Question

I have an ip::udp::socket constructed with an io_service. There is only one boost::thread which calls the io_service::run() method, and an instance of io_service::work to prevent io_service::run() from returning. The completion handlers for my ip::udp::socket have custom asio_handler_allocate() and asio_handler_deallocate() functions, which are backed by a my::custom_memory_pool.

When my application quits, this sequence of events occurs on on my shutting-down thread:

1. ip::udp::socket::close()
2. work::~work()
3. io_service::stop()
4. thread::join()
5. my::custom_memory_pool::~custom_memory_pool()
6. ip::udp::socket::~socket()
7. thread::~thread()
8. io_service::~io_service()

In step 8, the call to io_service::~io_service() causes…

Program terminated with signal 11, Segmentation fault.
#0  0x00000000005ad93c in my::custom_memory_pool<boost::aligned_storage<512u, -1u> >::deallocate (this=0x36323f8, t=0x7fca97a07880)
    at memory.hpp:82
82                      reinterpret_cast<pool_node*>(t)->next_ = head_;
(gdb) bt 30
#0  0x00000000005ad93c in my::custom_memory_pool<boost::aligned_storage<512u, -1u> >::deallocate (this=0x36323f8, t=0x7fca97a07880)
    at memory.hpp:82
#1  0x00000000005ad40a in asio_handler_deallocate (p=0x7fca97a07880, s=96, h=0x7fffe09d5480) at net.cpp:22
#2  0x0000000000571a07 in boost_asio_handler_alloc_helpers::deallocate<socket_multicast::completion_handler> (p=0x7fca97a07880, s=96, h=...)
    at /usr/include/boost/asio/detail/handler_alloc_helpers.hpp:51
#3  0x0000000000558256 in boost::asio::detail::reactive_socket_recvfrom_op<boost::asio::mutable_buffers_1, boost::asio::ip::basic_endpoint<boost::asio::ip::udp>, socket_multicast::completion_handler>::ptr::reset (this=0x7fffe09d54b0)
    at /usr/include/boost/asio/detail/reactive_socket_recvfrom_op.hpp:81
#4  0x0000000000558310 in boost::asio::detail::reactive_socket_recvfrom_op<boost::asio::mutable_buffers_1, boost::asio::ip::basic_endpoint<boost::asio::ip::udp>, socket_multicast::completion_handler>::do_complete (owner=0x0, base=0x7fca97a07880)
    at /usr/include/boost/asio/detail/reactive_socket_recvfrom_op.hpp:112
#5  0x0000000000426706 in boost::asio::detail::task_io_service_operation::destroy (this=0x7fca97a07880)
    at /usr/include/boost/asio/detail/task_io_service_operation.hpp:41
#6  0x000000000042841b in boost::asio::detail::task_io_service::shutdown_service (this=0xd4df30)
    at /usr/include/boost/asio/detail/impl/task_io_service.ipp:96
#7  0x0000000000426388 in boost::asio::detail::service_registry::~service_registry (this=0xd4a320, __in_chrg=<value optimized out>)
    at /usr/include/boost/asio/detail/impl/service_registry.ipp:43
#8  0x0000000000428e99 in boost::asio::io_service::~io_service (this=0xd49f38, __in_chrg=<value optimized out>)
    at /usr/include/boost/asio/impl/io_service.ipp:51

So the io_service::~io_service() is trying to deallocate some memory to the pool that I destroyed back in step 5.

I can’t move my::custom_memory_pool::~custom_memory_pool() to after io_service::~io_service().

I expected that after io_service::stop() and thread::join() returns, there could be no more asio_handler_deallocate() calls. Apparently that’s not the case. What can I do in step 3 to force io_service to dequeue all of its completion events and deallocate all of its handler memory, and how can I block until io_service finishes those tasks?

Answer 1

Here is the answer: When tearing down an io_service and its services, don’t call io_service::stop() at all. Just work::~work().

io_service::stop() is really only for temporarily suspending the io_service so that it may be io_service::reset() later. An ordinary graceful shutdown of io_service should not involve io_service::stop().