Ruby 1.8.1: Unexpected "pack" result

[Dale Martenson]

I noticed something that does seem correct. In an application I have been
shipping, I pack value in order to perform IOCTL calls against a device. I
hit a problem when using Ruby 1.8.1. The following worked in 1.6.7 and
1.8.0:

[ 0xFFFFFFFF ].pack("i")

In 1.8.1, this raises a "Range Error: bignum to big to convert into 'int'".

I understood that an "i" designator meant a signed native integer (32-bits).
I don't see why this should fail.

Also, if I use the "l" designator to indicate a signed long integer (again
32-bits). Everything works.

[ 0xFFFFFFFF ].pack("l")

Shouldn't "i" and "l" act the same if the native size of an integer is
32-bits?

 

[Yukihiro Matsumoto]

Hi,

In message "Ruby 1.8.1: Unexpected "pack" result"

| [ 0xFFFFFFFF ].pack("i")
|
|In 1.8.1, this raises a "Range Error: bignum to big to convert into 'int'".

Fixed in the CVS HEAD.

matz.

 

[Ara.T.Howard]

Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 00:05:53 +0900
From: Dale Martenson <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ruby
Subject: Ruby 1.8.1: Unexpected "pack" result

I noticed something that does seem correct. In an application I have been
shipping, I pack value in order to perform IOCTL calls against a device. I
hit a problem when using Ruby 1.8.1. The following worked in 1.6.7 and
1.8.0:

[ 0xFFFFFFFF ].pack("i")

In 1.8.1, this raises a "Range Error: bignum to big to convert into 'int'".

I understood that an "i" designator meant a signed native integer (32-bits).
I don't see why this should fail.

Also, if I use the "l" designator to indicate a signed long integer (again
32-bits). Everything works.

[ 0xFFFFFFFF ].pack("l")

Shouldn't "i" and "l" act the same if the native size of an integer is
32-bits?

well, it looks like the orginal code was the problem:


~ > cat int_max.rb

require 'tmpdir'
require 'ftools'

c_prog = <<-code
#include <limits.h>
main(){int i = INT_MAX; write(1,&i,sizeof(int));}
code

tmp = Dir::tmpdir

a_c = File.join tmp, 'a.c'
a_out = File.join tmp, 'a.out'
out = File.join tmp, 'out'

open(a_c, 'w'){|f| f.write c_prog}
system "cc #{ a_c } -o #{ a_out }"
system "#{ a_out } > #{ out }"

int_max = IO.read(out).unpack('i').first

p(int_max)
p((2 ** 31) - 1)
p(0xFFFFFFFF)
p((2 ** 32) - 1)


File.rm_f a_c
File.rm_f a_out
File.rm_f out

~ > ruby int_max.rb

2147483647
2147483647
4294967295
4294967295



you only get 31 bits for signed ints.

-a
--
===============================================================================
| EMAIL :: Ara [dot] T [dot] Howard [at] noaa [dot] gov
| PHONE :: 303.497.6469
| ADDRESS :: E/GC2 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305-3328
| URL :: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/stp/
| TRY :: for l in ruby perl;do $l -e "print \"\x3a\x2d\x29\x0a\"";done
===============================================================================

 

[Ara.T.Howard]

On Wed, 18 Feb 2004, Ara.T.Howard wrote:

<snip>

this version is even more informative...

~ > cat int_max.rb

require 'tmpdir'
require 'ftools'

c_prog = <<-code
#include <limits.h>
main(){int i = INT_MAX; write(1,&i,sizeof(int));}
code

tmp = Dir::tmpdir

a_c = File.join tmp, 'a.c'
a_out = File.join tmp, 'a.out'
out = File.join tmp, 'out'

open(a_c, 'w'){|f| f.write c_prog}
system "cc #{ a_c } -o #{ a_out }"
system "#{ a_out } > #{ out }"

int_max = IO.read(out).unpack('i').first

p(int_max)
p((2 ** 31) - 1)
p("%032.32b" % int_max)

p(0xFFFFFFFF)
p((2 ** 32) - 1)
p("%032.32b" % 0xFFFFFFFF)


File.rm_f a_c
File.rm_f a_out
File.rm_f out



-a
--
===============================================================================
| EMAIL :: Ara [dot] T [dot] Howard [at] noaa [dot] gov
| PHONE :: 303.497.6469
| ADDRESS :: E/GC2 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305-3328
| URL :: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/stp/
| TRY :: for l in ruby perl;do $l -e "print \"\x3a\x2d\x29\x0a\"";done
===============================================================================