[Python-Dev] Invalid memory read in PyObject_Free

[Tim Peters]

[Guido]
> 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 such talk before.  There was talk of making it impossible to
compile without cyclic gc, and-- indeed --that was done for 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.)

We never build without WITH_PYMALLOC defined anymore, so under the "if it's
not tested, it's broken" theory, it's already broken <0.5 wink>.  OTOH,
there are really only two substantive WITH_PYMALLOC #ifdefs in the codebase,
and one of them just surrounds the bulk of the code in obmalloc.c.  So as
untested features go, I bet this one is less problematic than
WITHOUT_COMPLEX (which is tested in many more places!).