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c#memorystack-overflow.net-standard
joe
joe

Reputation: 1308

c# What happen if span<T>(memory<T>) refers to buffers on stack

.NET Standard 2.1 has introduced a new feature where you can "control" the memory blocks instead of copying them: Span or Memory.

In the docs example, I noticed that it is possible to refer to a stack buffer:

byte data = 0;
Span<byte> stackSpan = stackalloc byte[100];
for (int ctr = 0; ctr < stackSpan.Length; ctr++)
   stackSpan[ctr] = data++;

As far as I know, stack memory for a process is limited (1MB or 4MB), and we cannot manually release it.

So I guess creating a Memory<T> or Span<T> will somehow "Pin" the memory location on stack thus we can index it? But wouldn't that be a potenial case of stack-leak which might result in stack-overfolow? Since the array on stack should live as long as Memory<T> or Span<T>.

Upvotes: 5

Views: 2388

Answers (1)

Alexei Levenkov
Alexei Levenkov

Reputation: 100575

It is safe as Span's lifetime will be same or shorter than stack-allocated array.

You can't assign result of stackalloc to Memory<T> at least directly (I don't think even unsafe code can help - C#: convert generic pointer to array) so scoping this to just Span<T>.

According to the link you've posted Span lifetime is tied to scope it defined:

Span<T> is a ref struct that is allocated on the stack rather than on the managed heap. Ref struct types have a number of restrictions to ensure that they cannot be promoted to the managed heap,

Note that ref struct makes some operations prohibited including the one you should be concerned about - returning Span<T> from method where stack was allocated. As result span will be destroyed at the same time (or earlier) then stack frame which included array created by stackalloc.

   static Span<byte> MySpan()
   {
        Span<byte> span = stackalloc byte[100];
        // error CS8352: Cannot use local 'span' in this context because it may 
        // expose referenced variables outside of their declaration scope
        return span;
    }

This also covered in MSDN Magazine article (January 2018) C# - All About Span: Exploring a New .NET Mainstay by Stephen Toub.

Upvotes: 6

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