
 | 
						|
   versions of win32S.
 | 
						|
 - GC_non_gc_bytes was not correctly maintained by
 | 
						|
   GC_free.  Fixed.  Thanks to James Clark (jjc@jclark.com).
 | 
						|
 - Added GC_set_max_heap_size.
 | 
						|
 - Changed allocation code to ignore blacklisting if it is preventing
 | 
						|
   use of a very large block of memory.  This has the advantage
 | 
						|
   that naive code allocating very large objects is much more
 | 
						|
   likely to work.  The downside is you might no
 | 
						|
   longer find out that such code should really use
 | 
						|
   GC_malloc_ignore_off_page.
 | 
						|
 - Changed GC_printf under win32 to close and reopen the file
 | 
						|
   between calls.  FAT file systems otherwise make the log file
 | 
						|
   useless for debugging.
 | 
						|
 - Added GC_try_to_collect and GC_get_bytes_since_gc.  These
 | 
						|
   allow starting an abortable collection during idle times. 
 | 
						|
   This facility does not require special OS support.  (Thanks to
 | 
						|
   Michael Spertus of Geodesic Systems for suggesting this.  It was
 | 
						|
   actually an easy addition.  Kumar Srikantan previously added a similar
 | 
						|
   facility to a now ancient version of the collector.  At the time
 | 
						|
   this was much harder, and the result was less convincing.)
 | 
						|
 - Added some support for the Borland development environment.  (Thanks
 | 
						|
   to John Ellis and Michael Spertus.)
 | 
						|
 - Removed a misfeature from checksums.c that caused unexpected 
 | 
						|
   heap growth.  (Thanks to Scott Schwartz.)
 | 
						|
 - Changed finalize.c to call WARN if it encounters a finalization cycle.
 | 
						|
   WARN is defined in gc_priv.h to write a message, usually to stdout.
 | 
						|
   In many environments, this may be inappropriate.
 | 
						|
 - Renamed NO_PARAMS in gc.h to GC_NO_PARAMS, thus adhering to my own
 | 
						|
   naming convention.
 | 
						|
 - Added GC_set_warn_proc to intercept warnings.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed Amiga port. (Thanks to Michel Schinz (schinz@alphanet.ch).)
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a bug in mark.c that could result in an access to unmapped
 | 
						|
   memory from GC_mark_from_mark_stack on machines with unaligned
 | 
						|
   pointers.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a win32 specific performance bug that could result in scanning of
 | 
						|
   objects allocated with the system malloc.
 | 
						|
 - Added REDIRECT_MALLOC.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since version 4.4:
 | 
						|
 - Fixed many minor and one major README bugs. (Thanks to Franklin Chen
 | 
						|
   (chen@adi.com) for pointing out many of them.)
 | 
						|
 - Fixed ALPHA/OSF/1 dynamic library support. (Thanks to Jonathan Bachrach
 | 
						|
   (jonathan@harlequin.com)).
 | 
						|
 - Added incremental GC support (MPROTECT_VDB) for Linux (with some
 | 
						|
   help from Bruno Haible).
 | 
						|
 - Altered SPARC recognition tests in gc.h and config.h (mostly as
 | 
						|
   suggested by Fergus Henderson).
 | 
						|
 - Added basic incremental GC support for win32, as implemented by
 | 
						|
   Windows NT and Windows 95.  GC_enable_incremental is a noop
 | 
						|
   under win32s, which doesn't implement enough of the VM interface.
 | 
						|
 - Added -DLARGE_CONFIG.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed GC_..._ignore_off_page to also function without
 | 
						|
   -DALL_INTERIOR_POINTERS.
 | 
						|
 - (Hopefully) fixed RS/6000 port.  (Only the test was broken.)
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a performance bug in the nonincremental collector running
 | 
						|
   on machines supporting incremental collection with MPROTECT_VDB
 | 
						|
   (e.g. SunOS 4, DEC AXP).  This turned into a correctness bug under
 | 
						|
   win32s with win32 incremental collection.  (Not all memory protection
 | 
						|
   was disabled.)
 | 
						|
 - Fixed some ppcr related bit rot.
 | 
						|
 - Caused dynamic libraries to be unregistered before reregistering.
 | 
						|
   The old way turned out to be a performance bug on some machines.
 | 
						|
 - GC_root_size was not properly maintained under MSWIN32.
 | 
						|
 - Added -DNO_DEBUGGING and GC_dump.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a couple of bugs arising with SOLARIS_THREADS +
 | 
						|
   REDIRECT_MALLOC.
 | 
						|
 - Added NetBSD/M68K port.  (Thanks to Peter Seebach
 | 
						|
   <seebs@taniemarie.solon.com>.)
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a serious realloc bug.  For certain object sizes, the collector
 | 
						|
   wouldn't scan the expanded part of the object.  (Thanks to Clay Spence
 | 
						|
   (cds@peanut.sarnoff.com) for noticing the problem, and helping me to
 | 
						|
   track it down.)
 | 
						|
   
 | 
						|
Since version 4.5:
 | 
						|
 - Added Linux ELF support.  (Thanks to Arrigo Triulzi <arrigo@ic.ac.uk>.)
 | 
						|
 - GC_base crashed if it was called before any other GC_ routines.
 | 
						|
   This could happen if a gc_cleanup object was allocated outside the heap
 | 
						|
   before any heap allocation.
 | 
						|
 - The heap expansion heuristic was not stable if all objects had finalization
 | 
						|
   enabled.  Fixed finalize.c to count memory in finalization queue and
 | 
						|
   avoid explicit deallocation.  Changed alloc.c to also consider this count.
 | 
						|
   (This is still not recommended.  It's expensive if nothing else.)  Thanks
 | 
						|
   to John Ellis for pointing this out.
 | 
						|
 - GC_malloc_uncollectable(0) was broken.  Thanks to Phong Vo for pointing
 | 
						|
   this out.
 | 
						|
 - The collector didn't compile under Linux 1.3.X.  (Thanks to Fred Gilham for
 | 
						|
   pointing this out.)  The current workaround is ugly, but expected to be
 | 
						|
   temporary.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a formatting problem for SPARC stack traces.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed some '=='s in os_dep.c that should have been assignments.
 | 
						|
   Fortunately these were in code that should never be executed anyway.
 | 
						|
   (Thanks to Fergus Henderson.)
 | 
						|
 - Fixed the heap block allocator to only drop blacklisted blocks in small
 | 
						|
   chunks.  Made BL_LIMIT self adjusting.  (Both of these were in response
 | 
						|
   to heap growth observed by Paul Graham.)
 | 
						|
 - Fixed the Metrowerks/68K Mac code to also mark from a6.  (Thanks
 | 
						|
   to Patrick Beard.)
 | 
						|
 - Significantly updated README.debugging.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed some problems with longjmps out of signal handlers, especially under
 | 
						|
   Solaris.  Added a workaround for the fact that siglongjmp doesn't appear to
 | 
						|
   do the right thing with -lthread under Solaris.
 | 
						|
 - Added MSDOS/djgpp port.  (Thanks to Mitch Harris  (maharri@uiuc.edu).)
 | 
						|
 - Added "make reserved_namespace" and "make user_namespace".  The
 | 
						|
   first renames ALL "GC_xxx" identifiers as "_GC_xxx".  The second is the
 | 
						|
   inverse transformation.  Note that doing this is guaranteed to break all
 | 
						|
   clients written for the other names.
 | 
						|
 - descriptor field for kind NORMAL in GC_obj_kinds with ADD_BYTE_AT_END
 | 
						|
   defined should be -ALIGNMENT not WORDS_TO_BYTES(-1).  This is
 | 
						|
   a serious bug on machines with pointer alignment of less than a word.
 | 
						|
 - GC_ignore_self_finalize_mark_proc didn't handle pointers to very near the
 | 
						|
   end of the object correctly.  Caused failures of the C++ test on a DEC Alpha
 | 
						|
   with g++.
 | 
						|
 - gc_inl.h still had problems.  Partially fixed.  Added warnings at the
 | 
						|
   beginning to hopefully specify the remaining dangers.
 | 
						|
 - Added DATAEND definition to config.h.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed some of the .h file organization.  Fixed "make floppy".
 | 
						|
 
 | 
						|
Since version 4.6:
 | 
						|
 - Fixed some compilation problems with -DCHECKSUMS (thanks to Ian Searle)
 | 
						|
 - Updated some Mac specific files to synchronize with Patrick Beard.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a serious bug for machines with non-word-aligned pointers.
 | 
						|
   (Thanks to Patrick Beard for pointing out the problem.  The collector
 | 
						|
   should fail almost any conceivable test immediately on such machines.)
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since version 4.7:
 | 
						|
 - Changed a "comment" in a MacOS specific part of mach-dep.c that caused
 | 
						|
   gcc to fail on other platforms.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since version 4.8
 | 
						|
 - More README.debugging fixes.
 | 
						|
 - Objects ready for finalization, but not finalized in the same GC
 | 
						|
   cycle, could be prematurely collected.  This occasionally happened
 | 
						|
   in test_cpp.
 | 
						|
 - Too little memory was obtained from the system for very large
 | 
						|
   objects.  That could cause a heap explosion if these objects were
 | 
						|
   not contiguous (e.g. under PCR), and too much of them was blacklisted.
 | 
						|
 - Due to an improper initialization, the collector was too hesitant to
 | 
						|
   allocate blacklisted objects immediately after system startup.
 | 
						|
 - Moved GC_arrays from the data into the bss segment by not explicitly
 | 
						|
   initializing it to zero.  This significantly
 | 
						|
   reduces the size of executables, and probably avoids some disk accesses
 | 
						|
   on program startup.  It's conceivable that it might break a port that I
 | 
						|
   didn't test.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed EMX_MAKEFILE to reflect the gc_c++.h to gc_cpp.h renaming which
 | 
						|
   occurred a while ago.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 4.9:
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a typo around a call to GC_collect_or_expand in alloc.c.  It broke
 | 
						|
   handling of out of memory.  (Thanks to Patrick Beard for noticing.)
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 4.10:
 | 
						|
 - Rationalized (hopefully) GC_try_to_collect in an incremental collection
 | 
						|
   environment.  It appeared to not handle a call while a collection was in
 | 
						|
   progress, and was otherwise too conservative.
 | 
						|
 - Merged GC_reclaim_or_delete_all into GC_reclaim_all to get rid of some
 | 
						|
   code.
 | 
						|
 - Added Patrick Beard's Mac fixes, with substantial completely untested
 | 
						|
   modifications.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed the MPROTECT_VDB code to deal with large pages and imprecise
 | 
						|
   fault addresses (as on an UltraSPARC running Solaris 2.5).  Note that this
 | 
						|
   was not a problem in the default configuration, which uses PROC_VDB.
 | 
						|
 - The DEC Alpha assembly code needed to restore $gp between calls.
 | 
						|
   Thanks to Fergus Henderson for tracking this down and supplying a
 | 
						|
   patch.
 | 
						|
 - The write command for "de" was completely broken for large files.
 | 
						|
   I used the easiest portable fix, which involved changing the semantics
 | 
						|
   so that f.new is written instead of overwriting f.  That's safer anyway.
 | 
						|
 - Added README.solaris2 with a discussion of the possible problems of
 | 
						|
   mixing the collector's sbrk allocation with malloc/realloc.
 | 
						|
 - Changed the data segment starting address for SGI machines.  The
 | 
						|
   old code failed under IRIX6.
 | 
						|
 - Required double word alignment for MIPS.
 | 
						|
 - Various minor fixes to remove warnings.
 | 
						|
 - Attempted to fix some Solaris threads problems reported by Zhiying Chen.
 | 
						|
   In particular, the collector could try to fork a thread with the
 | 
						|
   world stopped as part of GC_thr_init.  It also failed to deal with
 | 
						|
   the case in which the original thread terminated before the whole
 | 
						|
   process did.
 | 
						|
 - Added -DNO_EXECUTE_PERMISSION.  This has a major performance impact
 | 
						|
   on the incremental collector under Irix, and perhaps under other
 | 
						|
   operating systems.
 | 
						|
 - Added some code to support allocating the heap with mmap.  This may
 | 
						|
   be preferable under some circumstances.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated dynamic library support for HP.
 | 
						|
   (Thanks to Knut Tvedten <knuttv@ifi.uio.no>.)
 | 
						|
 - Integrated James Clark's win32 threads support, and made a number
 | 
						|
   of changes to it, many of which were suggested by Pontus Rydin.
 | 
						|
   This is still not 100% solid.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated Alistair Crooks' support for UTS4 running on an Amdahl
 | 
						|
   370-class machine.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a serious bug in explicitly typed allocation.  Objects requiring
 | 
						|
   large descriptors where handled in a way that usually resulted in
 | 
						|
   a segmentation fault in the marker.  (Thanks to Jeremy Fitzhardinge
 | 
						|
   for helping to track this down.)
 | 
						|
 - Added partial support for GNU win32 development.  (Thanks to Fergus
 | 
						|
   Henderson.)
 | 
						|
 - Added optional support for Java-style finalization semantics.  (Thanks
 | 
						|
   to Patrick Bridges.)  This is recommended only for Java implementations.
 | 
						|
 - GC_malloc_uncollectable faulted instead of returning 0 when out of
 | 
						|
   memory.  (Thanks to dan@math.uiuc.edu for noticing.)
 | 
						|
 - Calls to GC_base before the collector was initialized failed on a
 | 
						|
   DEC Alpha.  (Thanks to Matthew Flatt.)
 | 
						|
 - Added base pointer checking to GC_REGISTER_FINALIZER in debugging
 | 
						|
   mode, at the suggestion of Jeremy Fitzhardinge.
 | 
						|
 - GC_debug_realloc failed for uncollectable objects.  (Thanks to
 | 
						|
   Jeremy Fitzhardinge.)
 | 
						|
 - Explicitly typed allocation could crash if it ran out of memory.
 | 
						|
   (Thanks to Jeremy Fitzhardinge.)
 | 
						|
 - Added minimal support for a DEC Alpha running Linux.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a problem with allocation of objects whose size overflowed
 | 
						|
   ptrdiff_t.  (This now fails unconditionally, as it should.)
 | 
						|
 - Added the beginning of Irix pthread support.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated Xiaokun Zhu's fixes for djgpp 2.01.
 | 
						|
 - Added SGI-style STL allocator support (gc_alloc.h).
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a serious bug in README.solaris2.  Multithreaded programs must include
 | 
						|
   gc.h with SOLARIS_THREADS defined.
 | 
						|
 - Changed GC_free so it actually deallocates uncollectable objects.
 | 
						|
   (Thanks to Peter Chubb for pointing out the problem.)
 | 
						|
 - Added Linux ELF support for dynamic libararies.  (Thanks again to
 | 
						|
   Patrick Bridges.)
 | 
						|
 - Changed the Borland cc configuration so that the assembler is not
 | 
						|
   required.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a bug in the C++ test that caused it to fail in 64-bit
 | 
						|
   environments.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 4.11:
 | 
						|
 - Fixed ElfW definition in dyn_load.c. (Thanks to Fergus Henderson.)
 | 
						|
   This prevented the dynamic library support from compiling on some
 | 
						|
   older ELF Linux systems.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed UTS4 port (which I apparently mangled during the integration)
 | 
						|
   (Thanks to again to Alistair Crooks.)
 | 
						|
 - "Make C++" failed on Suns with SC4.0, due to a problem with "bool".
 | 
						|
   Fixed in gc_priv.h.
 | 
						|
 - Added more pieces for GNU win32.  (Thanks to Timothy N. Newsham.)
 | 
						|
   The current state of things should suffice for at least some
 | 
						|
   applications.
 | 
						|
 - Changed the out of memory retry count handling as suggested by
 | 
						|
   Kenjiro Taura.  (This matters only if GC_max_retries > 0, which
 | 
						|
   is no longer the default.)
 | 
						|
 - If a /proc read failed repeatedly, GC_written_pages was not updated
 | 
						|
   correctly.  (Thanks to Peter Chubb for diagnosing this.)
 | 
						|
 - Under unlikely circumstances, the allocator could infinite loop in
 | 
						|
   an out of memory situation.  (Thanks again to Kenjiro Taura for
 | 
						|
   identifying the problem and supplying a fix.)
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a syntactic error in the DJGPP code.  (Thanks to Fergus
 | 
						|
   Henderson for finding this by inspection.)  Also fixed a test program
 | 
						|
   problem with DJGPP (Thanks to Peter Monks.)
 | 
						|
 - Atomic uncollectable objects were not treated correctly by the
 | 
						|
   incremental collector.  This resulted in weird log statistics and
 | 
						|
   occasional performance problems.  (Thanks to Peter Chubb for pointing
 | 
						|
   this out.)
 | 
						|
 - Fixed some problems resulting from compilers that dont define
 | 
						|
   __STDC__.  In this case void * and char * were used inconsistently
 | 
						|
   in some cases.  (Void * should not have been used at all.  If
 | 
						|
   you have an ANSI superset compiler that does not define __STDC__,
 | 
						|
   please compile with -D__STDC__=0. Thanks to Manuel Serrano and others
 | 
						|
   for pointing out the problem.)
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a compilation problem on Irix with -n32 and -DIRIX_THREADS.
 | 
						|
   Also fixed some other IRIX_THREADS problems which may or may not have
 | 
						|
   had observable symptoms.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed an HP PA compilation problem in dyn_load.c.  (Thanks to
 | 
						|
   Philippe Queinnec.)
 | 
						|
 - SEGV fault handlers sometimes did not get reset correctly.  (Thanks
 | 
						|
   to David Pickens.)
 | 
						|
 - Added a fix for SOLARIS_THREADS on Intel.  (Thanks again to David
 | 
						|
   Pickens.)  This probably needs more work to become functional.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed struct sigcontext_struct in os_dep.c for compilation under
 | 
						|
   Linux 2.1.X.	(Thanks to Fergus Henderson.)
 | 
						|
 - Changed the DJGPP STACKBOTTOM and DATASTART values to those suggested
 | 
						|
   by Kristian Kristensen.  These may still not be right, but it is
 | 
						|
   it is likely to work more often than what was there before.  They may
 | 
						|
   even be exactly right.
 | 
						|
 - Added a #include <string.h> to test_cpp.cc.  This appears to help
 | 
						|
   with HP/UX and gcc.  (Thanks to assar@sics.se.)
 | 
						|
 - Version 4.11 failed to run in incremental mode on recent 64-bit Irix
 | 
						|
   kernels.  This was a problem related to page unaligned heap segments.
 | 
						|
   Changed the code to page align heap sections on all platforms.
 | 
						|
   (I had mistakenly identified this as a kernel problem earlier.
 | 
						|
   It was not.)
 | 
						|
 - Version 4.11 did not make allocated storage executable, except on
 | 
						|
   one or two platforms, due to a bug in a #if test.  (Thanks to Dave
 | 
						|
   Grove for pointing this out.)
 | 
						|
 - Added sparc_sunos4_mach_dep.s to support Sun's compilers under SunOS4.
 | 
						|
 - Added GC_exclude_static_roots.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed the object size mapping algorithm.  This shouldn't matter,
 | 
						|
   but the old code was ugly.
 | 
						|
 - Heap checking code could die if one of the allocated objects was
 | 
						|
   larger than its base address.  (Unsigned underflow problem.  Thanks
 | 
						|
   to Clay Spence for isolating the problem.)
 | 
						|
 - Added RS6000 (AIX) dynamic library support and fixed STACK_BOTTOM.
 | 
						|
   (Thanks to Fred Stearns.)
 | 
						|
 - Added Fergus Henderson's patches for improved robustness with large
 | 
						|
   heaps and lots of blacklisting.
 | 
						|
 - Added Peter Chubb's changes to support Solaris Pthreads, to support
 | 
						|
   MMAP allocation in Solaris, to allow Solaris to find dynamic libraries
 | 
						|
   through /proc, to add malloc_typed_ignore_off_page, and a few other
 | 
						|
   minor features and bug fixes.
 | 
						|
 - The Solaris 2 port should not use sbrk.  I received confirmation from
 | 
						|
   Sun that the use of sbrk and malloc in the same program is not
 | 
						|
   supported.  The collector now defines USE_MMAP by default on Solaris.
 | 
						|
 - Replaced the djgpp makefile with Gary Leavens' version.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed MSWIN32 detection test.
 | 
						|
 - Added Fergus Henderson's patches to allow putting the collector into
 | 
						|
   a DLL under GNU win32.
 | 
						|
 - Added Ivan V. Demakov's port to Watcom C on X86.
 | 
						|
 - Added Ian Piumarta's Linux/PowerPC port.
 | 
						|
 - On Brian Burton's suggestion added PointerFreeGC to the placement
 | 
						|
   options in gc_cpp.h.  This is of course unsafe, and may be controversial.
 | 
						|
   On the other hand, it seems to be needed often enough that it's worth
 | 
						|
   adding as a standard facility.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 4.12:
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a crucial bug in the Watcom port.  There was a redundant decl
 | 
						|
   of GC_push_one in gc_priv.h.
 | 
						|
 - Added FINALIZE_ON_DEMAND.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed some pre-ANSI cc problems in test.c.
 | 
						|
 - Removed getpagesize() use for Solaris.  It seems to be missing in one
 | 
						|
   or two versions.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed bool handling for SPARCCompiler version 4.2.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed some files in include that had gotten unlinked from the main
 | 
						|
   copy.
 | 
						|
 - Some RS/6000 fixes (missing casts).  Thanks to Toralf Foerster.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed several problems in GC_debug_realloc, affecting mostly the
 | 
						|
   FIND_LEAK case.
 | 
						|
 - GC_exclude_static_roots contained a buggy unsigned comparison to
 | 
						|
   terminate a loop.  (Thanks to Wilson Ho.)
 | 
						|
 - CORD_str failed if the substring occurred at the last possible position.
 | 
						|
   (Only affects cord users.)
 | 
						|
 - Fixed Linux code to deal with RedHat 5.0 and integrated Peter Bigot's
 | 
						|
   os_dep.c code for dealing with various Linux versions.
 | 
						|
 - Added workaround for Irix pthreads sigaction bug and possible signal
 | 
						|
   misdirection problems.
 | 
						|
Since alpha1:
 | 
						|
 - Changed RS6000 STACKBOTTOM.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated Patrick Beard's Mac changes.
 | 
						|
 - Alpha1 didn't compile on Irix m.n, m < 6.
 | 
						|
 - Replaced Makefile.dj with a new one from Gary Leavens.
 | 
						|
 - Added Andrew Stitcher's changes to support SCO OpenServer.
 | 
						|
 - Added PRINT_BLACK_LIST, to allow debugging of high densities of false
 | 
						|
   pointers.
 | 
						|
 - Added code to debug allocator to keep track of return address
 | 
						|
   in GC_malloc caller, thus giving a bit more context.
 | 
						|
 - Changed default behavior of large block allocator to more
 | 
						|
   aggressively avoid fragmentation.  This is likely to slow down the
 | 
						|
   collector when it succeeds at reducing space cost.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated Fergus Henderson's CYGWIN32 changes.  They are untested,
 | 
						|
   but needed for newer versions.
 | 
						|
 - USE_MMAP had some serious bugs.  This caused the collector to fail
 | 
						|
   consistently on Solaris with -DSMALL_CONFIG.
 | 
						|
 - Added Linux threads support, thanks largely to Fergus Henderson.
 | 
						|
Since alpha2:
 | 
						|
 - Fixed more Linux threads problems.
 | 
						|
 - Changed default GC_free_space_divisor to 3 with new large block allocation.
 | 
						|
   (Thanks to Matthew Flatt for some measurements that suggest the old
 | 
						|
   value sometimes favors space too much over time.)
 | 
						|
 - More CYGWIN32 fixes.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated Tyson-Dowd's Linux-M68K port.
 | 
						|
 - Minor HP PA and DEC UNIX fixes from Fergus Henderson.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated Christoffe Raffali's Linux-SPARC changes.
 | 
						|
 - Allowed for one more GC fixup iteration after a full GC in incremental
 | 
						|
   mode.  Some quick measurements suggested that this significantly
 | 
						|
   reduces pause times even with smaller GC_RATE values.
 | 
						|
 - Moved some more GC data structures into GC_arrays.  This decreases
 | 
						|
   pause times and GC overhead, but makes debugging slightly less convenient.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed namespace pollution problem ("excl_table").
 | 
						|
 - Made GC_incremental a constant for -DSMALL_CONFIG, hopefully shrinking
 | 
						|
   that slightly.
 | 
						|
 - Added some win32 threads fixes.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated Ivan Demakov and David Stes' Watcom fixes.
 | 
						|
 - Various other minor fixes contributed by many people.
 | 
						|
 - Renamed config.h to gcconfig.h, since config.h tends to be used for
 | 
						|
   many other things.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated Matthew Flatt's support for 68K MacOS "far globals".
 | 
						|
 - Fixed up some of the dynamic library Makefile targets for consistency
 | 
						|
   across platforms.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a USE_MMAP typo that caused out-of-memory handling to fail
 | 
						|
   on Solaris.
 | 
						|
 - Added code to test.c to test thread creation a bit more.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated GC_win32_free_heap, as suggested by Ivan Demakov.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed Solaris 2.7 stack base finding problem.  (This may actually
 | 
						|
   have been done in an earlier alpha release.)
 | 
						|
Since alpha3:
 | 
						|
 - Fixed MSWIN32 recognition test, which interfered with cygwin.
 | 
						|
 - Removed unnecessary gc_watcom.asm from distribution.  Removed
 | 
						|
   some obsolete README.win32 text.
 | 
						|
 - Added Alpha Linux incremental GC support.  (Thanks to Philipp Tomsich
 | 
						|
   for code for retrieving the fault address in a signal handler.)
 | 
						|
   Changed Linux signal handler context argument to be a pointer.
 | 
						|
 - Took care of some new warnings generated by the 7.3 SGI compiler.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated Phillip Musumeci's FreeBSD/ELF fixes.
 | 
						|
 - -DIRIX_THREADS was broken with the -o32 ABI (typo in gc_priv.h>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 4.13:
 | 
						|
 - Fixed GC_print_source_ptr to not use a prototype.
 | 
						|
 - generalized CYGWIN test.
 | 
						|
 - gc::new did the wrong thing with PointerFreeGC placement.
 | 
						|
   (Thanks to Rauli Ruohonen.)
 | 
						|
 - In the ALL_INTERIOR_POINTERS (default) case, some callee-save register
 | 
						|
   values could fail to be scanned if the register was saved and
 | 
						|
   reused in a GC frame.  This showed up in verbose mode with gctest
 | 
						|
   compiled with an unreleased SGI compiler.  I vaguely recall an old
 | 
						|
   bug report that may have been related.  The bug was probably quite old.
 | 
						|
   (The problem was that the stack scanning could be deferred until
 | 
						|
   after the relevant frame was overwritten, and the new save location
 | 
						|
   might be outside the scanned area.  Fixed by more eager stack scanning.)
 | 
						|
 - PRINT_BLACK_LIST had some problems.  A few source addresses were garbage.
 | 
						|
 - Replaced Makefile.dj and added -I flags to cord make targets.
 | 
						|
   (Thanks to Gary Leavens.)
 | 
						|
 - GC_try_to_collect was broken with the nonincremental collector.
 | 
						|
 - gc_cleanup destructors could pass the wrong address to
 | 
						|
   GC_register_finalizer_ignore_self in the presence of multiple
 | 
						|
   inheritance.  (Thanks to Darrell Schiebel.)
 | 
						|
 - Changed PowerPC Linux stack finding code.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 4.14alpha1
 | 
						|
 - -DSMALL_CONFIG did not work reliably with large (> 4K) pages.
 | 
						|
   Recycling the mark stack during expansion could result in a size
 | 
						|
   zero heap segment, which confused things.  (This was probably also an
 | 
						|
   issue with the normal config and huge pages.)
 | 
						|
 - Did more work to make sure that callee-save registers were scanned
 | 
						|
   completely, even with the setjmp-based code.  Added USE_GENERIC_PUSH_REGS
 | 
						|
   macro to facilitate testing on machines I have access to.
 | 
						|
 - Added code to explicitly push register contents for win32 threads.
 | 
						|
   This seems to be necessary.  (Thanks to Pierre de Rop.)
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 4.14alpha2
 | 
						|
 - changed STACKBOTTOM for DJGPP (Thanks to Salvador Eduardo Tropea).
 | 
						|
 
 | 
						|
Since 4.14
 | 
						|
 - Reworked large block allocator.  Now uses multiple doubly linked free
 | 
						|
   lists to approximate best fit.
 | 
						|
 - Changed heap expansion heuristic.  Entirely free blocks are no longer
 | 
						|
   counted towards the heap size.  This seems to have a major impact on
 | 
						|
   heap size stability; the old version could expand the heap way too
 | 
						|
   much in the presence of large block fragmentation.
 | 
						|
 - added -DGC_ASSERTIONS and some simple assertions inside the collector.
 | 
						|
   This is mainlyt for collector debugging.
 | 
						|
 - added -DUSE_MUNMAP to allow the heap to shrink.  Suupported on only
 | 
						|
   a few UNIX-like platforms for now.
 | 
						|
 - added GC_dump_regions() for debugging of fragmentation issues.
 | 
						|
 - Changed PowerPC pointer alignment under Linux to 4.  (This needs
 | 
						|
   checking by someone who has one.  The suggestions came to me via a
 | 
						|
   rather circuitous path.)
 | 
						|
 - Changed the Linux/Alpha port to walk the data segment backwards until
 | 
						|
   it encounters a SIGSEGV.  The old way to find the start of the data
 | 
						|
   segment broke with a recent release.
 | 
						|
 - cordxtra.c needed to call GC_REGISTER_FINALIZER instead of
 | 
						|
   GC_register_finalizer, so that it would continue to work with GC_DEBUG.
 | 
						|
 - allochblk sometimes cleared the wrong block for debugging purposes
 | 
						|
   when it dropped blacklisted blocks.  This could result in spurious
 | 
						|
   error reports with GC_DEBUG.
 | 
						|
 - added MACOS X Server support.  (Thanks to Andrew Stone.)
 | 
						|
 - Changed the Solaris threads code to ignore stack limits > 8 MB with
 | 
						|
   a warning.  Empirically, it is not safe to access arbitrary pages
 | 
						|
   in such large stacks.  And the dirty bit implementation does not
 | 
						|
   guarantee that none of them will be accessed.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated Martin Tauchmann's Amiga changes.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated James Dominy's OpenBSD/SPARC port.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 5.0alpha1
 | 
						|
 - Fixed bugs introduced in alpha1 (OpenBSD & large block initialization).
 | 
						|
 - Added -DKEEP_BACK_PTRS and backptr.h interface.  (The implementation
 | 
						|
   idea came from Al Demers.)
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 5.0alpha2
 | 
						|
 - Added some highly incomplete code to support a copied young generation.
 | 
						|
   Comments on nursery.h are appreciated.
 | 
						|
 - Changed -DFIND_LEAK, -DJAVA_FINALIZATION, and -DFINALIZE_ON_DEMAND,
 | 
						|
   so the same effect could be obtained with a runtime switch.   This is
 | 
						|
   a step towards standardizing on a single dynamic GC library.
 | 
						|
 - Significantly changed the way leak detection is handled, as a consequence
 | 
						|
   of the above.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 5.0 alpha3
 | 
						|
 - Added protection fault handling patch for Linux/M68K from Fergus
 | 
						|
   Henderson and Roman Hodek.
 | 
						|
 - Removed the tests for SGI_SOURCE in new_gc_alloc.h.  This was causing that
 | 
						|
   interface to fail on nonSGI platforms.
 | 
						|
 - Changed the Linux stack finding code to use /proc, after changing it
 | 
						|
   to use HEURISTIC1.  (Thanks to David Mossberger for pointing out the
 | 
						|
   /proc hook.)
 | 
						|
 - Added HP/UX incremental GC support and HP/UX 11 thread support.
 | 
						|
   Thread support is currently still flakey.
 | 
						|
 - Added basic Linux/IA64 support.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated Anthony Green's PicoJava support.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated Scott Ananian's StrongARM/NetBSD support.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed some fairly serious performance bugs in the incremental
 | 
						|
   collector.  These have probably been there essentially forever.
 | 
						|
   (Mark bits were sometimes set before scanning dirty pages.
 | 
						|
   The reclaim phase unnecessarily dirtied full small object pages.)
 | 
						|
 - Changed the reclaim phase to ignore nearly full pages to avoid
 | 
						|
   touching them.
 | 
						|
 - Limited GC_black_list_spacing to roughly the heap growth increment.
 | 
						|
 - Changed full collection triggering heuristic to decrease full GC
 | 
						|
   frequency by default, but to explicitly trigger full GCs during
 | 
						|
   heap growth.  This doesn't always improve things, but on average it's
 | 
						|
   probably a win.
 | 
						|
 - GC_debug_free(0, ...) failed.  Thanks to Fergus Henderson for the
 | 
						|
   bug report and fix.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 5.0 alpha4
 | 
						|
 - GC_malloc_explicitly_typed and friends sometimes failed to
 | 
						|
   initialize first word.
 | 
						|
 - Added allocation routines and support in the marker for mark descriptors
 | 
						|
   in a type structure referenced by the first word of an object.  This was
 | 
						|
   introduced to support gcj, but hopefully in a way that makes it
 | 
						|
   generically useful.
 | 
						|
 - Added GC_requested_heapsize, and inhibited collections in nonincremental
 | 
						|
   mode if the actual used heap size is less than what was explicitly
 | 
						|
   requested.
 | 
						|
 - The Solaris pthreads version of GC_pthread_create didn't handle a NULL
 | 
						|
   attribute pointer.  Solaris thread support used the wrong default thread
 | 
						|
   stack size.  (Thanks to Melissa O'Neill for the patch.)
 | 
						|
 - Changed PUSH_CONTENTS macro to no longer modify first parameter.
 | 
						|
   This usually doesn't matter, but it was certainly an accident waiting
 | 
						|
   to happen ...
 | 
						|
 - Added GC_register_finalizer_no_order and friends to gc.h.  They're
 | 
						|
   needed by Java implementations.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated a fix for a win32 deadlock resulting from clock() calling
 | 
						|
   malloc.  (Thanks to Chris Dodd.)
 | 
						|
 - Integrated Hiroshi Kawashima's port to Linux/MIPS.  This was designed
 | 
						|
   for a handheld platform, and may or may not be sufficient for other
 | 
						|
   machines.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a va_arg problem with the %c specifier in cordprnt.c.  It appears
 | 
						|
   that this was always broken, but recent versions of gcc are the first to
 | 
						|
   report the (statically detectable) bug.
 | 
						|
 - Added an attempt at a more general solution to dlopen races/deadlocks.
 | 
						|
   GC_dlopen now temporarily disables collection.  Still not ideal, but ...
 | 
						|
 - Added -DUSE_I686_PREFETCH, -DUSE_3DNOW_PREFETCH, and support for IA64
 | 
						|
   prefetch instructions.  May improve performance measurably, but I'm not
 | 
						|
   sure the code will run correctly on processors that don't support the
 | 
						|
   instruction.  Won't build except with very recent gcc.
 | 
						|
 - Added caching for header lookups in the marker.  This seems to result
 | 
						|
   in a barely measurable performance gain.  Added support for interleaved
 | 
						|
   lookups of two pointers, but unconfigured that since the performance
 | 
						|
   gain is currently near zero, and it adds to code size.
 | 
						|
 - Changed Linux DATA_START definition to check both data_start and
 | 
						|
   __data_start, since nothing else seems to be portable.
 | 
						|
 - Added -DUSE_LD_WRAP to optionally take advantage of the GNU ld function
 | 
						|
   wrapping mechanism.  Probably currently useful only on Linux.
 | 
						|
 - Moved some variables for the scratch allocator into GC_arrays, on
 | 
						|
   Martin Hirzel's suggestion.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a win32 threads bug that caused the collector to not look for
 | 
						|
   interior pointers from one of the thread stacks without
 | 
						|
   ALL_INTERIOR_POINTERS.  (Thanks to Jeff Sturm.)
 | 
						|
 - Added Mingw32 support.  (Thanks again to Jeff Sturm for the patch.)
 | 
						|
 - Changed the alpha port to use the generic register scanning code instead
 | 
						|
   of alpha_mach_dep.s.  Alpha_mach_dep.s doesn't look for pointers in fp
 | 
						|
   registers, but gcc sometimes spills pointers there.  (Thanks to Manuel
 | 
						|
   Serrano for helping me debug this by email.)  Changed the IA64 code to
 | 
						|
   do something similar for similar reasons.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
[5.0alpha5 doesn't really exist, but it may have escaped.]
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 5.0alpha6:
 | 
						|
 - -DREDIRECT_MALLOC was broken in alpha6. Fixed.
 | 
						|
 - Cleaned up gc_ccp.h slightly, thus also causing the HP C++ compiler to
 | 
						|
   accept it.
 | 
						|
 - Removed accidental reference to dbg_mlc.c, which caused dbg_mlc.o to be
 | 
						|
   linked into every executable.
 | 
						|
 - Added PREFETCH to bitmap marker.  Changed it to use the header cache.
 | 
						|
 - GC_push_marked sometimes pushed one object too many, resulting in a
 | 
						|
   segmentation fault in GC_mark_from_mark_stack.  This was probably an old
 | 
						|
   bug.  It finally showed up in gctest on win32.
 | 
						|
 - Gc_priv.h erroneously #defined GC_incremental to be TRUE instead of FALSE
 | 
						|
   when SMALL_CONFIG was defined.  This was no doubt a major performance bug for
 | 
						|
   the default win32 configuration.
 | 
						|
 - Removed -DSMALL_CONFIG from NT_MAKEFILE.  It seemed like an anchronism now
 | 
						|
   that the average PC has 64MB or so.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated Bryce McKinley's patches for linux threads and dynamic loading
 | 
						|
   from the libgcj tree.  Turned on dynamic loading support for Linux/PPC.
 | 
						|
 - Changed the stack finding code to use environ on HP/UX.  (Thanks
 | 
						|
   to Gustavo Rodriguez-Rivera for the suggestion.)  This should probably
 | 
						|
   be done on other platforms, too.  Since I can't test those, that'll
 | 
						|
   wait until after 5.0.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 5.0alpha7:
 | 
						|
 - Fixed threadlibs.c for linux threads.  -DUSE_LD_WRAP was broken and
 | 
						|
   -ldl was omitted.  Fixed Linux stack finding code to handle
 | 
						|
   -DUSE_LD_WRAP correctly.
 | 
						|
 - Added MSWIN32 exception handler around marker, so that the collector
 | 
						|
   can recover from root segments that are unmapped during the collection.
 | 
						|
   This caused occasional failures under Windows 98, and may also be
 | 
						|
   an issue under Windows NT/2000.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 5.0
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a gc.h header bug which showed up under Irix.  (Thanks to
 | 
						|
   Dan Sullivan.)
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a typo in GC_double_descr in typd_mlc.c.
 | 
						|
   This probably could result in objects described by array descriptors not
 | 
						|
   getting traced correctly.  (Thanks to Ben Hutchings for pointing this out.)
 | 
						|
 - The block nearly full tests in reclaim.c were not correct for 64 bit
 | 
						|
   environments.  This could result in unnecessary heap growth under unlikely
 | 
						|
   conditions.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 5.1
 | 
						|
 - dyn_load.c declared GC_scratch_last_end_ptr as an extern even if it
 | 
						|
   was defined as a macro.  This prevented the collector from building on
 | 
						|
   Irix.
 | 
						|
 - We quietly assumed that indirect mark descriptors were never 0.
 | 
						|
   Our own typed allocation interface violated that.  This could result
 | 
						|
   in segmentation faults in the marker with typed allocation.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a _DUSE_MUNMAP bug in the heap block allocation code.
 | 
						|
   (Thanks to Ben Hutchings for the patch.)
 | 
						|
 - Taught the collector about VC++ handling array operator new.
 | 
						|
   (Thanks again to Ben Hutchings for the patch.)
 | 
						|
 - The two copies of gc_hdrs.h had diverged.  Made one a link to the other
 | 
						|
   again.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 5.2  (A few 5.2 patches are not in 6.0alpha1)
 | 
						|
 - Fixed _end declaration for OSF1.
 | 
						|
 - There were lots of spurious leak reports in leak detection mode, caused
 | 
						|
   by the fact that some pages were not being swept, and hence unmarked
 | 
						|
   objects weren't making it onto free lists.  (This bug dated back to 5.0.)
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a typo in the liblinuxgc.so Makefile rule.
 | 
						|
 - Added the GetExitCodeThread to Win32 GC_stop_world to (mostly) work
 | 
						|
   around a Windows 95 GetOpenFileName problem.  (Thanks to Jacob Navia.)
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 5.3
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a typo that prevented compilation with -DUSE_3DNOW_PREFETCH.
 | 
						|
   (Thanks to Shawn Wagner for actually testing this.)
 | 
						|
 - Fixed GC_is_thread_stack in solaris_threads.c.  It forgot to return a value
 | 
						|
   in the common case.  I wonder why nobody noticed?
 | 
						|
 - Fixed another silly syntax problem in GC_double_descr.  (Thanks to
 | 
						|
   Fergus Henderson for finding it.)
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a GC_gcj_malloc bug: It tended to release the allocator lock twice.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 5.4  (A few 5.3 patches are not in 6.0alpha2)
 | 
						|
 - Added HP/PA prefetch support.
 | 
						|
 - Added -DDBG_HDRS_ALL and -DSHORT_DBG_HDRS to reduce the cost and improve
 | 
						|
   the reliability of generating pointer backtrace information, e.g. in
 | 
						|
   the Bigloo environment.
 | 
						|
 - Added parallel marking support (-DPARALLEL_MARK).  This currently
 | 
						|
   works only under IA32 and IA64 Linux, but it shouldn't be hard to adapt
 | 
						|
   to other platforms.  This is intended to be a lighter-weight (less
 | 
						|
   new code, probably not as scalable) solution than the work by Toshio Endo
 | 
						|
   et al, at the University of Tokyo.  A number of their ideas were
 | 
						|
   reused, though the code wasn't, and the underlying data structure
 | 
						|
   is significantly different.  In particular, we keep the global mark
 | 
						|
   stack as a single shared data structure, but most of the work is done
 | 
						|
   on smaller thread-local mark stacks.
 | 
						|
 - Changed GC_malloc_many to be cheaper, and to require less mutual exclusion
 | 
						|
   with -DPARALLEL_MARK.
 | 
						|
 - Added full support for thread local allocation under Linux
 | 
						|
   (-DTHREAD_LOCAL_ALLOC).  This is a thin veneer on GC_malloc_many, and
 | 
						|
   should be easily portable to other platforms, especially those that
 | 
						|
   support pthreads.
 | 
						|
 - CLEAR_DOUBLE was not always getting invoked when it should have been.
 | 
						|
 - GC_gcj_malloc and friends used different out of memory handling than
 | 
						|
   everything else, probably because I forgot about one when I implemented
 | 
						|
   the other.  They now both call GC_oom_fn(), not GC_oom_action().
 | 
						|
 - Integrated Jakub Jelinek's fixes for Linux/SPARC.
 | 
						|
 - Moved GC_objfreelist, GC_aobjfreelist, and GC_words_allocd out of
 | 
						|
   GC_arrays, and separately registered the first two as excluded roots.
 | 
						|
   This makes code compiled with gc_inl.h less dependent on the
 | 
						|
   collector version.  (It would be nice to remove the inclusion of
 | 
						|
   gc_priv.h by gc_inl.h completely, but we're not there yet.  The
 | 
						|
   locking definitions in gc_priv.h are still referenced.)
 | 
						|
   This change was later coniditoned on SEPARATE_GLOBALS, which
 | 
						|
   is not defined by default, since it involves a performance hit.
 | 
						|
 - Register GC_obj_kinds separately as an excluded root region.  The
 | 
						|
   attempt to register it with GC_arrays was usually failing.  (This wasn't
 | 
						|
   serious, but seemed to generate some confusion.) 
 | 
						|
 - Moved backptr.h to gc_backptr.h.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 6.0alpha1
 | 
						|
 - Added USE_MARK_BYTES to reduce the need for compare-and-swap on platforms
 | 
						|
   for which that's expensive.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a locking bug ib GC_gcj_malloc and some locking assertion problems.
 | 
						|
 - Added a missing volatile to OR_WORD and renamed the parameter to
 | 
						|
   GC_compare_and_swap so it's not a C++ reserved word.  (Thanks to
 | 
						|
   Toshio Endo for pointing out both of those.)
 | 
						|
 - Changed Linux dynamic library registration code to look at /proc/self/maps
 | 
						|
   instead of the rld data structures when REDIRECT_MALLOC is defined.
 | 
						|
   Otherwise some of the rld data data structures may be prematurely garbage
 | 
						|
   collected.  (Thanks to Eric Benson for helping to track this down.)
 | 
						|
 - Fixed USE_LD_WRAP a bit more, so it should now work without threads.
 | 
						|
 - Renamed XXX_THREADS macros to GC_XXX_THREADS for namespace correctness.
 | 
						|
   Tomporarily added some backward compatibility definitions.  Renamed
 | 
						|
   USE_LD_WRAP to GC_USE_LD_WRAP.
 | 
						|
 - Many MACOSX POWERPC changes, some additions to the gctest output, and
 | 
						|
   a few minor generic bug fixes.  (Thanks to Dietmar Planitzer.)
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 6.0 alpha2
 | 
						|
 - Fixed the /proc/self/maps code to not seek, since that apparently is not
 | 
						|
   reliable across all interesting kernels.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed some compilation problems in the absence of PARALLEL_MARK
 | 
						|
   (introduced in alpha2).
 | 
						|
 - Fixed an algorithmic problem with PARALLEL_MARK.  If work needs to
 | 
						|
   be given back to the main mark "stack", the BOTTOM entries of the local
 | 
						|
   stack should be given away, not the top ones.  This has substantial
 | 
						|
   performance impact, especially for > 2 processors, from what I can tell.
 | 
						|
 - Extracted gc_lock.h from gc_priv.h.  This should eventually make it a
 | 
						|
   bit easier to avoid including gc_priv.h in clients.
 | 
						|
 - Moved all include files to include/ and removed duplicate links to the
 | 
						|
   same file.  The old scheme was a bad idea because it was too easy to get the
 | 
						|
   copies out of sync, and many systems don't support hard links.
 | 
						|
   Unfortunately, it's likely that I broke some of the non-Unix Makefiles in
 | 
						|
   the process, although I tried to update them appropriately.
 | 
						|
 - Removed the partial support for a copied nursery.  It's not clear that
 | 
						|
   this would be a tremendous win, since we don't consistently lose to
 | 
						|
   generational copying collectors.  And it would significantly complicate
 | 
						|
   many things.  May be reintroduced if/when it really turns out to win.
 | 
						|
 - Removed references to IRIX_JDK_THREADS, since I believe there never
 | 
						|
   were and never will be any clients.
 | 
						|
 - Added some code to linux_threads.c to possibly support HPUX threads
 | 
						|
   using the Linux code.  Unfortunately, it doesn't work yet, and is
 | 
						|
   currently disabled.
 | 
						|
 - Added support under Linux/X86 for saving the call chain, both in (debug)
 | 
						|
   objects for client debugging, and in GC_arrays._last_stack for GC
 | 
						|
   debugging.  This was previously supported only under Solaris.  It is
 | 
						|
   not enabled by default under X86, since it requires that code be compiled
 | 
						|
   to explicitly dave frame pointers on the call stack.  (With gcc this
 | 
						|
   currently happens by default, but is often turned off explicitly.)
 | 
						|
   To turn it on, define SAVE_CALL_CHAIN.
 | 
						|
 
 | 
						|
Since 6.0 alpha3
 | 
						|
 - Moved up the detection of mostly full blocks to the initiatiation of the
 | 
						|
   sweep phase.  This eliminates some lock conention in the PARALLEL_MARK case,
 | 
						|
   as multiple threads try to look at mostly full blocks concurrently.
 | 
						|
 - Restored the code in GC_malloc_many that grabs a prefix of the global
 | 
						|
   free list.  This avoids the case in which every GC_malloc_many call
 | 
						|
   tries and fails to allocate a new heap block, and the returns a single
 | 
						|
   object from the global free list.
 | 
						|
 - Some minor fixes in new_hblk.c.  (Attempted to build free lists in order
 | 
						|
   of increasing addresses instead of decreasing addresses for cache performance
 | 
						|
   reasons.  But this seems to be only a very minor gain with -DEAGER_SWEEP,
 | 
						|
   and a loss in other cases.  So the change was backed out.)
 | 
						|
 - Fixed some of the documentation.  (Thanks in large part to Fergus
 | 
						|
   Henderson.)
 | 
						|
 - Fixed the Linux USE_PROC_FOR_LIBRARIES code to deal with apps that perform
 | 
						|
   large numbers of mmaps.  (Thanks to Eric Benson.)  Also fixed that code to
 | 
						|
   deal with short reads.
 | 
						|
 - Added GC_get_total_bytes(). 
 | 
						|
 - Fixed leak detection mode to avoid spurious messages under linuxthreads.
 | 
						|
   (This should also now be easy for the other supported threads packages.
 | 
						|
   But the code is tricky enough that I'm hesitant to do it without being able
 | 
						|
   to test.  Everything allocated in the GC thread support itself should be
 | 
						|
   explicitly deallocated.)
 | 
						|
 - Made it possible (with luck) to redirect malloc to GC_local_malloc.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 6.0 alpha4
 | 
						|
 - Changed the definition of GC_pause in linux_threads.c to use a volatile
 | 
						|
   asm.  Some versions of gcc apparently optimize away writes to local volatile
 | 
						|
   variables.  This caused poor locking behaviour starting at about
 | 
						|
   4 processors.
 | 
						|
 - Added GC_start_blocking(), GC_end_blocking() calls and wrapper for sleep
 | 
						|
   to linux_threads.c.
 | 
						|
   The first two calls could be used to generally avoid sending GC signals to
 | 
						|
   blocked threads, avoiding both premature wakeups and unnecessary overhead.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a serious bug in thread-local allocation.  At thread termination,
 | 
						|
   GC_free could get called on small integers.  Changed the code for thread
 | 
						|
   termination to more efficiently return left-over free-lists.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated Kjetil Matheussen's BeOS support.
 | 
						|
 - Rearranged the directory structure to create the doc and tests
 | 
						|
   subdirectories.
 | 
						|
 - Sort of integrated Eric Benson's patch for OSF1.  This provided basic
 | 
						|
   OSF1 thread support by suitably extending hpux_irix_threads.c.  Based
 | 
						|
   on earlier email conversations with David Butenhof, I suspect that it
 | 
						|
   will be more reliable in the long run to base this on linux_threads.c
 | 
						|
   instead.  Thus I attempted to patch up linux_threads.c based on Eric's code.
 | 
						|
   The result is almost certainly broken, but hopefully close enough that
 | 
						|
   someone with access to a machine can pick it up.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated lots of minor changes from the NetBSD distribution.  (These
 | 
						|
   were supplied by David Brownlee.  I'm not sure about the original
 | 
						|
   authors.)
 | 
						|
 - Hacked a bit more on the HP/UX thread-support in linux_threads.c.  It
 | 
						|
   now appears to work in the absence of incremental collection.  Renamed
 | 
						|
   hpux_irix_threads.c back to irix_threads.c, and removed the attempt to
 | 
						|
   support HPUX there.
 | 
						|
 - Changed gc.h to define _REENTRANT in cases in which it should already
 | 
						|
   have been defined. It is still safer to also define it on the command
 | 
						|
   line. 
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 6.0alpha5:
 | 
						|
 - Changed the definition of DATASTART on ALPHA and IA64, where data_start
 | 
						|
   and __data_start are not defined by earlier versions of glibc.  This might
 | 
						|
   need to be fixed on other platforms as well.
 | 
						|
 - Changed the way the stack base and backing store base are found on IA64.
 | 
						|
   This should now remain reliable on future kernels.  But since it relies
 | 
						|
   on /proc, it will no longer work in the simulated NUE environment.
 | 
						|
 - Made the call to random() in dbg_mlc.c with -DKEEP_BACK_PTRS dependent
 | 
						|
   on the OS.  On non-Unix systems, rand() should be used instead.  Handled
 | 
						|
   small RAND_MAX.  (Thanks to Peter Ross for pointing this out.)
 | 
						|
 - Fixed the cord make rules to create the cord subdirectory, if necessary.
 | 
						|
   (Thanks to Doug Moen.)
 | 
						|
 - Changed fo_object_size calculation in finalize.c.  Turned finalization
 | 
						|
   of nonheap object into a no-op.  Removed anachronism from GC_size()
 | 
						|
   implementation.
 | 
						|
 - Changed GC_push_dirty call in solaris_threads.c to GC_push_selected.
 | 
						|
   It was missed in a previous renaming. (Thanks to Vladimir Tsichevski
 | 
						|
   for pointing this out.)
 | 
						|
 - Arranged to not not mask SIGABRT in linux_threads.c.  (Thanks to Bryce
 | 
						|
   McKinlay.) 
 | 
						|
 - Added GC_no_dls hook for applications that want to register their own
 | 
						|
   roots.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated Kjetil Matheussen's Amiga changes.
 | 
						|
 - Added FREEBSD_STACKBOTTOM.  Changed the X86/FreeBSD port to use it.
 | 
						|
   (Thanks to Matthew Flatt.)
 | 
						|
 - Added pthread_detach interception for platforms supported by linux_threads.c
 | 
						|
   and irix_threads.c.  Should also be added for Solaris?
 | 
						|
 - Changed the USE_MMAP code to check for the case in which we got the
 | 
						|
   high end of the address space, i.e. mem_ptr + mem_sz == 0.  It appears
 | 
						|
   that this can happen under Solaris 7.  It seems to be allowed by what
 | 
						|
   I would claim is an oversight in the mmap specification.  (Thanks to Toshio
 | 
						|
   Endo for pointing out the problem.)
 | 
						|
 - Cleanup of linux_threads.c.  Some code was originally cloned from
 | 
						|
   irix_threads.c and now unnecessary.  Some comments were obviously wrong.
 | 
						|
 - (Mostly) fixed a longstanding problem with setting of dirty bits from
 | 
						|
   a signal handler.  In the presence of threads, dirty bits could get lost,
 | 
						|
   since the etting of a bit in the bit vector was not atomic with respect
 | 
						|
   to other updates.  The fix is 100% correct only for platforms for which
 | 
						|
   GC_test_and_set is defined.  The goal is to make that all platforms with
 | 
						|
   thread support.  Matters only if incremental GC and threads are both
 | 
						|
   enabled.
 | 
						|
 - made GC_all_interior_pointers (a.k.a. ALL_INTERIOR_POINTERS) an
 | 
						|
   initialization time, instead of build-time option.  This is a 
 | 
						|
   nontrivial, high risk change.  It should slow down the code measurably
 | 
						|
   only if MERGE_SIZES is not defined, which is a very nonstandard
 | 
						|
   configuration.   
 | 
						|
 - Added doc/README.environment, and implemented what it describes.  This
 | 
						|
   allows a number of additional configuration options to be set through
 | 
						|
   the environment.  It documents a few previously undocumented options.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated Eric Benson's leak testing improvements.
 | 
						|
 - Removed the option to throw away the beginning of each page (DISCARD_WORDS).
 | 
						|
   This became less and less useful as processors enforce stricter alignment.
 | 
						|
   And it hadn't been tested in ages, and was thus probably broken anyway.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 6.0alpha6:
 | 
						|
 - Added GC_finalizer_notifier.  Fixed GC_finalize_on_demand.  (The variable
 | 
						|
   actually wasn't being tested at the right points.  The build-time flag
 | 
						|
   was.)
 | 
						|
 - Added Tom Tromey's S390 Linux patch.
 | 
						|
 - Added code to push GC_finalize_now in GC_push_finalizer_structures.
 | 
						|
   (Thanks to Matthew Flatt.)
 | 
						|
 - Added GC_push_gc_structures() to push all GC internal roots.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated some FreeBSD changes from Matthew Flatt.
 | 
						|
 - It looks like USRSTACK is not always correctly defined under Solaris.
 | 
						|
   Hacked gcconfig.h to attempt to work around the problem.  The result
 | 
						|
   is not well tested.  (Thanks again to Matthew Flatt for pointing this
 | 
						|
   out.  The gross hack is mine. - HB)
 | 
						|
 - Added Ji-Yong Chung's win32 threads and C++ fixes.
 | 
						|
 - Arranged for hpux_test_and_clear.s to no longer be needed or built.
 | 
						|
   It was causing build problems with gas, and it's not clear this is
 | 
						|
   better than the pthreads alternative on this platform.
 | 
						|
 - Some MINGW32 fixes from Hubert Garavel.
 | 
						|
 - Added Initial Hitachi SH4 port from Kaz Kojima.
 | 
						|
 - Ported thread-local allocation and parallel mark code to HP/UX on PA_RISC.
 | 
						|
 - Made include/gc_mark.h more public and separated out the really private
 | 
						|
   pieces.  This is probably still not quite sufficient for clients that
 | 
						|
   want to supply their own kind of type information.  But it's a start.
 | 
						|
   This involved lots of identifier renaming to make it namespace clean.
 | 
						|
 - Added GC_dont_precollect for clients that need complete control over
 | 
						|
   the root set.
 | 
						|
 - GC_is_visible didn't do the right thing with gcj objects.  (Not that
 | 
						|
   many people are likely to care, but ...)
 | 
						|
 - Don't redefine read with GC_USE_LD_WRAP.
 | 
						|
 - Initial port to LINUX/HP_PA.  Incremental collection and threads are not
 | 
						|
   yet supported.  (Incremental collection should work if you have the
 | 
						|
   right kernel.  Threads may work with a sufficiently patched pthread
 | 
						|
   library.)
 | 
						|
 - Changed gcconfig.h to recognize __i386__ as an alternative to i386 in
 | 
						|
   many places.  (Thanks to Benjamin Lerman.)
 | 
						|
 - Made win32_threads.c more tolerant of detaching a thread that it didn't
 | 
						|
   know about.  (Thanks to Paul Nash.)
 | 
						|
 - Added Makefile.am and configure.in from gcc to the distribution, with
 | 
						|
   minimal changes.  For the moment, those are just placeholders.  In the
 | 
						|
   future, we're planning to switch to a GNU-style build environment for
 | 
						|
   Un*x-like systems, though the old Makefile will remain as a backup.
 | 
						|
 - Turned off STUBBORN_ALLOC by default, and added it back as a Makefile
 | 
						|
   option.
 | 
						|
 - Redistributed some functions between malloc.c and mallocx.c, so that
 | 
						|
   simple statically linked apps no longer pull in mallocx.o.
 | 
						|
 - Changed large object allocation to clear the first and last few words
 | 
						|
   of each block before releassing the lock.  Otherwise the marker could see
 | 
						|
   objects with nonsensical type descriptors.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a couple of subtle problems that could result in not recognizing
 | 
						|
   interior pointers from the stack.  (I believe these were introduced
 | 
						|
   in 6.0alpha6.)
 | 
						|
 - GC_debug_free_inner called GC_free, which tried to reacquire the
 | 
						|
   allocator lock, and hence deadlocked.  (DBG_HDRS_ALL probably never worked
 | 
						|
   with threads?)
 | 
						|
 - Fixed several problems with back traces.  Accidental references to a free
 | 
						|
   list could cause the free list pointer to be overwritten by a back pointer.
 | 
						|
   There seemed to be some problems with the encoding of root and finalizer
 | 
						|
   references.
 | 
						|
  
 | 
						|
Since 6.0alpha7:
 | 
						|
 - Changed GC_debug_malloc_replacement and GC_debug_realloc_replacement
 | 
						|
   so that they compile under Irix.  (Thanks to Dave Love.)
 | 
						|
 - Updated powerpc_macosx_mach_dep.s so that it works if the collector
 | 
						|
   is in a dynamic library.  (Thanks to Andrew Begel.)
 | 
						|
 - Transformed README.debugging into debugging.html, updating and
 | 
						|
   expanding it in the process.  Added gcdescr.html and tree.html
 | 
						|
   from the web site to the GC distribution.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed several problems related to PRINT_BLACK_LIST. This involved
 | 
						|
   restructuring some of the marker macros.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed some problems with the sizing of objects with debug information.
 | 
						|
   Finalization was broken KEEP_BACK_PTRS or PRINT_BLACK_LIST.  Reduced the
 | 
						|
   object size with SHORT_DEBUG_HDRS by another word.
 | 
						|
 - The "Needed to allocate blacklisted ..." warning had inadvertently
 | 
						|
   been turned off by default, due to a buggy test in allchblk.c.  Turned
 | 
						|
   it back on.
 | 
						|
 - Removed the marker macros to deal with 2 pointers in interleaved fashion.
 | 
						|
   They were messy and the performance improvement seemed minimal.  We'll
 | 
						|
   leave such scheduling issues to the compiler.
 | 
						|
 - Changed Linux/PowerPC test to also check for __powerpc__ in response
 | 
						|
   to a discussion on the gcc mailing list.
 | 
						|
 - On Matthew Flatt's suggestion removed the "static" from the jmp_buf
 | 
						|
   declaration in GC_generic_push_regs.  This was causing problems in
 | 
						|
   systems that register all of their own roots.  It looks far more correct
 | 
						|
   to me without the "static" anyway. 
 | 
						|
 - Fixed several problems with thread local allocation of pointerfree or
 | 
						|
   typed objects.  The collector was reclaiming thread-local free lists, since
 | 
						|
   it wasn't following the link fields.
 | 
						|
 - There was apparently a long-standing race condition related to multithreaded
 | 
						|
   incremental collection.  A collection could be started and a thread stopped
 | 
						|
   between the memory unprotect system call and the setting of the
 | 
						|
   corresponding dirt bit.  I believe this did not affect Solaris or PCR, which
 | 
						|
   use a different dirty-bit implementation.  Fixed this by installing
 | 
						|
   signal handlers with sigaction instead of signal, and disabling the thread
 | 
						|
   suspend signal while in the write-protect handler.  (It is unclear
 | 
						|
   whether this scenario ever actually occurred.  I found it while tracking
 | 
						|
   down the following:)
 | 
						|
 - Incremental collection did not cooperate correctly with the PARALLEL_MARK
 | 
						|
   implementation of GC_malloc_many or the local_malloc primitves.  It still
 | 
						|
   doesn't work well, but it shouldn't lose memory anymore.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated some changes from the gcc source tree that I had previously
 | 
						|
   missed.  (Thanks to Bryce McKinley for the reminder/diff.)
 | 
						|
 - Added Makefile.direct as a copy of the default Makefile, which would
 | 
						|
   normally be overwritten if configure is run.
 | 
						|
 - Changed the gc.tar target in Makefile.direct to embed the version number
 | 
						|
   in the gc directory name.  This will affect future tar file distributions.
 | 
						|
 - Changed the Irix dynamic library finding code to no longer try to
 | 
						|
   eliminate writable text segments under Irix6.x, since that is probably no
 | 
						|
   longer necessary, and can apparently be unsafe on occasion.  (Thanks to
 | 
						|
   Shiro Kawai for pointing this out.)
 | 
						|
 - GC_cleanup with GC_DEBUG enabled passed a real object base address to
 | 
						|
   GC_debug_register_finalizer_ignore_self, which expected a pointer past the
 | 
						|
   debug header.  Call GC_register_finalizer_ignore_self instead, even with
 | 
						|
   debugging enabled.  (Thanks to Jean-Daniel Fekete for catching this.)
 | 
						|
 - The collector didn't build with call chain saving enabled but NARGS=0.
 | 
						|
   (Thanks to Maarten Thibaut.)
 | 
						|
 - Fixed up the GNU-style build files enough so that they work in some
 | 
						|
   obvious cases.
 | 
						|
 - Added initial port to Digital Mars compiler for win32. (Thanks to Walter
 | 
						|
   Bright.)
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 6.0alpha8:
 | 
						|
 - added README.macros.
 | 
						|
 - Made gc.mak a symbolic link to work around winzip's tendency to ignore
 | 
						|
   hard links.
 | 
						|
 - Simplified the setting of NEED_FIND_LIMIT in os_dep.c, possibly breaking
 | 
						|
   it on untested platforms.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated initial GNU HURD port. (Thanks to Chris Lingard and Igor
 | 
						|
   Khavkine.)
 | 
						|
 - A few more fixes for Digital Mars compiler (Walter Bright).
 | 
						|
 - Fixed gcc version recognition.  Renamed OPERATOR_NEW_ARRAY to
 | 
						|
   GC_OPERATOR_NEW_ARRAY.  Changed GC_OPERATOR_NEW_ARRAY to be the default.
 | 
						|
   It can be overridden with -DGC_NO_OPERATOR_NEW_ARRAY.  (Thanks to
 | 
						|
   Cesar Eduardo Barros.) 
 | 
						|
 - Changed the byte size to free-list mapping in thread local allocation
 | 
						|
   so that size 0 allocations are handled correctly.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed Linux/MIPS stackbottom for new toolchain. (Thanks to Ryan Murray.)
 | 
						|
 - Changed finalization registration to invoke GC_oom_fn when it runs out
 | 
						|
   of memory.
 | 
						|
 - Removed lvalue cast in finalize.c.  This caused some debug configurations
 | 
						|
   not to build with some non-gcc compilers.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 6.0alpha9:
 | 
						|
 - Two more bug fixes for KEEP_BACK_PTRS and DBG_HDRS_ALL.
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a stack clearing problem that resulted in SIGILL with a
 | 
						|
   misaligned stack pointer for multithreaded SPARC builds.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated another HURD patch (thanks to Igor Khavkine).
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 6.0:
 | 
						|
 - Non-debug, atomic allocations could result in bogus smashed object
 | 
						|
   reports with debugging on.  (Thanks to Patrick Doyle for the small
 | 
						|
   test case.)
 | 
						|
 - Fixed GC_get_register_stack_base (Itanium only) to work around a glibc
 | 
						|
   2.2.4 bug.
 | 
						|
 - Initial port to HP/UX on Itanium.  Thread support and both 32 and 64
 | 
						|
   bit ABIs appear to work.  Parallel mark support doesn't yet, due to
 | 
						|
   some inline assembly code issues.  Thread local allocation does appear
 | 
						|
   to work.
 | 
						|
 - ifdef'ed out glibc2.1/Itanium workaround.  I suspect nobody is using
 | 
						|
   that combination anymore.
 | 
						|
 - Added a patch to make new_gc_alloc.h usable with gcc3.0.  (Thanks to
 | 
						|
   Dimitris Vyzovitis for the patch.)
 | 
						|
 - Debugged 64-bit support on HP/UX PA-RISC.
 | 
						|
 - Turned on dynamic loading support for FreeBSD/ELF.  (Thanks to Peter
 | 
						|
   Housel.)
 | 
						|
 - Unregistering of finalizers with debugging allocation was broken.
 | 
						|
   (Thanks to Jani Kajala for the test case.)
 | 
						|
 - Old finalizers were not returned correctly from GC_debug_register_finalizer.
 | 
						|
 - Disabled MPROTECT_VDB for Linux/M68K based on a report that it doesn't work.
 | 
						|
 - Cleaned up some statistics gathering code in reclaim.c (Thanks to Walter
 | 
						|
   Bright.)
 | 
						|
 - Added some support for OpenBSD/ELF/Linux.  (Thanks to Suzuki Toshiya.)
 | 
						|
 - Added Jakub Jelinek's patch to use dl_iterate_phdr for dynamic library
 | 
						|
   traversal to dyn_load.c.  Changed it to weakly reference dl_iterate_phdr,
 | 
						|
   so that the old code is stilll used with old versions of glibc.
 | 
						|
 - Cleaned up feature test macros for various threads packages and
 | 
						|
   integrated (partially functional) FreeBSD threads code from Loren Rittle.
 | 
						|
   It's likely that the cleanup broke something, since it touched lots of
 | 
						|
   code.  It's also likelly that it fixed some unreported bugs in the
 | 
						|
   less common thread implementations, since some of the original code
 | 
						|
   didn't stand up to close scrutiny.  Support for the next pthreads
 | 
						|
   implementation should be easier to add.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 6.1alpha1:
 | 
						|
 - No longer wrap read by default in multithreaded applications.  It was
 | 
						|
   pointed out on the libgcj list that this holds the allocation lock for
 | 
						|
   way too long if the read blocks.  For now, reads into the heap are
 | 
						|
   broken with incremental collection.  It's possible to turn this back on
 | 
						|
   if you make sure that read calls don't block (e.g. by calling select
 | 
						|
   first).
 | 
						|
 - Fix ifdef in Solaris_threads.h to refer to GC_SOLARIS_THREADS.
 | 
						|
 - Added check for environment variable GC_IGNORE_GCJ_INFO.
 | 
						|
 - Added printing of stop-the-world GC times if GC_PRINT_STATS environment
 | 
						|
   variable is set.
 | 
						|
 - The calloc definition in leak_detector.h was missing parentheses, and
 | 
						|
   realloc was missing a second argument to GC_REALLOC.
 | 
						|
   (Thanks to Elrond (elrond<at>samba-tng.org).)
 | 
						|
 - Added GC_PRINT_BACK_HEIGHT environment variable and associated
 | 
						|
   code, mostly in the new file backgraph.c.  See doc/README.environment.
 | 
						|
 - Added -DUSE_GLOBAL_ALLOC to work around a Windows NT issue.  (Thanks to
 | 
						|
   Jonathan Clark.)
 | 
						|
 - Integrated port to NEC EWS4800 (MIPS-based workstation, with somewhat
 | 
						|
   different address-space layout). This may help for other machines with
 | 
						|
   holes in the data segment.  (Thanks to Hironori Sakamoto.)
 | 
						|
 - Changed the order in which GC_push_roots and friends push things onto
 | 
						|
   the mark stack.  GC_push_all calls need to come first, since we can't
 | 
						|
   necessarily recovere if those overflow the mark stack.  (Thanks to
 | 
						|
   Matthew Flatt for tracking down the problem.)
 | 
						|
 - Some minor cleanups to mostly support the Intel compiler on Linux/IA64.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 6.1 alpha2:
 | 
						|
 - Minor cleanup on the gcconfig.h section for SPARC.
 | 
						|
 - Minor fix to support Intel compiler for I386/Linux. (Thanks to Sven
 | 
						|
   Hartrumpf.)
 | 
						|
 - Added SPARC V9 (64-bit) support.  (Thanks to Jeff Sturm.)
 | 
						|
 - Restructured the way in which we determine whether or not to keep
 | 
						|
   call stacks for debug allocation.  By default SAVE_CALL_COUNT is
 | 
						|
   now zero on all platforms.  Added SAVE_CALL_NARGS parameters.
 | 
						|
   If possible, use execinfo.h to capture call stack.  (This should
 | 
						|
   add support for a number of new platforms, though often at
 | 
						|
   considerable runtime expense.)
 | 
						|
 - Try to print symbolic information for call stacks.  On Linux, we
 | 
						|
   do this with a combination of execinfo.h and running addr2line in
 | 
						|
   a separate process.  This is both much more expensive and much more
 | 
						|
   useful.  Amazingly, it seems to be fast enough for most purposes.
 | 
						|
 - Redefined strdup if -DREDIRECT_MALLOC is given.
 | 
						|
 - Changed incremental collector and MPROTECT_VDB implementation so that,
 | 
						|
   under favorable conditions, pointerfree objects are not protected.
 | 
						|
   Added GC_incremental_protection_needs() to determine ahead of time whether
 | 
						|
   pointerfree objects may be protected.  Replaced GC_write_hint() with
 | 
						|
   GC_remove_protection().
 | 
						|
 - Added test for GC_ENABLE_INCREMENTAL environment variable.
 | 
						|
 - Made GC_time_limit runtime configurable.  Added GC_PAUSE_TIME_TARGET
 | 
						|
   environment variable.
 | 
						|
 - Eliminated GC_page_sz, a duplicate of GC_page_size.
 | 
						|
 - Caused the Solaris and Irix thread creation primitives to call
 | 
						|
   GC_init_inner().
 | 
						|
 
 | 
						|
Since 6.1alpha3:
 | 
						|
 - Fixed typo in sparc_mach_dep.S, preventing the 64-bit version from
 | 
						|
   building.  Increased 64-bit heap size limit in test.c slightly, since
 | 
						|
   a functional SPARC collector seems to slightly exceed the old limits.
 | 
						|
   (Thanks again to Jeff Sturm.)
 | 
						|
 - Use NPRGREG in solaris_threads.c, thus printing all registers if things
 | 
						|
   go wrong.
 | 
						|
 - Added GC_MARKERS environment variable to allow use of a single marker
 | 
						|
   thread on an MP without confusing the lock implementation.
 | 
						|
 - Collect much less aggressively in incremental mode with GC_TIME_UNLIMITED.
 | 
						|
   This is really a purely generational mode, and we can afford to 
 | 
						|
   postpone the collection until the heap is (nearly) full.
 | 
						|
 - Remove read() wrapper for MPROTECT_VDB.  It was causing more harm than
 | 
						|
   good.  It is often no longer needed if system calls avoid writing to
 | 
						|
   pointerfull heap objects.
 | 
						|
 - Fix MACOSX test in gcconfig.h. (Thanks to John Clements.)
 | 
						|
 - Change GC_test_and_set so that it consistently has one argument.
 | 
						|
   Add spaces to ::: in powerpc assembly code in gc_locks.h.
 | 
						|
   (Thanks to Ryan Murray.)
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a formatting error in dbg_mlc.c.  Added prototype to GC_abort()
 | 
						|
   declaration.   (Thanks to Michael Smith.)
 | 
						|
 - Removed "source" argument to GC_find_start().  Eliminate GC_FIND_START().
 | 
						|
 - Added win32 recognition code in configure.in.  Changed some of the
 | 
						|
   dllimport/export defines in gc.h.  (Thanks to Adam Megacz.)
 | 
						|
 - GC_malloc_many didn't set hb_last_reclaimed when it called 
 | 
						|
   GC_reclaim_generic.  (I'm not sure this matters much, but ...)
 | 
						|
 - Allocating uncollectable objects with debug information sometimes
 | 
						|
   allocated objects that were one byte too small, since uncollectable
 | 
						|
   objects don't have the extra byte added at the end.  (Thanks to
 | 
						|
   Wink Saville for pointing this out.)
 | 
						|
 - Added a bit more assertion checking to make sure that gcj objects
 | 
						|
   on free lists never have a nonzero second word.
 | 
						|
 - Replaced BCC_MAKEFILE with an up-to-date one.  (Thanks to 
 | 
						|
   Andre Leiradella.)
 | 
						|
 - Upgraded libtool, cinfigure.in and some related files to hopefully
 | 
						|
   support NetBSD/SPARC.  (Thanks to Adrian Bunk.)  Unfortunately,
 | 
						|
   libtool 1.4.2 seemed to be buggy due to missing quotes in several
 | 
						|
   "test" invocations.  Fixed those in the ltmain.sh script.
 | 
						|
 - Some win32-specific patches, including the introduction of
 | 
						|
   GC_CreateThread.  (Thanks to Adam Megacz.)
 | 
						|
 - Merged in gcj changes from Anthony Green to support embedded systems.
 | 
						|
 - Tried to consistently rename preprocessed assembly files with a capital
 | 
						|
   .S extension.
 | 
						|
 - Use alpha_mach_dep.S on ALPHA again.  It doesn't really matter, but this
 | 
						|
   makes our distribution consistent with the gcc one, avoiding future merge
 | 
						|
   problems.
 | 
						|
 - Move GET_MEM definition into gcconfig.h.  Include gcconfig.h slightly
 | 
						|
   later in gc_priv.h to avoid forward references to ptr_t.
 | 
						|
 - Add some testing of local allocation to test.c.
 | 
						|
 - Change definition of INVALID_QTID in specific.h.  The -1 value was used
 | 
						|
   inconsistently, and too likely to collide with a valid stack address.
 | 
						|
   Some general clean-up of specific.[ch].  Added assertions.  (Thanks
 | 
						|
   to Michael Smith for tracking down an intermittent bug to this
 | 
						|
   general area.  I'm not sure it has been squashed yet, however.)
 | 
						|
 - On Pthread systems it was not safe to call GC_malloc() between fork()
 | 
						|
   and exec().  According to the applicable standards, it doesn't appear
 | 
						|
   to be safe to call malloc() or many other libc functions either, thus
 | 
						|
   it's not clear this is fixable.  Added experimental support for
 | 
						|
   -DHANDLE_FORK in linux_threads.c which tries to support it.  It may
 | 
						|
   succeed if libc does the right thing.  I'm not sure whether it does.
 | 
						|
   (Thanks to Kenneth Schalk for pointing out this issue.)
 | 
						|
 - Documented thread local allocation primitives to require an
 | 
						|
   explicit GC_init call.  GC_init_parallel is no longer declared to
 | 
						|
   be a constructor function, since that isn't portable and often
 | 
						|
   seems to lead to initialization order problems.
 | 
						|
 - Changed gc_cpp.cc and gc_cpp.h in one more attempt to make them
 | 
						|
   compatible with Visual C++ 6.  (Thanks to Wink Saville for the
 | 
						|
   patch.)
 | 
						|
 - Some more patches for Linux on HP PA-RISC.
 | 
						|
 - Added include/gc_allocator.h.  It implements (hopefully) standard
 | 
						|
   conforming (as opposed to SGI-style) allocators that allocate
 | 
						|
   collectable (gc_allocator) or GC-traceable, but not collectable
 | 
						|
   (traceable_allocator) objects.  This borrows heavily from libstc++,
 | 
						|
   which borrows heavily from the SGI implementation, this part of
 | 
						|
   which was written by Matt Austern.  Changed test_cpp.cc to very
 | 
						|
   minimally test this.
 | 
						|
 - On Linux/X86, retry mmap with a different start argument.  That should
 | 
						|
   allow the collector to use more (closer to 3GB) of the address space.
 | 
						|
   (Thanks to Jeffrey Mark Siskind for tracking this down.)
 | 
						|
 - Force 64 bit alignment with GCJ support.  (Reflects Bryce McKinley's
 | 
						|
   patch to the gcc tree.)
 | 
						|
 - Refined the choice of sa_handler vs. sa_sigaction in GC_dirty_init
 | 
						|
   to accomodate some glibc5 systems.  (Thanks to Dan Fandrich for the
 | 
						|
   patch.)
 | 
						|
 - Compensated for the fact that current versions of glibc set
 | 
						|
   __libc_stack_end incorrectly on Linux/IA64 while initialization code
 | 
						|
   is running.  This could cause the collector to miss 16 bytes of
 | 
						|
   the memory stack if GC_malloc or friends where called before main().
 | 
						|
 - Mostly integrated Takis Psarogiannakopoulos' port to DG/UX Inix 86.
 | 
						|
   This will probably take another iteration to work, since his
 | 
						|
   patch conflicted with the libtool upgrade. 
 | 
						|
 - Added README.arm.cross containing some information about cross-
 | 
						|
   compiling to an ARM processor from Margaret Fleck.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
Since 6.1alpha4:
 | 
						|
 - Added GC_finalizer_mem_freed, and changed some of the code that
 | 
						|
   decided on heap expansion to look at it.  Memory explicitly
 | 
						|
   deallocated by finalizers essentially needs to be counted as reclaimed
 | 
						|
   by the GC.  Otherwise there are cases in which the heap can grow
 | 
						|
   unboundedly.  (Thanks to Mark Reichert for the test case.)
 | 
						|
 - Integrated Adam Megacz patches to not scan dynamic libraries if
 | 
						|
   we are compiling with gcc on win32.  Otherwise we need structured
 | 
						|
   exception handling to deal with asynchronously unmapped root
 | 
						|
   segments, and gcc doesn't directly support that.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated Anthony Green's patch to support Wine.
 | 
						|
 - GC_OPERATOR_NEW_ARRAY was misspelled OPERATOR_NEW_ARRAY in several
 | 
						|
   places, including gc_cpp.cc.  (Thanks to Wink Saville for pointing
 | 
						|
   this out.)
 | 
						|
 - Integrated Loren James Rittle's Alpha FreeBSD patches.  In
 | 
						|
   response to Richard Henderson's suggestion, these also
 | 
						|
   changed the declarations of symbols like _end on many platforms to
 | 
						|
   that they wouldn't mistakenly be declared as short data symbols.
 | 
						|
 - Integrated changes from the Debian distribution.  (Thanks to Ryan Murray
 | 
						|
   for pointing these out.)  Fix C++ comments in POWERPC port.  Add ARM32
 | 
						|
   incremental GC support.  Get rid of USE_GENERIC_PUSH_REGS for alpha/Linux,
 | 
						|
   this time for real.  Use va_copy to get rid of cord printf problems
 | 
						|
   (finally).
 | 
						|
 - Close file descriptor used to count cpus.  Thanks to Jeff Sturm for
 | 
						|
   pointing out the omission.
 | 
						|
 - Don't just drop gcj free lists in GC_start_reclaim, since that can
 | 
						|
   eventually cause the marker to see a bogus mark descriptor in the 
 | 
						|
   dropped objects.  The usual symptom was a very intermittent segmentation
 | 
						|
   fault in the marker.  This mattered only if one of the GC_gcj_malloc
 | 
						|
   variants was used.  (Thanks to Michael Smith, Jeff Sturm, Bryce
 | 
						|
   McKinley and Tom Tromey for helping to track this down.)
 | 
						|
 - Fixed Linux and Solaris/64 SPARC configuration.  (Thanks to David Miller,
 | 
						|
   Jeff Sturm, Tom Tromey, and Christian Joensson.)
 | 
						|
 - Fixed a typo in strdup definition.  (Thanks to Gerard A Allan.)
 | 
						|
 - Changed Makefile.direct to invoke $(CC) to assemble alpha_mach_dep.S.
 | 
						|
   This is needed on Linux.  I'm not sure whether it's better or worse
 | 
						|
   on Tru64.
 | 
						|
 - Changed gc_cpp.h once more to declare operator new and friends only in
 | 
						|
   a Microsoft environment.  This may need further fine tuning.  (Thanks to
 | 
						|
   Johannes Schmidt for pointing out that the older code breaks on gcc3.0.4.)
 | 
						|
 - Don't ever override strdup if it's already macro defined.  (Thanks to
 | 
						|
   Adnan Ali for pointing out the problem.)
 | 
						|
 - Changed gc_cpp.h yet again to also overload placement new.  Due to the
 | 
						|
   C++ overloading rules, the other overloaded new operations otherwise hide
 | 
						|
   placement new, which causes many STL uses to break.  (Thanks to Reza
 | 
						|
   Shahidi for reporting this, and to Matt Austern for proposing a fix.)
 | 
						|
 - Integrated cygwin pthreads support from Dan Bonachea.
 | 
						|
 - Turn on DYNAMIC_LOADING for NetBSD.  (Thanks to Krister Walfridsson.)
 | 
						|
 - Changed printing code to print more complete GC times.
 | 
						|
 - Applied Mark Mitchell's Irix patch to correct some bitrot.
 | 
						|
 - Clarified which object-printing routines in dbg_mlc.c should hold
 | 
						|
   the allocation lock.  Restructured the code to allow reasonable object
 | 
						|
   printing with -DREDIRECT_MALLOC.
 | 
						|
 - Fix the Linux mmap code to always start with 0x1000 as the initial hint.
 | 
						|
   Minor patches for 64-bit AIX, particularly to STACKBOTTOM.
 | 
						|
   (Thanks again to Jeffrey Mark Siskind.)
 | 
						|
 - Renamed "SUSPENDED" flag for Solaris threads support to avoid a conflict
 | 
						|
   with a system header. (Thanks to Philp Brown.)
 | 
						|
 
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
To do:
 | 
						|
 - --enable-redirect-malloc is mostly untested and known not to work
 | 
						|
   on some platforms. 
 | 
						|
 - The win32 collector ends up tracing some (most?) objects allocated with
 | 
						|
   the system allocator, in spite if the fact that it tries not to.
 | 
						|
   This costs time and space, though it remains correct.
 | 
						|
   We need a way to identify memory regions used by the system malloc(),
 | 
						|
   or an alternate way to locate dll data areas.  A very partial
 | 
						|
   workaround is to use GC_malloc_atomic_uncollectable() instead of
 | 
						|
   the system malloc() for most allocation.
 | 
						|
 - There seem to be outstanding issues on Solaris/X86, possibly with
 | 
						|
   finding the data segment starting address.  Information/patches would
 | 
						|
   be appreciated.
 | 
						|
 - Very large root set sizes (> 16 MB or so) could cause the collector
 | 
						|
   to abort with an unexpected mark stack overflow.  (Thanks again to
 | 
						|
   Peter Chubb.)  NOT YET FIXED.  Workaround is to increase the initial
 | 
						|
   size.
 | 
						|
 - The SGI version of the collector marks from mmapped pages, even
 | 
						|
   if they are not part of dynamic library static data areas.  This
 | 
						|
   causes performance problems with some SGI libraries that use mmap
 | 
						|
   as a bitmap allocator.  NOT YET FIXED.  It may be possible to turn
 | 
						|
   off DYNAMIC_LOADING in the collector as a workaround.  It may also
 | 
						|
   be possible to conditionally intercept mmap and use GC_exclude_static_roots.
 | 
						|
   The real fix is to walk rld data structures, which looks possible.
 | 
						|
 - Incremental collector should handle large objects better.  Currently,
 | 
						|
   it looks like the whole object is treated as dirty if any part of it
 | 
						|
   is.
 | 
						|
 
 |