BUG: PLIST Corruption or Crash with Call Attributive Profiling (195374)

The information in this article applies to:

The Source Profiler, when used with:
- Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Enterprise Edition 5.0
- Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Enterprise Edition 6.0
- Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Professional Edition 5.0
- Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Professional Edition 6.0
- Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Learning Edition 6.0

This article was previously published under Q195374

SYMPTOMS

When using PLIST to format the output of a profile session in which you have used call attributive profiling, the output could be corrupt or you could receive an access violation such as the following.

The instruction at "0x004064ab" referenced memory at "0x73207373". The memory could not be "read".

The instruction at "0x004050fe" referenced memory at "0xa34d34f0". The memory could not be "read".

Call attributive profiling is enabled by using the /AT switch with PREP.

CAUSE

An internal buffer used to store the symbol name plus the module name is limited to 255 characters.

RESOLUTION

Use one of the following two workarounds:

Do not use call attributive profiling; i.e. do not use the /AT switch with PREP.

-or-
Use #define before any #includes to rename symbols to a shorter name. For instance, "#define basic_string bs" will shorten the name of the Standard C++ Library string type from 12 characters to 2. The main drawback of this method is that the names of the symbols are more difficult to read. There also may be some symbols that cannot be reduced enough through this method to work around this bug.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

This bug is more typical among code that makes use of templates. In the Steps to Reproduce case below, notice that through each iteration of Proftest.bat, the output from plist is different, and if run through enough iterations, will generate an access violation.

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

   // test.cpp
   // compile with: CL.EXE /Zi /GX t.cpp /link /profile
   #pragma warning ( disable : 4786)
   #include <map>
   #include <string>
   int main ()
   {
      using namespace std;
      map< int, map< int, string > > m;
      map<int,string> q;
      q[100] = string("100");
      m[2] = q;
      return 0;
   }

   // proftest.bat
   @echo off
   :top
   prep /at test
   profile test
   prep /m test
   plist test
   goto top

Modification Type:	Major	Last Reviewed:	12/10/2003
Keywords:	kbBug kbMiscTools kbNoUpdate kbpending KB195374