[ace-users] timer behavior change with ACE 5.5

[James DeCocq (jadecocq)]

    ACE VERSION: 5.5.8

    HOST MACHINE and OPERATING SYSTEM:
        HPxw4400 Intel Core2 6600 2GB; XP Pro SP2 

    TARGET MACHINE and OPERATING SYSTEM, 
        same

    THE $ACE_ROOT/ace/config.h FILE         
       #define ACE_HAS_STANDARD_CPP_LIBRARY 1
       // #define ACE_NTRACE 0   
       #include "ace/config-win32.h"

       MSVC++, Visual Studio 2005

    AREA/CLASS/EXAMPLE AFFECTED:
        Timers, ACE_Reactor  

    DOES THE PROBLEM AFFECT:
        COMPILATION? no
        LINKING?     no
        EXECUTION?   yes
        [Please indicate whether ACE, your application, or both are
affected.]
            seemingly both

    SYNOPSIS:
       We are upgrading to latest ACE 5.5 while moving our project to
VS2005.
       Timers work only sporadically in our application after upgrade to
5.5.
       The code has been running succesfully for years under ACE 5.4 and
before.

       *** Any suggestions of potential causes, fixes, or areas of
examination  
       *** are much appreciated. Thanks very much.  

    DESCRIPTION:

    None of the code is new, it has been working for 4 years, but
stopped
    working with ACE 5.5.
   
    1. An ACE_Task derived object handles timer functionality. The code
is
       spread out and interspersed with app logic, so I'll paraphrase
it:

       class ReactiveTask: public ACE_Task
       {
         virtual int svc();                        
         virtual int handle_input(ACE_HANDLE);
         ACE_Reactor* reaktor; 
         ACE_Reactor_Notification_Strategy* rns;
         // etc.
       };

       int ReactiveTask::svc()                   
       { 
         // ...
         reaktor->owner(ACE_Thread::self());

         rns = new ACE_Reactor_Notification_Strategy
             (reaktor, this, ACE_Event_Handler::READ_MASK);
         this->msg_queue()->notification_strategy(rns);
         reaktor->run_reactor_event_loop();                      
       }

    2. A heartbeat timer is set. 
          ...
          ACE_Time_Value period(1);
          timerID = reaktor->schedule_timer(this, userData, period,
period);       

    3. Now, on any particular execution of the app, the timer either
works 
       always or not at all. When not, the schedule_timer call is
successful, 
       but handle_timeout is not called. It sounds screwy, but on
launching the 
       app after a full release rebuild, timers may work as expected,
but then
       after shutting down the app and restarting, will likely no longer
work. 
       Also curious, a debug build will not fail as easily.
      
    4. Thanks very much for any suggestions you may have.