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Stack overflow: stack trace and nix debugger support#8879

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hercules-ci:stack-overflow
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Stack overflow: stack trace and nix debugger support#8879
roberth wants to merge 1 commit intoNixOS:masterfrom
hercules-ci:stack-overflow

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@roberth
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@roberth roberth commented Aug 29, 2023 •
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Motivation

note
This is distinct from infinite recursion errors, which are already handled properly.

Try it with for example:

nix run github:hercules-ci/nix/stack-overflow -- build .#my-package

Provide means to solve stack overflows in Nix code.

  • Stack trace
  • Launch the debugger

TODO:

  • solve the TODOs in the code. (Sorry for the low effort, as I had to write this from my not so great backup laptop for unrelated reasons)
  • figure out what's the deal with frameOnly. If I don't comment it out, the trace just stops! Understand frame traces #8906
  • add test
  • support coroutines and test with overflow in source filter

Context

Checklist for maintainers

Maintainers: tick if completed or explain if not relevant

  • agreed on idea
  • agreed on implementation strategy
  • tests, as appropriate
    • functional tests - tests/**.sh
    • unit tests - src/*/tests
    • integration tests - tests/nixos/*
  • documentation in the manual
  • documentation in the internal API docs
  • code and comments are self-explanatory
  • commit message explains why the change was made
  • new feature or incompatible change: updated release notes

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@roberth roberth mentioned this pull request Aug 29, 2023
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roberth added a commit to hercules-ci/nix that referenced this pull request Sep 3, 2023
@roberth
traces: Do not print unknown location
4c50f5d 
Solves 1/3 of the infinite recursion at unknown location meme.
See NixOS#8879 for ensuring we always have a trace (for stack overflows)
We might want to re-add this for finding missing location info
*while hacking on that problem only*.
This was referenced Sep 3, 2023
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@roberth roberth mentioned this pull request Oct 10, 2023
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@Fuuzetsu
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Fuuzetsu commented Oct 13, 2023

I just want to say "thank you"! I managed to get a stack overflow using this patch. I had to set doCheck = false but other than that it seems to work for me!

@yajo
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yajo commented Oct 16, 2023

I'm still not being able to diagnose my endless recursion. I set doCheck = false in flake.nix and ran eval against the flake where I have the problem, using nix from this PR. Exit code 1. Logs: nix-log.txt (I think those aren't very helpful).

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yajo commented Oct 16, 2023

I also tested with a publicly reproducible case: #6361 (comment)

Still unhelpful: nix-log.txt

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Fuuzetsu commented Oct 17, 2023

I also tested with a publicly reproducible case: #6361 (comment)

Still unhelpful: nix-log.txt

I'm able to confirm that it indeed doesn't seem to work for this case. Maybe something about import from derivation..? Who knows.

@roberth
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roberth commented Oct 17, 2023

That probably happens because source filtering happens on a coroutine stack instead of the main thread stack.
Their stack protection pages should also be included. Added to TODO.

@roberth roberth mentioned this pull request Dec 18, 2023
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@roberth roberth added bug error-messages Confusing messages and better diagnostics language The Nix expression language; parser, interpreter, primops, evaluation, etc labels Dec 18, 2023
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bug error-messages Confusing messages and better diagnostics language The Nix expression language; parser, interpreter, primops, evaluation, etc

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Stack overflow detection is broken except on x86_64-linux Impossible to trace error: stack overflow (possible infinite recursion)

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@roberth @Fuuzetsu @yajo