File Closing Problem in 2.3 and 2.4, Not in 2.5 (Final report)

[Carroll, Barry]

John et al:

I've spent about a day investigating our "too many open files" error.  I
found the following:  

	1. Windows XP allows a Python 2.5 script to open 509 concurrent 
	   files.  
	2. RedHat Fedora Core 1 allows a Python 2.3 script to open 1022
	   concurrent files.  
	3. The Python 2.5 release notes and the "What's New in Python
2.5" 
	   doc do not mention any changes to the way in which file
objects 
	   of reference counts are handled.  
	4. Other features of the framework also fail when this limit is 
	   reached.  Specifically, our debugger subsystem suffers a
fatal 
	   error if invoked near the point where the file errors start
to 
	   occur.  So more than just file objects are affected here.  

I've spent all the time I can spare chasing this bug.  The lead
programmer is convinced (I think) that we have a reference count problem
somewhere, so perhaps he will persue it.  If any more useful information
comes up on this subject, I'll post it here.  

Regards,
 
Barry
barry.carroll at psc.com
541-302-1107
________________________
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