[Quickfix-developers] MS VC++ release builds

[Timothy Y. <Tim...@pa...>]

Has anyone else had problems with apparently random crashes and memory
corruptions in quickfix when using MS VC++, specifically using the default
release build options?

We have a C++ production application that uses quickfix.  We have had to
build quickfix with all optimizations turned off.  We were unable to track
down the memory corruptions that occurred with a release build.

Recently, I have been using the Java version of quickfix.  I have a test
application that generates MarketDataSnapshotFullRefresh messages  and
populates them with essentially random price data.  The receiving
application sends a subscribe message and the test application starts
sending refresh messages at a rate of about 20 per second.  When using a
release build of quickfix_jni.dll, the receiving application often crashes
after several hundred messages due to an access violation.  This typically
occurs in the destructor call from Message.finalize(), other times in
Group.finalize(), and othertime some place else.   I do a session reset
between test runs.  Sometimes the application does not crash at all.   I
have tried disabling all processing of refresh messages by the receiving
application (so it just returns from fromApp without doing anything), and
the crashes still happen.

The random nature of the crashes leads me to suspect a threading issue.

When I use a debug build of quickfix_jni.dll, I can never get it to crash.
This might just be luck, or it might indicate a problem with compiler
optimizations.

I think this problem may have something to do with repeating groups as I
have only started noticing it since implementing market data support.
However, it could just be that I have started stressing quickfix more than
before.

Interestingly, the corruptions we were experiencing in our production C++
application also occurred when there was a large amount of market data
traffic.

I am using quickfix 1.7.0.

Tim Yates
Lead Developer 
Patsystems (US) LLC 
141 West Jackson Boulevard
Chicago 60604, USA 
Tel +1 (312) 542-1336 
www.patsystems.com