[Python-Dev] Trap SIGSEGV and SIGFPE (original) (raw)

skip at pobox.com skip at pobox.com
Thu Dec 11 15:27:27 CET 2008 

>> The Python distribution comes with a Misc/gdbinit file

Victor> Hum, do you really run *all* programs in gdb? Most of the time,
Victor> you don't expect a crash (because you trust your softwares). You
Victor> will have to try to reproduce the crash, but sometimes it's very
Victor> hard (eg. Heisenbugs!).

Please folks! Get real. I was trying to help out a guy who responded to this thread saying that he gets intermittent segfaults in his PyGTK programs. I don't presume that he runs his app in gdb. If he has a core file this will work. I apologize profusely for any implication that a set of gdb commands is in any way superior to your patch.

OTOH, it works today if you have a core file and are running Python at least as far back as 2.4. It doesn't require any changes to the interpreter. I use it frequently at work (a couple times a month anyway). We get notifications of all core files dropped each day. I make at least a cursory check of all core files dumped by Python. For that I use the pystack command defined in Misc/gdbinit.

Victor> My new proposition is to display the backtrace instead of just
Victor> the message "segmentation fault". It's not a problem if
Victor> displaying the backtrace produces new fault because it's already
Victor> better than just the message "segmentation fault". Even with my
Victor> SIGSEVG handler, you can still use gdb because gdb catchs the
Victor> signal before the program.

Again, I meant no disrespect to your proposal. I was simply trying to help the guy out.

Skip

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