[Python-Dev] C API for gc.enable() and gc.disable()

[Andrey Zhmoginov]

>
> Would anyone mind if I did add a public C API for gc.disable() and
> gc.enable()? I would like to use it as an optimization for the pickle
> module (I found out that I get a good 2x speedup just by disabling the
> GC while loading large pickles). Of course, I could simply import the
> gc module and call the functions there, but that seems overkill to me.
> I included the patch below for review.
>   
I don't know if the following question is relevant, but it seems that 
many people here are familiar with Python cyclic garbage collector.
I see Python [v2.5.2 (r252:60911, Jul 31 2008, 17:28:52)] crashing with 
Segment fault when I extend Python with a very simple module. This 
behavior is observed when I create a thousand of lists (it does not 
crash with 10-100) in the module with the garbage collector turned on. 
When I turn it off - everything is perfect. I suspect that it is my 
module, but if it is a Python bug ( _GC_Malloc? memory leak somewhere?), 
it may be worth reporting.

The gdb "where" reply is the following:

    #0  0x080d8de9 in PyErr_Occurred ()
    #1  0x080f508f in _PyObject_GC_Malloc ()
    #2  0x080f5155 in _PyObject_GC_New ()
    #3  0x08079c98 in PyList_New ()
    #4  0xb7f53519 in draw_d_simple () from ./rt/rt_core.so
    #5  0xb7cf7833 in ffi_call_SYSV () from 
/usr/lib/python2.5/lib-dynload/_ctypes.so
    #6  0xb7cf766a in ffi_call () from 
/usr/lib/python2.5/lib-dynload/_ctypes.so
    #7  0xb7cf2534 in _CallProc () from 
/usr/lib/python2.5/lib-dynload/_ctypes.so
    #8  0xb7cec02a in ?? () from /usr/lib/python2.5/lib-dynload/_ctypes.so
    #9  0x0805cb97 in PyObject_Call ()
    #10 0x080c7aa7 in PyEval_EvalFrameEx ()
    #11 0x080c96e5 in PyEval_EvalFrameEx ()
    #12 0x080cb1f7 in PyEval_EvalCodeEx ()
    #13 0x080cb347 in PyEval_EvalCode ()
    #14 0x080ea818 in PyRun_FileExFlags ()
    #15 0x080eaab9 in PyRun_SimpleFileExFlags ()
    #16 0x08059335 in Py_Main ()
    #17 0x080587f2 in main ()

The crashing python code is:

    from ctypes import *
    import gc
    core = CDLL( "./tst.so" )
    core.a.argtypes = []
    core.a.restype = py_object
    #gc.disable()
    core.a()
    #gc.enable()

And tst.cpp is:

    #include <Python.h>
    extern "C" { PyObject *a(); }
    PyObject *a()
    {
        int n = 1000;
        PyObject *item;
        for ( int i = 0; i < n; i++ ) item = PyList_New( 0 );      // 
Crashes here (somewhere in between).
        return item;
    }

tst.cpp is compiled with:

    g++ -shared -Wl,-soname,tst.tmp.so -o tst.so tst.o
    g++ -I /usr/include/python2.5 -Wall -fPIC -o tst.o -c tst.cpp

Thanks for your help!

- Andrew.