Memory mapped file std::allocator implementation freezes WM6 device

Question

I have a Visual Studio 2008 C++ project for Windows Mobile 6.x where I need more memory than is available to me in the 32MB process slot. So, I'm looking at using memory mapped files. I've created a standard allocator implementation that replaces new/delete with CreateFileMapping and MapViewOfFile.

The intended use is something like this:

struct Foo
{
    char a[ 1024 ];
};

int _tmain( int argc, _TCHAR* argv[] )
{
    std::vector< boost::shared_ptr< Foo > > v;
    for( int i = 0; i < 40000; ++i )
    {
        v.push_back( boost::allocate_shared< Foo >( MappedFileAllocator< Foo >() ) );
    }
    return 0;
}

With the std::allocator, I can get 28197 iterations in that example before I get a std::bad_alloc exception. With the MappedFileAllocator, I get 32371 iterations before the device completely freezes and has to be rebooted. Since my device has 512MB of RAM, I expected to be able to get far more iterations out of that loop.

My MappedFileAllocator implementation is:

template< class T >
class MappedFileAllocator
{
public:
    typedef T         value_type;
    typedef size_t    size_type;
    typedef ptrdiff_t difference_type;
    typedef T*        pointer;
    typedef const T*  const_pointer;
    typedef T&        reference;
    typedef const T&  const_reference;

    pointer address( reference r ) const { return &r; };
    const_pointer address( const_reference r ) const { return &r; };

    /// convert a MappedFileAllocator<T> to a MappedFileAllocator<U>
    template< class U >
    struct rebind { typedef MappedFileAllocator< U > other; };

    MappedFileAllocator() throw() : mapped_file_( INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE ) { };

    template< class U >
    explicit MappedFileAllocator( const MappedFileAllocator< U >& other ) throw()
        : mapped_file_( INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE )
    {
        if( other.mapped_file_ != this->mapped_file_ )
        {
            ::DuplicateHandle( GetCurrentProcess(), 
                other.mapped_file_,
                GetCurrentProcess(),
                &this->mapped_file_,
                0,
                FALSE,
                DUPLICATE_SAME_ACCESS );
        }
    };

    pointer allocate( size_type n, const void* /*hint*/ = 0 )
    {
        if( n > max_size() )
           throw std::bad_alloc();

        if( n > 0 )
        {
            size_type buf_size = n * sizeof( value_type );
            mapped_file_ = ::CreateFileMapping( INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE, 
                NULL,
                PAGE_READWRITE,
                0,
                buf_size,
                L"{45E4FA7B-7B1E-4939-8CBB-811276B5D4DE}" );

            if( NULL == mapped_file_ )
                throw std::bad_alloc();

            LPVOID f = ::MapViewOfFile( mapped_file_, 
                FILE_MAP_READ | FILE_MAP_WRITE, 
                0, 
                0, 
                buf_size );

            if( NULL == f )
            {
                ::CloseHandle( mapped_file_ );
                mapped_file_ = INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE;
                throw std::bad_alloc();
            }
            return reinterpret_cast< T* >( f );
        }

        return 0;
    };

    void deallocate( pointer p, size_type n )
    {
        if( NULL != p )
        {
            ::FlushViewOfFile( p, n * sizeof( T ) );
            ::UnmapViewOfFile( p );
        }
        if( INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE != mapped_file_ )
        {
            ::CloseHandle( mapped_file_ );
            mapped_file_ = INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE;
        }
    };

    size_type max_size() const throw() 
    { 
        return std::numeric_limits< size_type >::max() / sizeof( T );
    };

    /// handle to the memory-mapped file
    HANDLE mapped_file_;

private:

    /// disallow assignment
    void operator=( const MappedFileAllocator& );

}; // class MappedFileAllocator

Can anybody suggest where I may be going wrong with my MappedFileAllocator implementation?

Thanks, PaulH

Answer 1

I just got the "popular question" badge for this one, so I thought I'd (belatedly) post the answer. I was running out of available handles. There is an unsigned short counter in the Windows Mobile kernel relating to handle allocation that was overflowing. Once that happened, the device would freeze.