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

Michael Hudson mwh@python.net
Fri, 04 Jul 2003 17:38:36 +0100

Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org> writes:

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.

Sure, but this one is a little bit more eccentric than the others...

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.)

Is this a real problem with pymalloc?

#ifndef PYMALLOC #define PyObject_Alloc malloc #else ... #endif

isn't likely to bitrot that fast. But, whatever, it's no big deal to me.

Cheers, M.

-- People think I'm a nice guy, and the fact is that I'm a scheming, conniving bastard who doesn't care for any hurt feelings or lost hours of work if it just results in what I consider to be a better system. -- Linus Torvalds