Handle Aliasing Bugs: Exercises

Practice exercises

Exercise 1

A scoreboard does exp_q.push_back(txn) in write(); later monitor updates txn.status for logging. Why do compares flap, and what fix pattern removes the flakiness?

Solution

exp_q stores the same handle, so later status updates mutate expected entries. Fix by cloning/deep-copying before push and treating queued objects as immutable snapshots.

Exercise 2

You printed top-level handle %p and they differ, yet data still co-mutates. What should you inspect next?

Solution

Inspect nested handle identities (%p for members like payload, cfg, arrays of objects). Aliasing often lives one level below the top object.

Related topics

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