[Numpy-discussion] Floating point exception with numpy and embedded python interpreter

[Andrew Straw]

bitorika at cs.tcd.ie wrote:

>>>On 19 Apr 2006, at 18:37, Andrew Straw wrote:
>>>      
>>>
>>I think that numpy only accesses the SSE units through ATLAS or other
>>external library. So, build numpy without ATLAS. But I'm not 100% sure
>>anymore if there aren't any optimizations that directly use SSE if it's
>>available.
>>    
>>
>
>I've tried getting rid of all atlas, blas and lapack packages in my system
>and rebuilding numpy to use its own unoptimised lapack_lite, but no luck.
>Just trying to import numpy with PyImport_ImportModule("numpy") causes the
>program to crash with just a "Floating point exception" message output.
>
>The program I'm embedding Python in is the NS Network Simulator
>(http://www.isi.edu/nsnam/ns/). It's a complex C++ beast with its own
>Object-Tcl interpreter, but it's been working fine with embedded Python
>except for this numpy crash. I've used Numeric before and it worked fine
>as well.
>
>I'm lost now regarding what to work on to find a solution, anyone familiar
>with numpy internals has any suggestion?
>  
>
OK, going back to your original gdb traceback, it looks like the SIGFPE
originated in the following funtion in umathmodule.c:

static double
pinf_init(void)
{
    double mul = 1e10;
    double tmp = 0.0;
    double pinf;

    pinf = mul;
    for (;;) {
        pinf *= mul;
        if (pinf == tmp) break;
        tmp = pinf;
    }
    return pinf;
}

If you try just that function (instead of the whole Python interpreter
and numpy module) and still get the exception, you'll be that much
closer to narrowing down the issue.