Thread

  1. write past chunk end in ExprContext / to_char

    Patrick Welche <prlw1@newn.cam.ac.uk> — 2007-06-28T18:16:51Z

    With today's CVS code (originally noticed with 8.2beta3), on a PC where
    INT_MAX=0x7FFFFFFF=2147483647
    
    postgres=# select version();
                                                                 version                                                             
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     PostgreSQL 8.3devel on i386-unknown-netbsdelf4.99.20, compiled by GCC gcc (GCC) 4.1.2 20070110 prerelease (NetBSD nb1 20070603)
    (1 row)
    
    postgres=# select to_char(2147483647,'999,999,999');
       to_char    
    --------------
      ###,###,###
    (1 row)
    
    postgres=# select to_char(2147483648,'999,999,999');
    WARNING:  detected write past chunk end in ExprContext 0x845509c
    WARNING:  detected write past chunk end in ExprContext 0x845509c
       to_char    
    --------------
      ###,###,###
    (1 row)
    
    postgres=# select to_char(2147483648,'99,999,999');
       to_char   
    -------------
      ##,###,###
    (1 row)
    
    postgres=# select to_char(2147483648,'9,999,999,999');
        to_char     
    ----------------
      2,147,483,648
    (1 row)
    
    postgres=# select to_char(1234567890123,'999,999,999,999');
    WARNING:  detected write past chunk end in ExprContext 0x845509c
    WARNING:  detected write past chunk end in ExprContext 0x845509c
         to_char      
    ------------------
      ###,###,###,###
    (1 row)
    
    postgres=# select to_char(1234567890123,'99,999,999,999');
         to_char     
    -----------------
      ##,###,###,###
    (1 row)
    
    So strangely, to get the worrying WARNING, I seem to need >INT_MAX with
    a format string with 1 less positions than necessary - no wonder I
    seemed to only see it randomly...
    
    Thoughts?
    
    Cheers,
    
    Patrick
    
    
  2. Re: write past chunk end in ExprContext / to_char

    Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@commandprompt.com> — 2007-06-28T18:29:12Z

    Patrick Welche wrote:
    > With today's CVS code (originally noticed with 8.2beta3), on a PC where
    > INT_MAX=0x7FFFFFFF=2147483647
    > 
    > postgres=# select to_char(1234567890123,'999,999,999,999');
    > WARNING:  detected write past chunk end in ExprContext 0x845509c
    > WARNING:  detected write past chunk end in ExprContext 0x845509c
    >      to_char      
    > ------------------
    >   ###,###,###,###
    > (1 row)
    
    Yes, it fails in 7.3, 7.4, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2 and HEAD.  Thanks for the
    report.
    
    -- 
    Alvaro Herrera                  http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/5ZYLFMCVHXC
    "Executive Executive Summary: The [Windows] Vista Content Protection
     specification could very well constitute the longest suicide note in history."
          Peter Guttman, http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.txt
    
    
  3. Re: write past chunk end in ExprContext / to_char

    Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> — 2007-06-28T19:09:38Z

    Patrick Welche <prlw1@newn.cam.ac.uk> writes:
    > With today's CVS code (originally noticed with 8.2beta3), on a PC where
    > INT_MAX=0x7FFFFFFF=2147483647
    
    > postgres=# select to_char(2147483648,'999,999,999');
    > WARNING:  detected write past chunk end in ExprContext 0x845509c
    > WARNING:  detected write past chunk end in ExprContext 0x845509c
    
    Yech ... it's scribbling on the output of int8out, which is bad enough,
    but it's assuming that buffer will be long enough when it demonstrably
    isn't.
    
    Some days I think we ought to throw out formatting.c and rewrite it from
    scratch; it's probably the most poorly-coded module in all of Postgres.
    
    			regards, tom lane
    
    
  4. Re: write past chunk end in ExprContext / to_char

    imad <immaad@gmail.com> — 2007-06-28T19:53:31Z

    This is the problematic part in formatting.c, function "dch_time".
    
    				int			siz = strlen(tmtcTzn(tmtc));
    
    				if (arg == DCH_TZ)
    					strcpy(inout, tmtcTzn(tmtc));
    				else
    				{
    					char	   *p = palloc(siz);
    
    					strcpy(p, tmtcTzn(tmtc));
    					strcpy(inout, str_tolower(p));
    					pfree(p);
    				}
    				return siz;
    
    
    here, doing a palloc with "siz+1" solves the issue but following /
    making the convention, pstrdup should be used instead which is
    specifically written for this purpose.
    
    Probably too small a change for a patch ?
    
    
    --Imad
    www.EnterpriseDB.com
    
    
    On 6/29/07, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
    > Patrick Welche <prlw1@newn.cam.ac.uk> writes:
    > > With today's CVS code (originally noticed with 8.2beta3), on a PC where
    > > INT_MAX=0x7FFFFFFF=2147483647
    >
    > > postgres=# select to_char(2147483648,'999,999,999');
    > > WARNING:  detected write past chunk end in ExprContext 0x845509c
    > > WARNING:  detected write past chunk end in ExprContext 0x845509c
    >
    > Yech ... it's scribbling on the output of int8out, which is bad enough,
    > but it's assuming that buffer will be long enough when it demonstrably
    > isn't.
    >
    > Some days I think we ought to throw out formatting.c and rewrite it from
    > scratch; it's probably the most poorly-coded module in all of Postgres.
    >
    >                         regards, tom lane
    >
    > ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
    > TIP 9: In versions below 8.0, the planner will ignore your desire to
    >        choose an index scan if your joining column's datatypes do not
    >        match
    >
    
    
  5. Re: write past chunk end in ExprContext / to_char

    Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> — 2007-06-29T00:25:46Z

    imad <immaad@gmail.com> writes:
    > This is the problematic part in formatting.c, function "dch_time".
    >                 int            siz = strlen(tmtcTzn(tmtc));
    >
    >                 if (arg == DCH_TZ)
    >                     strcpy(inout, tmtcTzn(tmtc));
    >                 else
    >                 {
    >                     char       *p = palloc(siz);
    >
    >                     strcpy(p, tmtcTzn(tmtc));
    >                     strcpy(inout, str_tolower(p));
    >                     pfree(p);
    >                 }
    >                 return siz;
    
    Hmm.  That was not the buffer overrun I was looking at, but it sure
    looks like another one :-(.  Thanks for spotting it!
    
    			regards, tom lane
    
    
  6. Re: write past chunk end in ExprContext / to_char

    Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> — 2007-06-29T02:41:14Z

    Tom Lane wrote:
    > Patrick Welche <prlw1@newn.cam.ac.uk> writes:
    > > With today's CVS code (originally noticed with 8.2beta3), on a PC where
    > > INT_MAX=0x7FFFFFFF=2147483647
    > 
    > > postgres=# select to_char(2147483648,'999,999,999');
    > > WARNING:  detected write past chunk end in ExprContext 0x845509c
    > > WARNING:  detected write past chunk end in ExprContext 0x845509c
    > 
    > Yech ... it's scribbling on the output of int8out, which is bad enough,
    > but it's assuming that buffer will be long enough when it demonstrably
    > isn't.
    > 
    > Some days I think we ought to throw out formatting.c and rewrite it from
    > scratch; it's probably the most poorly-coded module in all of Postgres.
    
    Agreed from personal experience.  I am in there wacking it around it
    seems every release.
    
    -- 
      Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>          http://momjian.us
      EnterpriseDB                               http://www.enterprisedb.com
    
      + If your life is a hard drive, Christ can be your backup. +