[Rd] interrupting native code

Tue May 20 16:58:59 CEST 2008

I would actually prefer a mechanism that simply returns a flag  
indicating that an interrupt has been requested. Then I would be able  
to clean up and return on my own - no longjmp required. Also, it would  
be useful if there was a function similar to R_ProcessEvents that only  
dealt with keeping the GUI responsive.

Cheers,
Kjell

On 16 mai 08, at 13:54, Luke Tierney wrote:

> I'm not sure you can make this work as some of the things needed
> either are or should be private to the core implementation and not
> available to package code.  In any case I would not recommend this
> approach for two reasons.  First, details of what happens in interrupt
> checking are subject to change and your code would miss those changes
> unless you track them carefully.  More importantly, several things
> here could generate an error that results in a longjmp and leaves your
> code in an unstable state.
>
> What is needed for this is a mechanism for detecting an interrupt but
> not doing the longjmp, just returning a flag that a longjmp is needed
> and enough information to allow it to be made after cleanup code has
> been run.  This has been on my to do list for a while but getting the
> semantics right is tricky and so it hasn't happened yet.  Hopefully it
> will be in 2.8.0.  In the interim you can cobble something together
> using R_ToplevelExec, interpreting all FALSE return values as user
> interrupts.
>
> Another option, also under consideration but not available yet, is a C
> mechanism for registering cleanup operations if a longjmp occurs.  A
> quick and dirty version of that could be provided fairly easily but a
> better version, which would be preferable in the long run, requires a
> rewrite of the code that implements jumps and cleanup/on.exit actions.
> This may take a bit longer to implement.
>
> Best,
>
> luke
>
> On Fri, 16 May 2008, Kjell Konis wrote:
>
>> You mean something like this (I return 1 instead of calling  
>> onintr())? Will HAVE_AQUA and Win32 be appropriately defined when  
>> building my package (I can't see how to check with R CMD config)?
>>
>> int My_CheckUserInterrupt(void)
>> {
>>  R_CheckStack();
>>
>> #if  ( defined(HAVE_AQUA) )
>>
>> /* R_ProcessEvents() from unix/aqua.c*/
>>
>> if (ptr_R_ProcessEvents)
>>  ptr_R_ProcessEvents();
>> if (R_interrupts_pending)
>>  return(1);
>>
>> #elseif ( defined(Win32) )
>>
>> /* R_ProcessEvents() from gnuwin32/system.c */
>>
>>  while (peekevent()) doevent();
>>  if (UserBreak) {
>> 	UserBreak = FALSE;
>> 	return(1);
>>  }
>>  R_CallBackHook();
>>  if(R_tcldo) R_tcldo();
>>
>> #else
>>
>>  R_PolledEvents();
>>  if (R_interrupts_pending)
>> 	return(1);
>>
>> #endif
>>
>> return(0);
>> }
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 16 mai 08, at 12:43, Prof Brian Ripley wrote:
>>
>>> On Fri, 16 May 2008, Kjell Konis wrote:
>>>> The problem is that my package uses an external pointer to keep  
>>>> track of a structure created by the lp_solve library. If I use  
>>>> R_CheckUserInterrupt in the lp_solve abort function it leaves the  
>>>> structure in a messed-up state after an interrupt occurs. I am  
>>>> not even able to free the memory allocated in the structure. I  
>>>> need to be able to tell the lp_solve functions to interrupt  
>>>> themselves if I am going to support interrupts at all.
>>>> I took a longer look at errors.c and it seems my solution should  
>>>> work as long as neither HAVE_AQUA nor Win32 are defined. Under  
>>>> the circumstances, I think that's the best I can do.
>>>> Any suggestions for a UI independent way to check for interrupts  
>>>> would be appreciated.
>>> Why not use the same code as R_CheckUserInterrupt but instead of  
>>> calling onintr, call your own interrupt routine?
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Kjell
>>>> On 15 mai 08, at 16:41, Prof Brian Ripley wrote:
>>>>> How is R_interrupts_pending going to be set?
>>>>> It is set in the interrupt handler for SIGINT, but that is not  
>>>>> the only way to indicate an interrupt, and it is not necessarily  
>>>>> available to users of GUIs and embedded R.
>>>>> Without servicing the GUIs all interaction will be dead,  
>>>>> including sending an interrrupt from menus/buttons/keyboard.   
>>>>> See the comment in the code for R_CheckUserInterrupt.
>>>>> On Thu, 15 May 2008, Kjell Konis wrote:
>>>>>> Hello,
>>>>>> I have some native code that I would like to allow users to  
>>>>>> interrupt. However, I would like to do it more gracefully than  
>>>>>> with R_CheckUserInterrupt(). The solution I came up with is to  
>>>>>> call the following abort function periodically - if it returns  
>>>>>> 1 then I clean up and return.
>>>>>> int __WINAPI RlpSolveAbortFunction(lprec *lp, void *userhandle)
>>>>>> {
>>>>>> if(R_interrupts_pending)
>>>>>> return(1);
>>>>>> return(0);
>>>>>> }
>>>>>> This seems to work fine on Mac (sans Aqua) and Linux. Is this  
>>>>>> going to be portable?  Also, is there anything else I need to  
>>>>>> do?  For instance set R_interrupts_pending to 0 after I respond  
>>>>>> to it?
>>>>>> Thanks.
>>>>>> Kjell
>>>>>> ______________________________________________
>>>>>> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
>>>>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>>>>> -- 
>>>>> Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
>>>>> Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
>>>>> University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
>>>>> 1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
>>>>> Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595
>>>> ______________________________________________
>>>> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
>>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>>> -- 
>>> Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
>>> Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
>>> University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
>>> 1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
>>> Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>
> -- 
> Luke Tierney
> Chair, Statistics and Actuarial Science
> Ralph E. Wareham Professor of Mathematical Sciences
> University of Iowa                  Phone:             319-335-3386
> Department of Statistics and        Fax:               319-335-3017
>   Actuarial Science
> 241 Schaeffer Hall                  email:      luke at stat.uiowa.edu
> Iowa City, IA 52242                 WWW:  http://www.stat.uiowa.edu