From: Daniel Berger <djberg96@...>
Date: 2007-05-05T05:20:08+09:00
Subject: Problem with memcpy, marshal, zero

Hi,

Ruby 1.8.6
Windows XP Pro

In the win32-mmap package I have the code setup such that you can
create a dynamic accessor. Internally, I marshal the value (as a hash)
and copy it to an address via memcpy (wrapped using Win32API). So,
when you do something like this:

mm = MMap.new(:size => 12, :name => 'test')
mm.gvalue = 5
p mm.gvalue # 5
mm.close

It's actually doing something like this when you set a value:

h = {"gvalue"=>0}
m = Marshal.dump(h)
p m => "\004\b{\006\"\vgvaluei\000"
memcpy(address, marshal, marshal.length)

The problem is that trailing "\000" gets chopped off by the memcpy
function because it treats it like a trailing null as far as I can
tell. So, when I try to load it again the marshal data isn't
identical, i.e. the trailing "\000" is gone, and I end up getting  a
"marshal data too short" error.

What's the solution here?

Thanks,

Dan