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variant regression: Make sure untyped pointers are scanned by the GC#10929

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Inkrementator wants to merge 1 commit intodlang:masterfrom
Inkrementator:variant_mallocate_typed_memory
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variant regression: Make sure untyped pointers are scanned by the GC#10929
Inkrementator wants to merge 1 commit intodlang:masterfrom
Inkrementator:variant_mallocate_typed_memory

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@Inkrementator
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To make sure that Variant works with big structs that it has to allocate on the heap which can't be allocated with a simple new T due to default constructor being disabled, the allocation strategy used was to just allocate an array of ubytes and cast the region appropriately.

But if the GC only knows about this memory region as ubyte[], it won't scan it for pointers. I think there might even be issues with alignment, depending on how the GC works.

Using GC.malloc with typeinfo should provide the GC with all the relevant info to recursively scan this region and is preferable to just conservatively marking the whole buffer as a new GC root.

To make sure that Variant works with big structs that it has to allocate
on the heap which can't be allocated with a simple `new T` due to default
constructor being disabled, the allocation strategy used was to just
allocate an array of ubytes and cast the region appropriately.

But if the GC only knows about this memory region as ubyte[], it won't
scan it for pointers. I think there might even be issues with
alignment, depending on how the GC works.

Using GC.malloc with typeinfo should provide the GC with all the
relevant info to recursively scan this region and is preferable to just
conservatively marking the whole buffer as a new GC root.
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Testing this PR locally

If you don't have a local development environment setup, you can use Digger to test this PR:

dub run digger -- build "master + phobos#10929"

@Inkrementator
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Someone who knows how the GC works please review this.

Be aware that the type of the pointer is cast away again when the pointer is written to an ubyte[] buffer (which is marked as a pointer via being in a union with (void*)) later.

{
// object will be intialized later. Using ubyte buffer in case `this()` is disabled
A* p = cast(A*) (new ubyte[A.sizeof]).ptr;
// object will be intialized later. Using malloc in case `this()` is disabled
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These comments don't appear to make a whole lot of sense given the changes that have taken place.

Please remove all of them.

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I was trying to communicate that I'm using GC.malloc here because the constructor of a type might be disabled, but this would be fine because we don't care about the constructor, only the postblit

If you say this doesn't make sense, is this because I have an error in my logic, written the comment in a confusing way or is it because the comment is self evident and redundant?

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3 participants