Everything below is true, assuming you are not talking about
sub-requests. According to the stack that Greg posted, the OLD_WRITE
filter was not found in the sub-request filter stack. That is to be
expected, because the OLD_WRITE filter is a RESOURCE filter. Since
RESOURCE filters are not kept for sub-requests, the data must be
flushed.
Hm Actually it seems like Resource filters should be kept for
sub-requests that are created with a filter list. If that is the case,
then it looks like the OLD_WRITE filter should be in the filter list.
Unless, the OLD_WRITE filter is being added after the sub-request is
created..
Lots to look at..
Ryan
> On Tue, Apr 02, 2002 at 01:50:59PM -0800, Ryan Bloom wrote:
> >...
> > > chain. Bill S. stuck his head in here and said something about a
rule
> > > that if old_write is ever used, it has to always be used.
> >
> > If you read through mod_include, you will see that whenever we
create a
> > sub-request, we send the output from the current filter to the next
> > filter. This is required to make sure that things are output in the
> > correct order. If you are a handler and are generating data through
> > ap_r* functions, you must flush the filter stack so that you are
sure
> > that OLD_WRITE isn't buffering for you.
>
> That's not true. OLD_WRITE was designed to allow a mix/match of
writing to
> the stack *and* using the ap_r* functions.
>
> The design is that ap_r* implies a write into the filter stack. That
write
> is optimized to use a brigade for buffering (so every ap_rputc()
doesn't
> traverse the filter stack). If OLD_WRITE isn't at the top, then it
doesn't
> do the buffering (because there are filters between the top and the
> OLD_WRITE buffers).
>
> If somebody writes directly into the filter stack, then it prepends
any
> buffered content to whatever is written, and then passes it all down
the
> stack.
>
> [ just reviewed the code; it seems to still match the original design
]
>
> It all looks pretty good, but there might be a problem where:
>
> *) ap_r* is used, so OLD_WRITE is inserted, and the content is stored
into
>its buffer.
>
> *) another filter is inserted "above" OLD_WRITE, so it is not the top.
> ap_r*
>content should now go into this new filter.
>
> *) ap_r* is called again, but it thinks it cannot buffer. it passes
the
> new
>data directly into the filter stack.
>
>BUG: the previously-buffered content is not prepended.
>
>
> So... the bug might appear because of the increased dynamicity of the
> filter
> chain nowadays. Back when OLD_WRITE was written, it was perceived that
the
> chain would be quite static by the time the first write occurred.
>
> Note that OLD_WRITE tries quite hard to keep its filter on "top" (its
> filter
> type is RESOURCE-10). If something broke that, then it is possible to
hit
> the above bug.
>
> The fix to the (potential) bug is to change line 1370 in
server/protocol.c
> to concat the brigades, similar to ap_old_write_filter() (defined just
> above, at line 1316).
>
> Another question is whether anybody defines their filter type as less
than
> RESOURCE-10 and ends up ahead of OLD_WRITE.
>
> And lastly: I just realized that if a filter gets in front of
OLD_WRITE,
> then the branch at line 1366 will get called for each ap_r* call. If
that
> is
> a series of 1000's of ap_rputc() calls, then you'll end up creating
> thousands of brigades for those transient buckets(!).
>
> [ a similar brigade over-creation can occur if you alternate ap_r* and
> writing to the filter stack; ap_old_write_filter() will forget about
the
> brigade it created, so the next ap_r* needs to recreate one ]
>
> The answer might be to test for brigade-empty rather than ctx->bb ==
NULL.
> Then the branch at 1366 can store and reuse a brigade in ctx->bb.
>
> Cheers,
> -g