Shouldn't rely on result value returned by DRb to be implicitly convertible to integer

[jscheid]

Hi there,

this fixes a problem that occurs when using rspec 2.6.1 together with spork 0.9.0.rc (and possibly other versions). I am mystified why apparently nobody else is running into this issue, but I can reproduce it like so:

• Run spork 0.9.0.rc in rspec mode (on a sporkified rails 3 app in my case)
• Run latest rspec with the --drb flag on any old test

Everything works fine, but a "TypeError: can't convert DRb::DRbObject into Integer" will be raised at the very end. Not a big problem but definitely irritating as it makes it harder to see rspec's "X examples, Y failures" output.

I've had a look at both rspec and spork code and here's what I think happens. Spork runs the tests in a forked child process and marshals/unmarshals the test result (an integer in rspec's case) via an IO object to bridge the parent/child process boundary, then passes the IO object back to rspec proxied by a DRb::DRbObject. The combination of DRbObject and IO object prevents an implicit conversion to integer, causing the TypeError to be raised.

At first I was thinking of fixing this issue in spork code, however this is tricky due to spork's generic architecture. Casting the IO object to an integer or even just a string on the spork side of things feels like it's taking away from spork's genericalness. For example, as far as I can tell it would preclude other spork clients from lazy-loading or incrementally loading a large result value.

In comparison, this fix appears to be straightforward and unintrusive, and in line with Postel's Law. Do you agree?

I thought about including a test case but due to the problem occurring at the shell/rspec process boundary under only very specific circumstances I found it hard to come up with a concise one that doesn't complicate things unnecessarily. If you insist on having a test, could somebody give me a hand with it?

[dchelimsky]

What ruby version are you running?

[jscheid]

Thanks for merging this.

FWIW I am running JRuby 1.6.1 but I verified Ruby 1.8 and 1.9 to barf in the same way when int-in-IO-in-DRbObject is passed to exit().

[molfar]

Still have this problem. Using latest
gem 'rspec-rails', git: 'git://github.com/rspec/rspec-rails.git'
gem 'rspec-mocks', git: 'git://github.com/rspec/rspec-mocks.git'

and get error message
Exception encountered:
TypeError: can't convert DRb::DRbObject to Integer (DRb::DRbObject to_int gives DRb::DRbObject)
backtrace:
(druby://localhost:52358) /Users/molfar/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:375:in `_id2ref'

[alindeman]

Can you paste the full backtrace?

[molfar]

iMac:my_project molfar$ bundle exec spork
Using RSpec, Rails
Preloading Rails environment
Loading Spork.prefork block...
Spork is ready and listening on 8989!
Running tests with args ["--color", "--format", "documentation", "spec/controllers/"]...
Exception encountered: #<TypeError: can't convert DRb::DRbObject to Integer (DRb::DRbObject#to_int gives DRb::DRbObject)>
backtrace:
(druby://localhost:52915) /Users/molfar/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:375:in _id2ref' (druby://localhost:52915) /Users/molfar/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:375:into_obj'
(druby://localhost:52915) /Users/molfar/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:1410:in to_obj' (druby://localhost:52915) /Users/molfar/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:1708:into_obj'
(druby://localhost:52915) /Users/molfar/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:613:in recv_request' (druby://localhost:52915) /Users/molfar/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:908:inrecv_request'
(druby://localhost:52915) /Users/molfar/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:1523:in init_with_client' (druby://localhost:52915) /Users/molfar/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:1535:insetup_message'
(druby://localhost:52915) /Users/molfar/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:1487:in perform' (druby://localhost:52915) /Users/molfar/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:1586:inblock (2 levels) in main_loop'
(druby://localhost:52915) /Users/molfar/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:1582:in loop' (druby://localhost:52915) /Users/molfar/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:1582:inblock in main_loop'
/Users/molfar/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:1074:in respond_to?' /Users/molfar/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/spork-1.0.0rc3/lib/spork/run_strategy/forking.rb:10:inblock in run'
/Users/molfar/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/spork-1.0.0rc3/lib/spork/forker.rb:21:in block in initialize' /Users/molfar/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/spork-1.0.0rc3/lib/spork/forker.rb:18:infork'
/Users/molfar/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/spork-1.0.0rc3/lib/spork/forker.rb:18:in initialize' /Users/molfar/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/spork-1.0.0rc3/lib/spork/run_strategy/forking.rb:9:innew'
/Users/molfar/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/spork-1.0.0rc3/lib/spork/run_strategy/forking.rb:9:in run' /Users/molfar/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/spork-1.0.0rc3/lib/spork/server.rb:48:inrun'
/Users/molfar/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:1548:in perform_without_block' /Users/molfar/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:1508:inperform'
/Users/molfar/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:1586:in block (2 levels) in main_loop' /Users/molfar/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:1582:inloop'
/Users/molfar/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:1582:in `block in main_loop'
Done.

[alindeman]

RSpec isn't in that backtrace. I'm not sure where to start looking. Maybe it's more of a spork issue?

[molfar]

Issue num.1
Using rspec-core (2.14.0.rc1)
Using rspec-expectations (2.14.0.rc1)
Using rspec-mocks (2.14.0.rc1)
Using rspec-rails (2.14.0.rc1) from git://github.com/rspec/rspec-rails.git (at master)

-->> Spork runs ok, but when I run rspec spec/ --drb - I have no output at all. But spork shows that tests had been running. With --no-drb - everything works ok.

Issue num.2
Using rspec-core (2.14.0.rc1)
Using rspec-expectations (2.14.0.rc1)
Using rspec-mocks (2.14.0.rc1) from git://github.com/rspec/rspec-mocks.git (at master)
Using rspec-rails (2.14.0.rc1) from git://github.com/rspec/rspec-rails.git (at master)

-->> The same no output from rspec spec/ --drb. But spork at this time shows error Exception encountered: TypeError: can't convert DRb::DRbObject to Integer (DRb::DRbObject to_int gives DRb::DRbObject). Without drb everything is ok again.

No output means
iMac:proj molfar$ bundle exec rspec spec/
iMac:proj molfar$

[myronmarston]

This sounds like the other drb issue reported this week. It was an issue with rspec-mocks' marshal extension. There's a fix for it in an rspec-mocks PR. I'd include links but I'm on my phone.

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 29, 2013, at 1:37 PM, molfar notifications@github.com wrote:

Issue num.1
Using rspec-core (2.14.0.rc1)
Using rspec-expectations (2.14.0.rc1)
Using rspec-mocks (2.14.0.rc1)
Using rspec-rails (2.14.0.rc1) from git://github.com/rspec/rspec-rails.git (at master)

-->> Spork runs ok, but when I run rspec spec/ --drb - I have no output at all. But spork shows that tests had been running. With --no-drb - everything works ok.

Issue num.2
Using rspec-core (2.14.0.rc1)
Using rspec-expectations (2.14.0.rc1)
Using rspec-mocks (2.14.0.rc1) from git://github.com/rspec/rspec-mocks.git (at master)
Using rspec-rails (2.14.0.rc1) from git://github.com/rspec/rspec-rails.git (at master)

-->> The same no output from rspec spec/ --drb. But spork at this time shows error Exception encountered: TypeError: can't convert DRb::DRbObject to Integer (DRb::DRbObject to_int gives DRb::DRbObject). Without drb everything is ok too.

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[molfar]

I saw that pull request. And yes, branch fix-rspec-core-issue-950 fixes the issue. DRB error has gone away. But why that patch isnt in maaster branch yet?

[myronmarston]

We were trying to figure out how to test it to prevent future regressions.

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 29, 2013, at 9:07 PM, molfar notifications@github.com wrote:

I saw that pull request. And yes, branch fix-rspec-core-issue-950 fixes the issue. DRB error has gone away. But why that patch isnt in maaster branch yet?

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