Re: HEADS UP: finalizer changes coming in GHC 6.10.2

Thanks Simon,

great stuff; I like the introduction of these  'native code finalizers', 
they've
been sorely missed at times.

You don't say, but will there be a dynamic check to catch such re-entries?

--sigbjorn

On 1/14/2009 04:14, Simon Marlow wrote:
> By popular demand, GHC 6.10.2 will support finalizers that are 
> actually guaranteed to run, and run promptly.  There aren't any API 
> changes: this happens for finalizers created using newForeignPtr as 
> normal.
>
> However, there's a catch.  Previously it was possible to call back 
> into Haskell from a finalizer (finalizers are C functions), by using 
> foreign import "wrapper" or foreign export.  According to the FFI 
> spec, whether this is allowed or not is "system dependent".  In GHC 
> 6.10.1 and earlier it was allowed, but in 6.10.2 and later it is not.  
> The reason being that C finalizers are now executed directly by the 
> GC, when the runtime is not in a position to handle callbacks.
>
> You can still have fully-fledged Haskell finalizers if you want: we 
> have Foreign.Concurrent.newForeignPtr for that purpose.  But those 
> finalizers are not subject to the same promptness guarantees that you 
> get with C finalizers - they run in a separate thread, and are not 
> guaranteed to be run at program exit.
>
> We'll make sure this is documented prominently in the 6.10.2 release 
> notes, but I thought a heads-up would be a good idea right now as it 
> turns out that there are existing libraries (e.g. LLVM) that will be 
> affected.
>
> Cheers,
>     Simon
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