Using GSL's random number generation function leads to JVM crash

[GongYiLiao]

I tried the following Scala code :

    import org.bytedeco.javacpp._
    import org.bytedeco.javacpp.gsl._
       
    object JavaCppGSLRnormTest {
       def rZigguratGSL(n: Int): Array[Double] = {
          var r0 = new gsl_rng()
          Array.fill[Double](n)(gsl_ran_gaussian_ziggurat(r0, 1.0))
       }
    }

the call the random number generating function via JavaCppGSLRnormTest.rZigguratGSL(30) caused JVM (OpenJDK 8, 10, 11 and GraalVM 1.0rc7 have been tested) crashed:

# A fatal error has been detected by the Java Runtime Environment:
#
#  SIGSEGV (0xb) at pc=0x00007f42782971bf, pid=19603, tid=19671
#
# JRE version: OpenJDK Runtime Environment (11.0+24) (build 11+24-Ubuntu-118.04)
# Java VM: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (11+24-Ubuntu-118.04, mixed mode, sharing, tiered, compressed oops, parallel gc, linux-amd64)
# Problematic frame:
# C  [libgsl.so.23+0x13f1bf]  gsl_ran_gaussian_ziggurat+0x1f
#
# Core dump will be written. Default location: Core dumps may be processed with "/usr/share/apport/apport %p %s %c %d %P" (or dumping to /home/gong-yi/Programming/JVM/Dairy/2018/Oct/20/ziggurat_test/core.19603)
#
# If you would like to submit a bug report, please visit:
#   http://bugreport.java.com/bugreport/crash.jsp
# The crash happened outside the Java Virtual Machine in native code.
# See problematic frame for where to report the bug.
#

I am not sure if my approach to use gsl RNG functions is incorrect, or it's a limitation of javacpp-gsl.

[saudet]

It looks like we need to allocate the object with gsl_rng_alloc():
https://www.gnu.org/software/gsl/manual/html_node/Random-Number-Distribution-Examples.html
This code works fine on my end:

        gsl_rng_env_setup();
        gsl_rng_type T = gsl_rng_default();
        gsl_rng r = gsl_rng_alloc(T);
        double d = gsl_ran_gaussian_ziggurat(r, 1.0);

Let's update the sample code with that...

[GongYiLiao]

Thanks for the hint! The following code works now:

import org.bytedeco.javacpp._
import org.bytedeco.javacpp.gsl._

object JavaCppGSLRnormTest { 

  val rng = gsl_rng_alloc(gsl_rng_default())

  def rZigguratGSL(n: Int): Array[Double] = {
    Array.fill[Double](n)(gsl_ran_gaussian_ziggurat(rng, 1.0))
  }
}

Test:

scala> JavaCppGSLRnormTest.rZigguratGSL(3000000).sum / 3000000.0
res0: Double = 2.945159729144122E-4