[Python-Dev] pyfailmalloc: new debug tool to test how your applications handles MemoryError

[Victor Stinner]

Hi,

The PEP 445 (Add new APIs to customize Python memory allocators) has
been accepted, I commited its implementation. So it's time to have fun
with this API.

I developed a small Python module (150 lines of C code) to inject
memory allocation failures:
https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pyfailmalloc

This module can be used to test your application under very low memory
condition, test how your application handles MemoryError. I ran it in
the Python test suite: Python core and stdlib do not handle
MemoryError correctly everywhere...

I opened the following issue to track all bugs found by pytracemalloc
and related commits to fix these bugs:
http://bugs.python.org/issue18408

I already fixed bugs in PyObject_GC_NewVar(), PyDict_New(),
list.pop(), type.__bases__ setter, etc. I also found a bug in
_PyMem_DebugRealloc(): a function supposed to detect bugs :-)

Have fun with this new tool on your applications and Python modules.
Tell me if you would like to help me on issue #18408, there are still
a lot of bugs to fix.

Victor