Question

Well I am working on a non-ARC project, but use Philipp Kyeck’s socketio library which is written using ARC. I am using the method explained in this tutorial merge non-ARC project and ARC library.

In my ViewController file I am initializing the socket using

 SockIO *chatSockIO = [[SocketIO alloc] initWithDelegate:self];

and when I need to disconnect, I call

[chatSockIO disconnect];

which results socketIODidDisconnect delegate method to fire.

- (void) socketIODidDisconnect:(SocketIO *)socket{
   [chatSockIO release]; ==> is this call needed?
}

Now my question is about the line [chatSockIO release]. Should we need to release an object which itself is defined in ARC mode, but is used in a non-ARC project?

Now when I tried the release, I got an exception saying

-[SocketIO retain]: message sent to deallocated instance 0x6fec370

but when I commented out that line, I am getting a memory leak and dealloc in my library object not getting called at all

Bounty Time!!

Forget the library I mentioned, crash in my code and leaks.. What is the usual practice when using an object defined using ARC method, in a non-ARC project. Should I only alloc it, or should I alloc and release it after use?

EDIT:Some more info.

I run zombie instrument on the crash, and this is what it had to say.. It shows the call to alloc and release functions.

#   Address     Category    Event Type  RefCt   Timestamp       Size    Responsible Library     Responsible Caller
0   0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Malloc      1       00:09.700.274   64      MyProject           -[MyViewController sendRequestForSocketIOPush]
1   0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Retain      2       00:09.700.317   0       MyProject           -[SocketIO initWithDelegate:]
2   0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Release     1       00:09.700.320   0       MyProject           -[SocketIO initWithDelegate:]
3   0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Retain      2       00:09.700.440   0       Foundation          -[NSURLConnectionInternal initWithInfo:]
4   0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Retain      3       00:10.413.717   0       Foundation          -[NSURLConnectionInternal _withConnectionAndDelegate:onlyActive:]
5   0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Release     2       00:10.413.761   0       Foundation          -[NSURLConnectionInternalConnection invokeForDelegate:]
6   0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Retain      3       00:10.413.797   0       Foundation          -[NSURLConnectionInternal _withConnectionAndDelegate:onlyActive:]
7   0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Release     2       00:10.413.811   0       Foundation          -[NSURLConnectionInternalConnection invokeForDelegate:]
8   0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Retain      3       00:10.413.816   0       Foundation          -[NSURLConnectionInternal _withConnectionAndDelegate:onlyActive:]
9   0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Release     2       00:10.415.087   0       Foundation          -[NSURLConnectionInternalConnection invokeForDelegate:]
10  0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Retain      3       00:10.415.214   0       Foundation          -[NSURLConnectionInternal _withConnectionAndDelegate:onlyActive:]
11  0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Release     2       00:10.415.216   0       Foundation          -[NSURLConnectionInternalConnection invokeForDelegate:]
12  0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Release     1       00:10.415.275   0       Foundation          -[NSURLConnectionInternalConnection invokeForDelegate:]
13  0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Retain      2       00:10.969.432   0       GraphicsServices    GSEventRunModal
14  0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Release     1       00:10.969.433   0       GraphicsServices    GSEventRunModal
15  0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Retain      2       00:10.969.434   0       GraphicsServices    GSEventRunModal
16  0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Release     1       00:10.969.456   0       GraphicsServices    GSEventRunModal
17  0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Retain      2       00:10.969.459   0       GraphicsServices    GSEventRunModal
18  0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Retain      3       00:10.969.488   0       Foundation          -[NSCFTimer initWithFireDate:interval:target:selector:userInfo:repeats:]
19  0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Release     2       00:10.976.115   0       MyProject           -[SocketIO setTimeout]
20  0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Retain      3       00:10.976.125   0       Foundation          -[NSCFTimer initWithFireDate:interval:target:selector:userInfo:repeats:]
21  0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Release     2       00:10.976.161   0       GraphicsServices    GSEventRunModal
22  0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Retain      3       00:13.935.328   0       GraphicsServices    GSEventRunModal
23  0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Release     2       00:13.935.373   0       MyProject           -[SocketIO setTimeout]
24  0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Retain      3       00:13.935.399   0       Foundation          -[NSCFTimer initWithFireDate:interval:target:selector:userInfo:repeats:]
25  0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Release     2       00:13.935.685   0       MyProject           -[SocketIO onDisconnect]
26  0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Release     1       00:13.935.705   0       MyProject           -[MyViewController socketIODidDisconnect:]
27  0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Release     0       00:13.935.716   0       GraphicsServices    GSEventRunModal
28  0x72d5da0   SocketIO    Zombie      -1      00:13.936.298   0       GraphicsServices    GSEventRunModal

Answer 1

To answer your question:

If you use an ARC-managed object from non-ARC code, you use it just as you would use a non-ARC object: If you create or retain it, you have to release or autorelease it.

Regarding your issue:

In on of your comments you mentioned that you tried to fix the problem with initializing like this

self.chatSockIO = [[[SocketIO alloc] initWithDelegate:self] autorelease];

and in socketIODidDisconnect

self.chatSockIO = nil;

That should work fine, provided that the chatSockIO property has retain semantics, and that only one SocketIO object is used at a time.

The Zombie output gives a hint on what’s going wrong:

• In the second to last line, you release the object, the retain count drops to 0, and the object is deallocated. That is what you would expect.
• In the last line however, it is tried to retain the object from the run loop. You know it’s a retain because of the exception you get without NSZombie.
• That means although you are done with the object, it still receives calls from somewhere. This is unexpected.

It could be either something in your code, or an error in one of the libraries you are using. Just a hunch: In SocketIO.m replace these lines in -onDisconnect

if (_webSocket != nil) {
    [_webSocket close];
}

with

if (_webSocket != nil) {
    [_webSocket close];
    _webSocket.delegate = nil;
}