Issue 1494671: PyOS_ascii_strtod() uses malloc() directly (original) (raw)

Logged In: YES user_id=31435

Well, it's not really a bug. If a module wants to use malloc/free internally, that's fine. I can't think of a reason for why this code wants to do that, but it doesn't really hurt.

Somtimes there is a good reason. For example, the code providing a portable notion of thread-local storage in thread.c uses malloc deliberately, because those functions can be called when the GIL isn't held (i.e., multiple threads can call them simultaneously). The Python memory families, like almost all parts of the Python C API, are free to assume that the GIL is held; in particular, obmalloc does assume that, so it would be disastrous if thread.c used that memory family instead.

Logged In: YES user_id=357491

OK. Well, considered it is free within the function and all memory use is done through C API functions (memcpy() and strtod() specifically, I don't see any reason not to move over to PyMem_Malloc() since I can do that quickly.

Oh, and the file is Python/pystrtod.c and it's line 104 for those who don't know where the function is.