[Python-Dev] Prevalence of low-level memory abuse?

[Adam DePrince]

On Sun, 2006-03-26 at 18:58 -0500, Tim Peters wrote:
> [Edward Loper]
> > Could the debug build's macros for PyMem/PyObject_new/free be modified
> > to check for mismatches?  Or would storing information about which
> > method was used to allocate each pointer be too expensive?  Perhaps a
> > special build could be used to check for mismatches?
> 
> It's partly possible (e.g., it's impossible to know whether a blob of
> memory was obtained by calling malloc() directly).
> 
> If someone wants to do it (I do not), the debug build adds 8 bytes to
> each side of each memory block obtained via each PyMem and PyObject
> malloc/realloc call, and one of the (current) 8 FORBIDDEN_BYTEs could
> be used to store flags without significant loss of functionality.  It
> would make a decent enhancement.

Sounds fun.  I'll do it. 

- Adam DePrince

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