[Python-Dev] ref leak in element tree/pyexpat

[Fredrik Lundh]

Neal Norwitz wrote:

> I'm not sure where the problem is, but this code leaks a reference:
>    parser = ET.XMLParser() ; parser.feed('<x>text</x>')
>
> You need this to set it up:
>   from xmlcore.etree import cElementTree as ET
>
> This isn't a memory leak according to valgrind.

looks like it's stealing more None references than it should.  here's a more
isolated test case:

    tree = ET.TreeBuilder()
    tree.start("x")
    tree.data("text")
    tree.end("x")

if you remove *either* the data or the end call, the leak goes away.  I'll
take a look.

> Also, I noticed several places where errors where being ignored.  What
> is the procedure for the element tree?  Are we supposed to modify it
> in the python SVN or treat it as read-only?

the overall goal is to be able to say that Python X.Y.Z ships with Element-
Tree A.B.C.  to achieve this, the Python SVN should be treated as mostly
read-only -- with the exception of critical errors (crashes seen in the wild,
serious leaks, security issues, etc) and build/portability issues.

> The patch below fixes a few small problems.  There were some others I
> noticed, but didn't add to the patch.

thanks.  I'll fix these (and a few others) in the next "official" release.

</F>