Mailman 3 December 2002 - Python-Dev

RE: how to kill process on Windows started with os.spawn?
by Skip Montanaro 03 Dec '02

03 Dec '02

Regarding how to kill a process on Windows which was started with os.spawn*, on the Spambayes list I asked: >> How would I kill that process on Windows, Mark Hammond replied: This worked for me just then: >>> os.spawnl(os.P_NOWAIT, "f:\\windows\\notepad.exe") 548 >>> import win32api >>> win32api.TerminateProcess(548,0) Tim also replied: Tim> For 2.3, I implemented something or other for the Python core; Tim> probably killpid(); Shouldn't one of these solutions (or some variant) appear under the veneer of os.kill()? I realize the semantics might not be exactly the same (perhaps Windows solutions don't support different signals or a different set of signals), but it seems to me that if an attempt is made to provide the os.spawn* functions across platforms we should make a similar attempt to provide a way to kill spawned processes as well. Corollary question: Is there some reason the win32api stuff isn't in the core? Skip

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Re: [Python-Dev] Getting python-bz2 into 2.3
by Bob Kline 03 Dec '02

03 Dec '02

Earlier this month, Tim P. wrote: > Semi-unfortunately, the author of that [bzip2] has > > no idea if it actually works on 95/98/ME/NT/XP > > and in the docs for "3.8 Making a Windows DLL" > > I haven't tried any of this stuff myself, but it all looks > plausible. > > That means it will require some real work to build and test this > stuff on 6 flavors of Windows. Not a showstopper, but does raise > the bar for getting into the PLabs Windows distro. Sorry if I'm way off base here, but does the underlying bzip2 package have to be in a DLL, or can't that be built as a static library, which gets linked into the .pyd, which *is* a DLL? In either case, it doesn't seem like it would be very difficult to create whatever flavor library is needed. The code for bzip2 seems to be very portably written. The python-bz2 code, on the other hand, needed a little bit of tweaking to make it compile with Microsoft's compiler. I'll be happy to help in whatever way would be useful in dealing with the "raised bar," as the prospect of having Python support on all platforms for bz2 compression (and tarfiles) is very appealing. -- Bob Kline mailto:bkline@rksystems.com http://www.rksystems.com

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ssl for Windows
by Mark Hammond 02 Dec '02

02 Dec '02

I would like to check in a patch for http://www.python.org/sf/576711, which adds the _ssl module to Windows builds. The only slightly controversial thing is how the build process operates. I have quoted the relevant part of PCbuild/readme.txt below. test_socket_ssl passes once this is built, and at least 2 other people have reported build success. Are there any objections to the scheme? Should I check it in? Mark. _ssl Python wrapper for the secure sockets library. Get the latest source code for OpenSSL from http://www.openssl.org Unpack into the "dist" directory, retaining the folder name from the archive - for example, the latest stable OpenSSL will install as dist/openssl-0.9.6g You can (theoretically) use any version of OpenSSL you like - the build process will automatically select the latest version. You must also install ActivePerl from http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/ as this is used by the OpenSSL build process. Complain to them <wink> The MSVC project simply invokes PCBuild/build_ssl.py to perform the build. This Python script locates and builds your OpenSSL installation, then invokes a simple makefile to build the final .pyd. build_ssl.py attempts to catch the most common errors (such as not being able to find OpenSSL sources, or not being able to find a Perl that works with OpenSSL) and give a reasonable error message. If you have a problem that doesn't seem to be handled correctly (eg, you know you have ActivePerl but we can't find it), please take a peek at build_ssl.py and suggest patches. Note that build_ssl.py should be able to be run directly from the command-line. build_ssl.py/MSVC isn't clever enough to clean OpenSSL - you must do this by hand.

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RE: [Python-checkins] python/nondist/sandbox/datetime obj_delta.c,1.14,1.15 test_both.py,1.15,1.16
by Jeremy Hylton 02 Dec '02

02 Dec '02

>>>>> "TP" == Tim Peters <tim.one(a)comcast.net> writes: TP> I'd rather find a way to avoid __reduce__ entirely, though! Me, too! TP> The Python implementation of these things didn't need it, and in TP> the date and datetime cases it's creating bigger pickles than it TP> should -- __getstate__ and __setstate__ already did all that was TP> necessary, and no more than that. Supplying an argument tuple TP> for __reduce__'s benefit loses either way: I either put the real TP> date/datetime arguments there, but then the pickle is of a big TP> tuple rather than of a tiny string. Or I put a dummy argument TP> tuple there and also include the tiny string for __setstate__, TP> but these constructors require at least 3 arguments so that the TP> "dummy argument tuple" consumes substantial space of its own. TP> So, as it stands, ignoring the new-style-class administrative TP> pickle bloat in the Python implementation, the *guts* of the TP> pickles produced by the Python implementation are substantially TP> smaller than those produced by the C implementation. The __reduce__() approach seems to be (either or both) overly complex and underdocumented. It's a real shame that something simple like __getstate__() and __setstate__() can't be made to work for new-style classes. If I recall correctly, the problem is that there is no way to distinguish a user-defined new-style class from a builtin type from a user-defined subclass of a builtin type. As a result, there's no way for pickle to decide if it should be looking for __getstate__() or invoking the complicated machinery that allows subclasses of builtin types to be pickleable. Another victim of unification. > I figured timedelta *was* "a class", although now I guess that, in > this context, it's not "a class" but "a type". That's what you get > when you unify the concepts <wink>. Jerem

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Re: [Python-checkins] python/nondist/sandbox/datetime obj_delta.c,1.14,1.15 test_both.py,1.15,1.16
by Michael Hudson 02 Dec '02

02 Dec '02

tim_one(a)users.sourceforge.net writes: > + /* XXX A further broken attempt to get pickling to work. > + * XXX This avoids the problem above, but dies instead with > + * XXX PicklingError: Can't pickle <type 'timedelta'>: it's not > + * XXX found as __builtin__.tmedelta You need to arrange for a module name to appear in timedelta's tp_name: Index: obj_delta.c =================================================================== RCS file: /cvsroot/python/python/nondist/sandbox/datetime/obj_delta.c,v retrieving revision 1.15 diff -c -r1.15 obj_delta.c *** obj_delta.c 2 Dec 2002 17:31:21 -0000 1.15 --- obj_delta.c 2 Dec 2002 17:37:55 -0000 *************** *** 673,679 **** static PyTypeObject PyDateTime_DeltaType = { PyObject_HEAD_INIT(NULL) 0, /* ob_size */ ! "timedelta", /* tp_name */ sizeof(PyDateTime_Delta), /* tp_basicsize */ 0, /* tp_itemsize */ 0, /* tp_dealloc */ --- 673,679 ---- static PyTypeObject PyDateTime_DeltaType = { PyObject_HEAD_INIT(NULL) 0, /* ob_size */ ! "datetime.timedelta", /* tp_name */ sizeof(PyDateTime_Delta), /* tp_basicsize */ 0, /* tp_itemsize */ 0, /* tp_dealloc */ seems a good bet. Cheers, M. -- I'm not sure that the ability to create routing diagrams similar to pretzels with mad cow disease is actually a marketable skill. -- Steve Levin -- http://home.xnet.com/~raven/Sysadmin/ASR.Quotes.html

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Sleepycat Berkeley DB on OSX
by Guido van Rossum 02 Dec '02

02 Dec '02

When running test_bsddb3 on Mac OSX, using BSDDB 4.0.14, I get tracebacks like these: Exception in thread writer 0: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/Users/guido/python/src/Lib/threading.py", line 416, in __bootstrap self.run() File "/Users/guido/python/src/Lib/threading.py", line 404, in run apply(self.__target, self.__args, self.__kwargs) File "/Users/guido/python/src/Lib/bsddb/test/test_thread.py", line 115, in writerThread dbutils.DeadlockWrap(d.put, key, self.makeData(key), max_retries=12) File "/Users/guido/python/src/Lib/bsddb/dbutils.py", line 61, in DeadlockWrap except _db.DBLockDeadlockError: NameError: global name '_db' is not defined and these: Exception in thread reader 8: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/Users/guido/python/src/Lib/threading.py", line 416, in __bootstrap self.run() File "/Users/guido/python/src/Lib/threading.py", line 404, in run apply(self.__target, self.__args, self.__kwargs) File "/Users/guido/python/src/Lib/bsddb/test/test_thread.py", line 140, in readerThread c = d.cursor() DBNoMemoryError: (12, 'Cannot allocate memory -- Lock table is out of available locks') Any clues??? I don't get these on Linux, although there I get a failure too: test test_bsddb3 failed -- errors occurred; run in verbose mode for details Frankly, verbose mode waas too verbose to bother. :-( --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)

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PyArg_Parse (was: int/long FutureWarning)
by Jack Jansen 02 Dec '02

02 Dec '02

Martin: > Jack Jansen <Jack.Jansen(a)oratrix.com> writes: > >> How about taking a completely different angle on this matter, and >> looking at PyArg_Parse itself? If we can keep PyArg_Parse 100% >> backward compatible (which would mean that its "i" format would take >> any IntObject or LongObject between -1e31 and 1e32-1) and introduce a >> new (preferred) way to parse arguments that not only does the right >> thing by being expressive enough to make a difference between >> "currency integers" and "bitmap integers", but also cleans up the >> incredible amount of cruft that PyArg_Parse has accumulated over the >> years? > > I had a similar idea, so I'd encourage you to spell out your proposal > in more detail, or even in an implementation. > My idea was to provide a ParseTuple wrapper, [...] > Those of you needing to support older Python releases could > > #define PyArg_ParseTupleLenient PyArg_ParseTuple > > in your distribution, or provide other appropriate wrappers. Unfortunately this wouldn't work if the distributions are binary distributions. But, aside from that, I think I would want to go much further than this _if_ I put time in redesigning PyArg_Parse. I would first like to take inventory of all the problems there are with PyArg_Parse, and then see whether we can design something that will solve most or all of these issues, without being overly complex in everyday use. And before I embark on that journey I would first like to have a group of people willing to put effort into this, plus the go-ahead of Guido (there's little point in designing a new mechanism if there is no chance of it being adopted as the general case, especially if this new mechanism may need a new PyMethodDef flag or some such thing). As a kickoff, here are some of my gripes about PyArg_Parse. 1. The format chars are arcane and without any logic. There is no logic to signed/unsigned type specifiers, some modifiers are suffixes (s#), some are different format chars (s versus z), some are prefixes (e). Everyone knows a basic set of 5 or 6 and has to look the rest up. Some types have special shortcuts without a clear rationale (String and Unicode are the only types to have an "O!", typename shortcut in the form of "S" and "U"). 2. There is conversion information interspersed with the argument list, for instance with O!, O& or es formats. This makes it very difficult to represent or build an argument parsing format in Python (this is worsened because some of the C objects in the argument list, such as the O& routine pointers, have no Python equivalent). And representing an argument list parser in Python is something that you need if you want to do dynamic wrapping of any kind (calldll, PyObjC, etc). 3. There is no way to create new, temporary objects during argument parsing, because there is no corresponding "release" call and no way to make the caller release new objects. Having temporary objects would make conversion a lot easier. Unicode and strings are the first types that come to mind, but there are probably others. 4. PyArg_ParseTupleAndKeywords makes the situation even worse. Each argument now has *three* different "index positions", the real index in the keyword list, a modified one in the format string (ignore all non-alphabetic chars and "e") and a third one in the argument list (ignore all extraneous arguments corresponding to es or O& or what-have-you). -- - Jack Jansen <Jack.Jansen(a)oratrix.com> http://www.cwi.nl/~jack - - If I can't dance I don't want to be part of your revolution -- Emma Goldman -

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Re: [Python-Dev] Mac OSX issues
by Michael Hudson 02 Dec '02

02 Dec '02

Jack Jansen <Jack.Jansen(a)cwi.nl> writes: > I'm +0 on this. The reason I'm not +1 is that 2MB is just as > arbitrary as 1MB, Not quite; it's also the stack size passed to pthreads IIRC. So after ulimit -s 2048 all threads get the same stack size (I think). Cheers, M. -- 42. You can measure a programmer's perspective by noting his attitude on the continuing vitality of FORTRAN. -- Alan Perlis, http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/perlis-alan/quotes.html

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Re: [Python-checkins] python/dist/src/Python import.c,2.210,2.211
by Jack Jansen 01 Dec '02

01 Dec '02

On vrijdag, nov 29, 2002, at 21:47 Europe/Amsterdam, jvr(a)users.sourceforge.net wrote: > Update of /cvsroot/python/python/dist/src/Python > In directory sc8-pr-cvs1:/tmp/cvs-serv20813/Python > > Modified Files: > import.c > Log Message: > Slightly improved version of patch #642578: "Expose > PyImport_FrozenModules > in imp". This adds two functions to the imp module: get_frozenmodules() > and set_frozenmodules(). Something that's been bothering me about frozen modules in the classical sense (i.e. those that are stored in C static data structures) is that the memory used by them is gone without any chance at recovery. For big frozen Python programs that are to be run on small machines this is a waste of precious memory. With modules "frozen" with set_frozenmodules you could conceivably free the data again after it has been imported (similar to what MacPython-OS9 does with modules "frozen" in "PYC " resources). Would that be worth the added complexity? -- - Jack Jansen <Jack.Jansen(a)oratrix.com> http://www.cwi.nl/~jack - - If I can't dance I don't want to be part of your revolution -- Emma Goldman -

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Weekly Python Bug/Patch Summary
by Skip Montanaro 01 Dec '02

01 Dec '02

Bug/Patch Summary ----------------- 313 open / 3091 total bugs (+4) 96 open / 1810 total patches (+2) New Bugs -------- __all__ not in RefMan index (2002-11-24) http://python.org/sf/643227 typo in Object/abstract.c : ternary_op (2002-11-24) http://python.org/sf/643260 Pythonwin : close() on a stdout (2002-11-25) http://python.org/sf/643571 New class special method lookup change (2002-11-25) http://python.org/sf/643841 ic module "path too long" error (2002-11-26) http://python.org/sf/644243 file URLs mis-handled by webbrowser (2002-11-26) http://python.org/sf/644246 Poor error message for augmented assign (2002-11-26) http://python.org/sf/644345 bdist_rpm fails when installin man pages (2002-11-27) http://python.org/sf/644744 for lin in file: file.tell() tells wrong (2002-11-29) http://python.org/sf/645594 SequenceMatcher finds suboptimal sequenc (2002-11-29) http://python.org/sf/645629 .extend() doc, .__doc__ too restrictive (2002-11-29) http://python.org/sf/645777 old UnicodeData.txt (2002-12-01) http://python.org/sf/646408 New Patches ----------- Allow keyword args in dict.update() (2002-11-25) http://python.org/sf/643565 refactoring and documenting ModuleFinder (2002-11-25) http://python.org/sf/643711 Set Next Statement for Python debuggers (2002-11-25) http://python.org/sf/643835 Fix for os.path.expanduser for Win2000 (2002-11-25) http://python.org/sf/643943 Build _tkinter in setup.jaguar.py (2002-11-27) http://python.org/sf/644920 Allow device name in linuxaudiodev.open (2002-11-27) http://python.org/sf/644977 Don't FPE on FreeBSD... (2002-11-28) http://python.org/sf/645382 Give some clue why modules fail... (2002-11-28) http://python.org/sf/645383 fix buffer overrun in pmerge (2002-11-28) http://python.org/sf/645404 Import from Zip Archive (2002-11-29) http://python.org/sf/645650 better timer resolution for profile.py (2002-11-29) http://python.org/sf/645894 Closed Bugs ----------- bdist builds bogus .zips (2001-03-22) http://python.org/sf/410541 webbrowser.py: selection of browser (2001-12-20) http://python.org/sf/495695 PyMapping_Keys unexported in dll (2002-08-02) http://python.org/sf/590207 Can't assign to __name__ or __bases__ of new class (2002-08-09) http://python.org/sf/593154 __getstate__() documentation is vague (2002-11-13) http://python.org/sf/637941 better error reporting for MRO conflict (2002-11-22) http://python.org/sf/642489 Webbrowser (and ic) on MacOSX failure (2002-11-23) http://python.org/sf/642720 Closed Patches -------------- Import from Zip archive (2001-12-12) http://python.org/sf/492105 Return objects in Tkinter (2002-02-16) http://python.org/sf/518625 _getdefaultlocale for OS X (2002-11-03) http://python.org/sf/632973 Cleanup of test_strptime.py (2002-11-04) http://python.org/sf/633633 SimpleSets (2002-11-13) http://python.org/sf/638095 _strptime fixes for None locale and tz (2002-11-15) http://python.org/sf/639112 reST version of Lib/test/README (2002-11-20) http://python.org/sf/641170 time and timetz for the datetime module (2002-11-21) http://python.org/sf/641958 Expose PyImport_FrozenModules in imp (2002-11-22) http://python.org/sf/642578

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Python-Dev December 2002