win: Explain the CreateFile() client-side pipe-opening loop

util/win/registration_protocol_win.cc

Index: util/win/registration_protocol_win.cc
diff --git a/util/win/registration_protocol_win.cc b/util/win/registration_protocol_win.cc
index 38b1b45195a6b86f2353da09e1da04e8f5f9252d..af7f522508cdcdfc9c9c9f2653b0afc3b6e94b10 100644
--- a/util/win/registration_protocol_win.cc
+++ b/util/win/registration_protocol_win.cc
@@ -24,8 +24,14 @@ namespace crashpad {
 bool SendToCrashHandlerServer(const base::string16& pipe_name,
                               const crashpad::ClientToServerMessage& message,
                               crashpad::ServerToClientMessage* response) {
-  int tries = 0;
-  for (;;) {
+  // Retry CreateFile() in a loop. If the handler isn’t actively waiting in
+  // ConnectNamedPipe() on a pipe instance because it’s busy doing something
+  // else, CreateFile() will fail with ERROR_PIPE_BUSY. WaitNamedPipe() waits
+  // until a pipe instance is ready, but there’s no way to wait for this
+  // condition and atomically open the client side of the pipe in a single
+  // operation. CallNamedPipe() implements similar retry logic to this, also in
+  // user-mode code.

[scottmg, 2015/11/10 20:02:20]

You could maybe also note that this means we don't retry in order to
pseudo-synchronize startup -- if the server-side pipe hasn't been created yet,
we'll just fail and return false.

[Mark Mentovai, 2015/11/10 20:12:19]

scottmg wrote:
Good call! Updated.

+  for (int tries = 0;;) {
     ScopedFileHANDLE pipe(
         CreateFile(pipe_name.c_str(),
                    GENERIC_READ | GENERIC_WRITE,
@@ -65,12 +71,12 @@ bool SendToCrashHandlerServer(const base::string16& pipe_name,
         &bytes_read,
         nullptr);
     if (!result) {
-      LOG(ERROR) << "TransactNamedPipe: expected " << sizeof(*response)

[scottmg, 2015/11/10 20:02:19]

Duh, oops.

-                 << ", observed " << bytes_read;
+      PLOG(ERROR) << "TransactNamedPipe";
       return false;
     }
     if (bytes_read != sizeof(*response)) {
-      LOG(ERROR) << "TransactNamedPipe read incorrect number of bytes";
+      LOG(ERROR) << "TransactNamedPipe: expected " << sizeof(*response)
+                 << ", observed " << bytes_read;
       return false;
     }
     return true;