[Python-Dev] Invalid memory read in PyObject_Free

[Guido van Rossum]

> [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.

Oops, I think I may have been confused by that one.

> > 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!).

OK.

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