ARC releases UIColor prematurely

Originator:oliver.drobnik
Number:rdar://11717864 Date Originated:June 21st, 2012
Status:Duplicate/10542751 Resolved:
Product:iPhone SDK Product Version:5.0
Classification:Serious Bug Reproducible:always
 
Summary:

When assigning a UIColor's CGColor to a CGColorRef for later use then ARC discards the UIColor too early when running on device.


Steps to Reproduce:

Run the attached sample project.


Expected Results:

App should run equally well on Simulator and Device. ARC should not release the UIColor before the end of the scope.


Actual Results:

App runs ok on Simulator, but crashes on Device with EXC_BAD_ACCESS.


Regression:

This was working fine before using it in a project without ARC since the code in question does not use NSObjects for anything except to create the two CGColorRefs.

Notes:

A workaround is to save the UIColor in an IVAR to establish a strong reference. When doing this the exception no longer occurs. Another workaround apparently is to immediately CGColorRetain the CGColor.

Comments

That's why objc_precise_lifetime exists.

http://clang.llvm.org/docs/AutomaticReferenceCounting.html

By steipete at June 26, 2012, 10:01 a.m. (reply...)

This is not a bug.

Believe it or not, it's not a bug: ARC is completely within its rights to deallocate the UIColor when it does. This counterintuitive behavior is nicely explained here:

http://weblog.bignerdranch.com/296-arc-gotcha-unexpectedly-short-lifetimes/

By hankh at June 22, 2012, 8:04 p.m. (reply...)

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