[Python-Dev] Big trouble in CVS Python

[Tim Peters]

Under current CVS, release build, running regrtest.py crashes very soon
after entering test___all__.py for me, on two different machines (but both
Windows).  The C stack has gotten lost by this point, and the program
counter is pointing into static data(!), about a dozen bytes beyond the
start of Python's static PyFloat_Type type.

Alas, there is no problem in a debug build.  There's also no problem under
the release build if I run the debug build first and leave the .pyc files
behind.  Removing the .pyc files and then running the release build dies
every time.  So maybe it's something to do with compiling Python programs,
or maybe with a vagary of when cyclic gc triggers.  The latter is high on my
suspect list, because the location of the death is affected by regrtest's -t
option, and the release build runs the tests to completion with -t0.

If it's in gc, I probably caused it.  So I'm not asking you to fix it
<wink>.  It would help to know if anyone is having problems under Linux, and
especially if you are and the debugger there is more helpful in a release
build.