Stack access

[vsachar]

Hey
i needed to know how to access the stack and all the local variables of the functions in the stack for VC++.
We're implementing a Garbage Collector and need to find rootsets. Looking for the contents of stack would help us find these rootset.
For now we've found that we may be able to access the stack using the ESP register but still haven't found a way to use it.
Can anyone help us?
Thanks in advance.

[weaknessforcats]

gcnew won't work for you?

[vsachar]

I looked into gcnew and it doesn't look like what we need. Could you please explain a little about it?
Thanks.

We're looking to access the addresses in the stack, of local dynamic variables that are being used, and compare with the addresses of all dynamically allocated memory. This is how we're collecting the garbage.

Is there a way to access the stack and copy the addresses in it? We're trying _asm but cannot make sense of how exactly to use the esp and ebp registers.

If anyone has any information, please let us know.
Thanks in advance.

[vsachar]

I forgot to mention that we're trying to write a garbage collector for C++. We're using VC++.
Thanks

[newb16]

What will you do if some pointer is allocated in register (e.g. EAX) and never appears on stack? How do you know is it a pointer or integer without access to debug information?

[Banfa]

Can't you solve this problem by just using http://bytes.com/topic/c/insights/65...-smart-pointer?

[weaknessforcats]

gcnew is the garbage-collected C++ new operator used in Managed C++. You need CLI support in your C++ program.

Since this is the same garbage collector that's used in C#, I don't see why you would go to the trouble to write your own.

Alternatively, if this a Windows program you can create a private heap using HeapCreate. Allocate from there and then just delete the heap when you are done. That will take care of your garbage. This is actually recommended by Richter in Windows via C/C++ 2007.