[Mono-dev] Handling StackOverflow, OutOfMemory, ThreadAbortException

[Miguel Mudge]

We've got a single-process RTOS running Mono and we've started to tackle
what happens when a stack overflow or out of memory condition occurs.

We're using an AppDomain to load and unload a variety of apps that come off
the external flash drive.  When things go very wrong [StackOverflow or
OutOfMemory], we terminate Mono entirely so the rest of the device can
continue doing its job.

We'd like to be able to more gracefully handle StackOverflow, OutOfMemory
so that finally clauses execute and the root AppDomain can continue
running.  As I understand it, mono_throw_exception() throws immediately,
but since stack/memory runs out unexpectedly, it's best if we have some
spare memory/stack so the native code can finish what it was doing before
managed exception handling starts cleaning up the mess.  So - we're looking
for behavior closer to ThreadAbortException.

I see that in threads.c/mono_thread_execute_interruption(),
thread->interruption_requested indicates that the ThreadAbortException
should be thrown at the native->managed transition [among maybe some other
actions].  I'm proposing that gets changed [or amended] to throw an
arbitrary exception, both for future use and for our specific case.  Native
code such as signal handlers would be able to cause an exception to be
thrown only after execution returns to managed.  Our goal is to have
several MB of guard pages (in spare memory and on the stack) available to
handle the unwind.

Comments?  Am I on the right track here?  Any forseen gotchas?

- Kipp
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