How to bypass "stack level too deep (SystemStackError)" Error - ruby

(using OS X 10.9.4) I have this cool Ruby script which scans system/firewall logs and tells me if anything odd is happening. The script runs on a 1 second loop, however at exactly the 3852nd iteration, the script terminates with a "stack level too deep (SystemStackError)" error.
I am not new to this error and it seems to appear when a script enters a loop, and the system sandbox (probably) terminates it after a set amount of time or a specific parameter is reached.
I attempted to bypass the error by running the script as root, however this had no effect. I have also considered programming another script to relaunch the original script when it detects its absence in the command: ps -efs' output, however this is a very 'clunky' method which i would prefer to avoid.
I have also conducted some research into the error on the "Stack Overflow", however only found questions answered by altering the offending script ,as the error is in their case due to a bug in the code, which is not the case for me.
So my question:
Is there any possible way to bypass the "stack level too deep (SystemStackError)" error
Thanks in advance, greatly appreciated.

Related

Trap flag, debuggers and misc

This is my first question in Stack Overflow, since up until now, I always managed to find my answers.
So.. I'm writing a debbuger (for Windows, in python, using WinAppDbg library) that should trace the program execution, and encountered some problems.
I'm setting the trap flag, so I could stop every single step.
First problem - sometimes the execution flow goes through a Windows api, which goes to the kernel. When it returns, obviously the trap flag is off, and the execution of the thread may continue millions of instructions without my debbuger tracing every step of it.
Chance of solution - before a Windows api is called, I set the next addresses permissions as guard page, thus when the call returns, I get a guard page exception, setting the trap flag again, and continue tracing. But this cause a different problem (I call it "second problem")
Second problem - since I'm setting the trap flag of my main thread, all I see is a loop of that thread (I guess it's the Windows gui loop), and the program execution isn't advancing (for example, there should be new threads created, but I don't see them).
So what am I looking for?
A debugger's source code that can handle the problems I've described.
Or better yet, a solution to my problems. What am I doing wrong?
Thank you all!

Windows 7 task scheduler keeps returning operational code 2

I set up a scheduled task to run under my account. Everything it runs, even if it is successful, returns an operational code of (2). I looked this up this error code at the below link, and it claims it cannot find the specific file.
http://www.hiteksoftware.com/knowledge/articles/049.htm
Even if I do something very simple, I get back operational code of (2). For example:
run program: cmd.exe
start in path: c:\windows\system32
I start the task and I see the process running in my task manager, so I kill the task. I then check in the history of scheduled task and it shows up as (2).
Something more realistic of what I am doing:
<?
/* file in c:\php\test.php */
echo "hello";
?>
run program: php.exe
start in path: c:\php
arguments: -f test.php
Everything works in the command line, but Windows schedule task keeps returning operational code (2). I should be seeing an operational code of (0), which means successful, correct?
You may not have put a path in the "Start In (Optional) box of the Edit Action dialog box.
Even though you had a path on the program that was being executed, Windows 7 still wants you to tell it where to run the program.
TL/DR: Don't worry about it. This just means the task finished, but tells you nothing about whether it was successful or how it failed. Look at the "Last Run Result" for that information.
The question and the top answer are confusing the notion of a "return code", which shows up in Task Scheduler as the "Last Run Result" with the "OpCode"/"Operational Code" that shows up in the history of a task.
If I create a simple Python program that does nothing more than sys.exit(7), and run it via task scheduler, I get a Last Run Result of 0x7, and an opcode of 2. If I have it do nothing, or sys.exit(0), I get a Last Run Result of "The operation completed successfully (0x0)" and still an opcode of 2. In other words, the return code from the executed program determines the Last Run Result. The OpCode appears to be a constant 2. This also establishes that the opcode 2 is not related to the return code 2 that likely means the file's not found. We know the file was found as it executed, and returned different Last Run Results depending on the code contained.
Further, a Windows forum post points out that this history view is really coming out of the event log. Sure enough, I can find the same events in the event log (always with a value of 2). This means the definition of the OpCode is going to be the same as the definition used for events, and is less of a task scheduler concept than a Windows event concept.
What is an opcode for an event? I've struggled to get a clear answer, but as best I can tell, it appears it's ultimately controlled by the program writing to the event log. There's documentation around for defining opcodes in your program. In this case, the thing writing to the event log would be Task Scheduler itself or something else in Windows.
A final observation: If I go to the event viewer and look for Log: Microsoft-Windows-TaskScheduler/Operational, Source: Microsoft-Windows-TaskScheduler and Event ID: 102,201, add the column for Operational Code, and sort, I see it is always a 2. And events 100 and 200 are always a 1. This applies not just to my manual experiments, but also includes every other random program that's using scheduled tasks, e.g. Dropbox and Google updaters that are working as far as I know.
Put all this together and I would strongly bet that the events generated while starting up a scheduled task are hardcoded by Windows to use an opcode of 1 when writing to the event log, and the events generated while finishing a task (successful or not - which goes in the Last Run Result) are hardcoded by Windows to use an opcode of 2 when writing to the event log. This opcode appears to be a red herring that doesn't affect anything we need to worry about beyond curiosity.
I was striking out until I just deleted & re-created the scheduled task...now it works. Don't know why but there it is.
Okay I know I am late to the party here, but I think a lot of the problem stems from confusing the Operational Code with a Return Code. I'm not an expert in Windows programming or internals (I make a living using a Windows system to program, but my programming isn't for Windows systems).
If I understand correctly:
The Operational Code is set by what ever routine being run at whatever value the programmer decided to set it at.
The Return Code is indicative of success or failure.
Consider the following (edited) example from the history of one of my scheduled tasks:
Event 201, Task Category "Action completed" shows an Operational Code of (2).
Down below under the General tab, is the message:
Task Scheduler successfully completed task "\My_task" , instance "{xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}" , action "C:.....\blahblah.exe" with return code 0.
There's the indication of success. A different return code would indicate a failure. The Operational Code of (2) merely indicates that the routine was finished (in this case) when reported. I don't believe there's any set values to be interpreted for the Operation Code.
I've been having a similar issue and found that in addition to what was suggested in both the accepted answer and its comments I had to do one other thing. I had to re-create the task and set its "configure for" to Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, or Windows 2000 I dont understand why, since its not for any of those OS' but after I did so my task actually worked.
If this runs, and works, yet you still get an error code try entering exit 0 at the end of your script.
It took me a lot of googling to find that so hopefully this is helpful to someone.
#ojchase is right.
Opcodes are attached to events by the event provider. An opcode defines a numeric value that identifies the activity or a point within an activity that the application was performing when it raised the event.
Opcode 1 means that, when producing the event, the application was in the start of an activity.
Opcode 2 means that, when producing the event, the app. was at the end of an activity.
So opcodes have little to do with success or failure.
Sources:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.diagnostics.eventing.reader.standardeventopcode?view=net-5.0
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.diagnostics.eventing.reader.eventopcode?view=net-5.0

(Re)starting Matlab after error from error location

I'm debugging a matlab script that takes ~10 minutes to run. Towards the end of the script I do some i/o and simple calculations with my results, and I keep running into errors. Is there a way to start matlab from a certain sport in a script after it exits with an error--the data is still in the workspace so I could just comment out all of the code up until the error point, but I'm wondering if anyone knows a better way to go about doing this without rerunning the entire script (the ultra-lazy/inefficient way)?
Thanks,
Colorado
Yes, use dbstop. Type dbstop if error and then run your script. The minute it hits an error, it will create a breakpoint there and you're in the workspace of the script --- which means you can debug the error, save data ; anything you want! Here's a snippet from the documentation for dbstop if error --- there are other ways to do dbstop, so do check it out:
dbstop if error
Stops execution when any MATLAB program file you subsequently run produces a run-time error, putting MATLAB in debug mode, paused at the line that generated the error. The errors that stop execution do not include run-time errors that are detected within a try...catch block. You cannot resume execution after an uncaught run-time error. Use dbquit to exit from debug mode.
Double percent signs will enable 'cell mode' which lets you run little blocks of code in steps. Sounds like just what youre looking for.

The bizarre case of the file that both is and isn’t there

In .Net 3.5, I have the following code.
If File.Exists(sFilePath & IndexFileName & ".NX") Then
Kill(sFilePath & IndexFileName & ".NX")
End If
At runtime, on one client's machine, I get the following exception, over and over, when this code executes
Source: Microsoft.VisualBasic
TargetSite: Microsoft.VisualBasic.FileSystem.Kill
Message: No files found matching 'I:\RPG\HGIAPVXD.NX'.
StackTrace:
at Microsoft.VisualBasic.FileSystem.Kill(String PathName)
(More trace that identifies the exact line of code.)
There are two people on different machines running this code, but only one of them is getting the exception. The exception does not happen every time, but it is happening regularly. (Multiple times every hour.) The code is not in a loop, nor does it run continuously, more like once every couple of minutes or so.
On the surface, this looks like a race condition, but given how infrequently this code is run and how often the error is happening I think there must be something else going on.
I would appreciate any suggestions on how I can track down what is really going on here. A solution to keep the error from happening would be even better.
I guess the first question to ask is "IS the file really there or not?" and if so, does it have any specical attributes (Is it Read-only or Hidden, or System --- or a Directory)?
Note the Microsoft.VisualBasic.FileSystem.Kill specifically looks for, and silently skips, any file marked "System" or "Hidden". For pretty much any other problem you would have gotten a different exception.
as James pointed out the Kill functions checks if the file in case is a system or hidden, you better use System.IO.File.Delete() instead
Try
System.IO.File.Delete(sFilePath & IndexFileName & ".NX")
Catch ex As System.Exception
...
End Try
using File.Exits is not neccasary because File.Delete() checks this by itself.
Is there any chance that the I: drive is a network drive? it could be some network issue... or then maybe a race condition

amzi prolog + eclipse question

hey guys i have a question regarding amzi prolog with eclipse,
Im running a .pro file which executes a breadth first search and if queue gets too long,
the following error message appears:
system_error 1021 Control stack full.
Compile code or increase .cfg
parameter 'control'
If so, how may i run the compiled code under eclipse? I've tried running the project but the listener just ends without accepting any queries....?
Control stack full means one of two things:
You have a deep recursion that exhausts the control stack. In that case you need to increase the default value of 'control' in your amzi.cfg file. You may find you that have to increase 'heap', 'trail' and/or 'local' as well.
You have an error in your program causing an infinite recursion.
Running the program in the debugger will show you which case you've got. In the initial case you will see it digging deeper and deeper for a solution. In the later case you will see it chasing it's tail in circles with each recursion the same as the one before, but with different variables.
I don't know amzi prolog (I only used SICStus and SWI), and never used Eclipse for prolog, but as the error message says, try compiling (instead of consulting) your code. Look under project/properties for build configurations (like run/deug, as it works for Java/C++). Hopefully, that ".cfg paramerer" can also be accessed through project/properties.

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