problem with numeric array on window.

[Alexandre Gillet]

Hi all,

We are having problems when creating numeric arrays in C extensions
under
windows. We narrowed the problem down to a very simple example (shown
below) where we simply allocate some memory, create a Numeric array
using
PyArrayFromDimsAndData. If we call that function as soon as we delete
the
returned array the python interpreter crashes as it tries to free
self->data. If we do not the the OWN_DATA flag in the array it works
fine
but we have a memory leak.
We tried this using both release and Debug versions of Python1.5.2, and
Numeric 17.1.1.
I have been using this mechanism under Unix for a long time and have not
had this problem before !
Using the same extension and test under unix works fine.
Has something changed ? Any help is welcome ...
Thank you

I join the two files we are using.
 bug.c : a C module that create an array numeric with the flags set to
own_data, so when the array is garbage collected, the memory is free.


#################
bug.c#####################################################
#ifdef WIN32
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <malloc.h>
#endif
#include "Python.h"
#include "arrayobject.h"

static PyObject* createArray(PyObject* self, PyObject* args)
{
    int *dims;
    float *data;
    PyArrayObject *out;

    dims = (int *)malloc(2 * sizeof(int));
    dims[0] = 500;
    dims[1] = 2;
    data = (float *)malloc(100000 * sizeof(float));
    out = (PyArrayObject *)PyArray_FromDimsAndData(2, dims,
                                                   PyArray_FLOAT,
                                                   (char *)data);
    if (!out) {
      PyErr_SetString(PyExc_RuntimeError,
                      "Failed to allocate memory for normals");
      return NULL;
    }
    out->flags |= OWN_DATA;   /*so we'll free this memory when this 
                                array will be garbage collected */
    return (PyObject *)out;
}

static PyMethodDef bug_methods[] = {
  {"createArray",             createArray,      1}, 
  {NULL,      NULL}        /* Sentinel */
};

static char bug_documentation[] = "No Doc";

#ifdef WIN32
extern __declspec(dllexport)
#endif
void initbug()
{
        PyObject *m, *d;
        m = Py_InitModule4("bug",
                           bug_methods,
                           bug_documentation,
                           (PyObject *)NULL,
                           PYTHON_API_VERSION);
        d = PyModule_GetDict(m);
        import_array();

        if (PyErr_Occurred()) 
                Py_FatalError("can't initialize module bug");
}
#####################################################################

###############testbug.py############################################
import bug
ar = bug.createArray()
del ar # fatal if ar owns the data member

#####################################################################




-- 
**********************************
Alexandre Gillet
The Scripps Research Institute,       tel: (858) 784-9557
Dept. Molecular Biology,  MB-5,       fax: (858) 784-2860
10550  North Torrey Pines Road,       email: gillet at scripps.edu
La Jolla,  CA 92037-1000,  USA.