Re: threads at end of programs in 1.8/1.9

Whoops, no subject line -- I'm adding one.

On Wed, 20 Feb 2008, David A. Black wrote:

> Hi --
>
> I'm trying to get a fix on thread behavior in 1.9 vs. 1.8.6, and the
> following things seem odd to me (unless I've just slept through some
> known changes, which is always possible).
>
> Doing this:
>
> $ ruby19 -ve 'Thread.new { puts "a" }'
> ruby 1.9.0 (2008-02-15 revision 0) [i686-darwin9.1.0]
>
> always results in no output (except the version).
>
> The same thing in 1.8.6 always puts's "a":
>
> $ ruby -ve 'Thread.new { puts "a" }'
> ruby 1.8.6 (2007-03-13 patchlevel 0) [i686-darwin8.10.1]
> a
>
> So I figure that somehow the killing of the new thread upon exit is
> "winning" over the execution of the thread. I guess that's OK (?).
> Anyway, this tends to support that interpretation:
>
> $ ruby19 -e 'Thread.new { puts "a" }; sleep 0.01'
> a
>
> I then did a few more little tests. I'm leaving in all the -v stuff,
> since that's how it was, but the main point is that 1.8.6 seems to
> always do this:
>
> $ ruby -ve 'Thread.new { puts "a" }; puts "b"'
> ruby 1.8.6 (2007-03-13 patchlevel 0) [i686-darwin8.10.1]
> a
> b
>
> while 1.9 does a variety of things, presumably depending on
> scheduling:
>
> $ ruby19 -ve 'Thread.new { puts "a" }; puts "b"'
> ruby 1.9.0 (2008-02-15 revision 0) [i686-darwin9.1.0]
> ba
>
> $ ruby19 -ve 'Thread.new { puts "a" }; puts "b"'
> ruby 1.9.0 (2008-02-15 revision 0) [i686-darwin9.1.0]
> b
> $ ruby19 -ve 'Thread.new { puts "a" }; puts "b"'
> ruby 1.9.0 (2008-02-15 revision 0) [i686-darwin9.1.0]
> ba
>
> $ ruby19 -ve 'Thread.new { puts "a" }; puts "b"'
> ruby 1.9.0 (2008-02-15 revision 0) [i686-darwin9.1.0]
> ba
> $
>
> (That last one had both letters but only one newline.)
>
> I'm not quite sure what all of this adds up to, in terms of predicting
> thread behavior at or near the end of a program. That one can't? :-)
>
>
> David
>
> -- 
> Upcoming Rails training from David A. Black and Ruby Power and Light:
>  ADVANCING WITH RAILS, April 14-17 2008, New York City
>  CORE RAILS, June 24-27 2008, London (Skills Matter)
> See http://www.rubypal.com for details, and stay
> tuned for dates in Berlin!
>

-- 
Upcoming Rails training from David A. Black and Ruby Power and Light:
   ADVANCING WITH RAILS, April 14-17 2008, New York City
   CORE RAILS, June 24-27 2008, London (Skills Matter)
See http://www.rubypal.com for details, and stay
tuned for dates in Berlin!