Talk about nasty bugs

Let us see how many of you can figure this one out.

Here is the code:

   [DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
   [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
   static extern bool CopyFileEx(string lpExistingFileName, string lpNewFileName,
      IntPtr lpProgressRoutine, IntPtr lpData, ref Int32 pbCancel,
      CopyFileFlags dwCopyFlags);

   public void CopyFileWithProgressReports()
   {
       var lpProgressRoutineIntPtr = Marshal.GetFunctionPointerForDelegate(new CopyProgressRoutine(LpProgressRoutine));
       int pbCancel = 0;
       CopyFileEx(hugeFile, hugeFile + ".new", lpProgressRoutineIntPtr, IntPtr.Zero, ref pbCancel,
              CopyFileFlags.COPY_FILE_RESTARTABLE);        
   }

   private static CopyProgressResult LpProgressRoutine(long totalFileSize, long totalBytesTransferred, long streamSize,
       long streamBytesTransferred, uint dwStreamNumber, CopyProgressCallbackReason dwCallbackReason, IntPtr hSourceFile,
       IntPtr hDestinationFile, IntPtr lpData)
   {
       Console.WriteLine("{0:#,#} / {1:#,#}", totalBytesTransferred, totalFileSize);
       return CopyProgressResult.PROGRESS_CONTINUE;
   }

This code will run perfectly if you execute it in a single threaded fashion.

But, if you run it on a background thread and continue to do additional operations (just running it on a background thread work) that has nothing to do with the file system, it will crash, sometimes with a null reference exception, sometimes with attempt to write to protected memory, etc.

There is a very subtle bug here, can you figure out what it is?

Read more: Ayende @ Rahien

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