[New-bugs-announce] [issue26891] CPython doesn't work when you disable refcounting

[Larry Hastings]

New submission from Larry Hastings:

So here's a strange one.

I want to do some mysterious experiments with CPython.  So I disabled refcount changes in CPython.

I changed Py_INCR and Py_DECR so they expand to nothing.  I had to change some other macros to match (SETREF, XSETREF, and the Py_RETURN_* ones) to fix some compiler errors and warnings.  Also, to prevent the str object from making in-place edits, I changed _Py_NewReference so that the initial reference count for all objects is 2.

CPython builds, then gets to the "generate-posix-vars" step and fails with this output:

./python -E -S -m sysconfig --generate-posix-vars ;\
if test $? -ne 0 ; then \
        echo "generate-posix-vars failed" ; \
        rm -f ./pybuilddir.txt ; \
        exit 1 ; \
fi
Fatal Python error: Py_Initialize: Unable to get the locale encoding
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 1078, in _path_importer_cache
KeyError: '/usr/local/lib/python36.zip'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 979, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 964, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 903, in _find_spec
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 1137, in find_spec
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 1108, in _get_spec
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 1080, in _path_importer_cache
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 1056, in _path_hooks
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 1302, in path_hook_for_FileFinder
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 96, in _path_isdir
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 81, in _path_is_mode_type
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 75, in _path_stat
AttributeError: module 'posix' has no attribute 'stat'
Aborted (core dumped)
generate-posix-vars failed
Makefile:598: recipe for target 'pybuilddir.txt' failed
make: *** [pybuilddir.txt] Error 1

I'm stumped.  Why should CPython be dependent on reference counts actually changing?  I figured I'd just leak memory like crazy, not change behavior.

Attached is my patch against current trunk (1ceb91974dc4) in case you want to try it yourself.  Testing was done on Ubuntu 15.10 64-bit, gcc 5.2.1.

----------
components: Interpreter Core
files: larry.turn.off.refcounts.1.diff.txt
messages: 264541
nosy: brett.cannon, larry
priority: low
severity: normal
stage: needs patch
status: open
title: CPython doesn't work when you disable refcounting
type: behavior
Added file: http://bugs.python.org/file42660/larry.turn.off.refcounts.1.diff.txt

_______________________________________
Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue26891>
_______________________________________