[Python-Dev] Invalid memory read in PyObject_Free (original) (raw)

Guido van Rossum guido@python.org
Fri, 04 Jul 2003 12:27:58 -0400

In obmalloc.c there is some code that does not strictly conform to ANSI C.

True. If we wanted to strictly conform to ANSI C, we couldn't do many things we do.

However, I do not believe there have been reports of machines in the wild where this is a problem, and on such platforms there is an easy solution: turn off pymalloc.

I think there is talk though to make it impossible to turn off pymalloc in the future (you can still turn it off in Python 2.3).

I haven't heard of platforms where turning off pymalloc is required -- unless we hear about those, I expect that for 2.4, pymalloc may no longer be optional. (The reason: maintaining two versions of the same code is a pain, and usually the version that's not selected by default is severely broken after a few releases.)

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)