[Python-Dev] Invalid memory read in PyObject_Free

[Guido van Rossum]

> In obmalloc.c there is some code that does not strictly conform to
> ANSI C.

True.  If we wanted to strictly conform to ANSI C, we couldn't do many
things we do.

> However, I do not believe there have been reports of machines
> in the wild where this is a problem, and on such platforms there is an
> easy solution: turn off pymalloc.

I think there is talk though to make it impossible to turn off
pymalloc in the future (you can still turn it off in Python 2.3).

I haven't heard of platforms where turning off pymalloc is required --
unless we hear about those, I expect that for 2.4, pymalloc may no
longer be optional.  (The reason: maintaining two versions of the same
code is a pain, and usually the version that's not selected by default
is severely broken after a few releases.)

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)