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Fix a segfault.
this patch fixes a rare but reproducible segfault observed playing a
multi-threaded match, it is discussed somewhat in fishcooking.

From the core file, it could be observed that the issue was in qsearch, namely:

````
   ss->pv[0] = MOVE_NONE;
````

and the backtrace shows the it arrives there via razoring, called from the rootNode:

````
    (gdb) bt
    alpha=-19, beta=682, depth=DEPTH_ZERO) at search.cpp:1247
````

Indeed, ss->pv can indeed by a nullptr at the rootNode. However, why is the
segfault so rare ?

The reason is that the condition that guards razoring:

````
   (depth < 2 * ONE_PLY &&  eval <= alpha - RazorMargin)
````

is almost never true, since at the root alpha for depth < 5 is -VALUE_INFINITE.

Nevertheless with the new failHigh scheme, this is not guaranteed, and rootDepth > 5,
can still result in a depth < 2 search at the rootNode. If now another thread,
via the hash, writes a new low eval to the rootPos qsearch can be entered.
Rare but not unseen... I assume that some of the crashes in fishtest recently
might be due to this.

Closes #1860

No functional change
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vondele authored and snicolet committed Dec 16, 2018
1 parent fda0161 commit 4e2bb8f
Showing 1 changed file with 5 additions and 2 deletions.
7 changes: 5 additions & 2 deletions src/search.cpp
Expand Up @@ -303,6 +303,7 @@ void MainThread::search() {
void Thread::search() {

Stack stack[MAX_PLY+7], *ss = stack+4; // To reference from (ss-4) to (ss+2)
Move pv[MAX_PLY+1];
Value bestValue, alpha, beta, delta;
Move lastBestMove = MOVE_NONE;
Depth lastBestMoveDepth = DEPTH_ZERO;
Expand All @@ -314,6 +315,7 @@ void Thread::search() {
std::memset(ss-4, 0, 7 * sizeof(Stack));
for (int i = 4; i > 0; i--)
(ss-i)->continuationHistory = &this->continuationHistory[NO_PIECE][0]; // Use as sentinel
ss->pv = pv;

bestValue = delta = alpha = -VALUE_INFINITE;
beta = VALUE_INFINITE;
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -756,8 +758,9 @@ namespace {
}

// Step 7. Razoring (~2 Elo)
if ( depth < 2 * ONE_PLY
&& eval <= alpha - RazorMargin)
if ( !rootNode // The required rootNode PV handling is not available in qsearch
&& depth < 2 * ONE_PLY
&& eval <= alpha - RazorMargin)
return qsearch<NT>(pos, ss, alpha, beta);

improving = ss->staticEval >= (ss-2)->staticEval
Expand Down

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