Calling inject_at with an element already in the array copies the wrong value

[jace0x21]

Context

package main

import "core:fmt"

// Need struct with at least 3 ints. Issue didn't manifest with 2.
Foo :: struct {a, x, y, z: int}

main :: proc() {
    foo_arr := [dynamic]Foo{Foo{1, 1, 1, 1}, Foo{2, 2, 2, 2}, Foo{3, 3, 3, 3}}
    reserve(&foo_arr, 4)
    fmt.printf("%v\n", foo_arr)
    inject_at(&foo_arr, 0, foo_arr[2])
    fmt.printf("%v\n", foo_arr)
}

The above program prints

[Foo{a = 1, x = 1, y = 1, z = 1}, Foo{a = 2, x = 2, y = 2, z = 2}, Foo{a = 3, x = 3, y = 3, z = 3}]
[Foo{a = 2, x = 2, y = 2, z = 2}, Foo{a = 1, x = 1, y = 1, z = 1}, Foo{a = 2, x = 2, y = 2, z = 2}, Foo{a = 3, x = 3, y = 3, z = 3}]

• Operating System & Odin Version:
  Odin: dev-2024-12:0a29d36aa
  OS: macOS Sonoma 14.4.1 (build 23E224, kernel 23.4.0)
  CPU: Apple M2
  RAM: 24576 MiB
  Backend: LLVM 18.1.8

Expected Behavior

I expect the output to be:

[Foo{a = 1, x = 1, y = 1, z = 1}, Foo{a = 2, x = 2, y = 2, z = 2}, Foo{a = 3, x = 3, y = 3, z = 3}]
[Foo{a = 3, x = 3, y = 3, z = 3}, Foo{a = 1, x = 1, y = 1, z = 1}, Foo{a = 2, x = 2, y = 2, z = 2}, Foo{a = 3, x = 3, y = 3, z = 3}]

Current Behavior

inject_at will move down all elements in the array and then the arg pointer will be pointing at the wrong element

Failure Information (for bugs)

You need a struct with more than two fields for this bug to manifest. As I understand it, this is because small structs don't need to be passed by pointer.

Steps to Reproduce

Please provide detailed steps for reproducing the issue.

1. Compile the above program
2. Run it

[jace0x21]

--- a/base/runtime/core_builtin.odin
+++ b/base/runtime/core_builtin.odin
@@ -655,6 +655,7 @@ inject_at_elem :: proc(array: ^$T/[dynamic]$E, #any_int index: int, #no_broadcas
        m :: 1
        new_size := n + m
 
+       arg := arg
        resize(array, new_size, loc) or_return
        when size_of(E) != 0 {
                copy(array[index + m:], array[index:])

resolves the issue by making an explicit copy but then you'd probably want to do that for every function where we might change a pointer's value before copying that pointer's value. I wonder if there is a better solution. Instead of using a pointer to the heap for large struct values, I wonder if the value should always be copied to the stack.

[jace0x21]

So it looks like this was likely a misunderstanding on my part. In this case foo_arr[2] is treated as a slice, which is passed as a pointer according to Odin's documentation. The mistake was thinking it would be treated as the Foo struct being passed by value as opposed to a pointer to the Foo struct.

In this case, it's probably best to explicitly copy the struct before passing it to a function:
element := foo_arr[2]

[Feoramund]

This is almost certainly an aliasing bug. foo_arr[2] is not treated as a slice; it is a struct passed by pointer due to its size. Please refer to #2971, https://twitter.com/TheGingerBill/status/1727744336673030145, and odin-lang/odin-lang.org#287