C API PyErr_Clear vs PyObject_HasAttrString

[Andrew MacIntyre]

On Sat, 27 Nov 2004, Robin Becker wrote:

> I'm trying to understand why this code causes a seg fault second time
> through; the code is part of a setattr and is testing if the value is an
> integer or has red, green and blue attributes. This code later goes on
> to raise a ValueError if  that's not the case.
>
> if((i = PyArg_Parse(value,"i",&cv))){
> 	c->value = cv;
> 	c->valid = 1;
> 	return 1;
> 	}
>
> rgb = PyObject_HasAttrString(value,"red")
> 	&& PyObject_HasAttrString(value,"green")
> 	&& PyObject_HasAttrString(value,"blue");
> PyErr_Clear();
>
>
> ......
> PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError, "bad color value");
>
>
> Both calls should fail and raise ValueError, but the second call causes
> a seg fault in Python 2.3.4 (not in 2.2 and earlier).
>
> In 2.3.4 I found that moving the PyErr_Clear() before the calculation of
> rgb fixes the problem.
>
> I assume the problem is that something in the rgb calculation is failing
> because the python error flag is set. Is that a bug in the
> implementation of PyObject_HasAttrString or is it my fault for not
> knowing which API calls need a cleared error flag?

Rule:  if you call a Python API function, _always_ check its return
       status (unless documented as void).  if it fails, check for an
       exception.  if you want to ignore the exception, clear the
       exception, otherwise cleanup and bailout.

This is a paraphrase (from memory) of a previous reply from Tim Peters.

Notwithstanding this, segfaulting in a Python API function is not welcome
(especially one documented as always succeeding!).

I had a look at the source (from a CVS checkout this morning), and the
only thing that looks like a source of such trouble would be an extension
class with a tp_getattr implementation.

If you are using such a beast, you might want to look at the tp_getattr
implementation first.  Otherwise I'd suggest filing a bug report on SF.
BTW, have you tried this with 2.4c1?

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Andrew I MacIntyre                     "These thoughts are mine alone..."
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