Author:		Joe Mistachkin <joe@mistachkin.com>
State:		Draft
Type:		Project
Vote:		Pending
Created:	30-Oct-2011
Keywords:	bignum,runaway,safe,math,precision,integer,tcl
Tcl-Version:	8.7
Post-History:	

Abstract

This TIP proposes the ability to enable or disable all use of bignums at runtime on a per-interpreter basis. The mechanism being presented to accomplish this goal has been designed to be generic enough so that it can be used for other per-interpreter configuration parameters in the future.

Rationale

As of Tcl version 8.5, almost any integer math calculation can result in bignums being used. Normally, this does not pose a serious problem; however, there are circumstances in which this can exhaust key system resources, such as memory or CPU time. Unlike other similar resource exhaustion problems, this one cannot be prevented by use of interp create -safe, interp limit, interp cancel, or similar mechanisms. If Tcl is being used in an embedding scenario, this has the potential to negatively impact the entire application or system. If Tcl is being used to evaluate marginally trusted or untrusted scripts in a safe interpreter, this can result in a denial-of-service (DoS) attack.

Specification

A new interp configure script command will be added, as follows:

interp configure path ?name? ?value?

This command instructs Tcl to modify or query the value of the named configuration parameter name in the interpreter identified by path.

Arguments

path

This argument is required and specifies the interpreter to be reconfigured. An empty string may be used to indicate the current interpreter.

name

This argument is optional. If this argument is not supplied, the current list of configuration parameter names for the interpreter identified by path will be returned.

value

This argument is optional. If this argument is not supplied, the current value of the named configuration parameter for the interpreter identified by path will be returned; otherwise, the current value of the configuration parameter will be changed to the specified value.

C API

Tcl_Obj* Tcl_InterpConfigure(Tcl_Interp* interp, Tcl_Obj* nameObjPtr, Tcl_Obj* valueObjPtr)

The Tcl_InterpConfigure function gets or sets the named configuration parameter for the specified interpreter. The nameObjPtr, if not NULL, must be a string containing the name of a known configuration parameter; otherwise, NULL will be returned and the interpreter result will be modified to contain an appropriate error message. The valueObjPtr, if not NULL, must have a value convertible to the type required by the configuration parameter being set; otherwise, NULL will be returned and the interpreter result will be modified to contain an appropriate error message. If valueObjPtr is NULL, the current value of the named configuration parameter will be returned instead of being changed. If nameObjPtr is NULL, the complete list of known configuration parameter names will be returned. The caller is responsible for managing the reference count of the returned value.

Configuration Parameters

Upon interpreter creation, all configuration parameters start with a default value. The default value for a configuration parameter is considered to be part of the formal interface.

Initially, the only supported configuration parameter will be bignums.

When setting the bignums configuration parameter, the value must be convertible to a boolean. When the value of this configuration parameter is false, any math operation that would require using bignums to calculate will instead be limited to the precision available in the Tcl_WideInt type. The default value of this configuration parameter will be true (i.e. use of bignums will be enabled by default, preserving backward compatibility).

Reference Implementation

Not yet complete; however, it will eventually be available on the tip-392 branch of the Tcl source code repository.

Copyright

This document has been placed in the public domain.