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

[Arkaitz Bitorika]

Andrew,

I've verified that the function causes the exception when embedded in  
the program but not when used from a simple C program with just a main 
() function. The successful version iterates 31 times over the for  
loop while the crashing one fails the 30th time that it does "pinf *=  
mul".

Now we know exactly where the crash is, but no idea how to fix it ;).  
It doesn't look it should be related to SSE2 flags, it's just doing a  
big multiplication, but I don't know enough about low level C and  
floating point operations to understand why it may be throwing the  
exception there. Any idea how I could avoid that function crashing?

Thanks,
Arkaitz

On 22 Apr 2006, at 20:12, Andrew Straw wrote:
> 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.