[Python-Dev] Segmentaion fault with wrongly set PYTHONPATH on Windows (original) (raw)

anatoly techtonik techtonik at gmail.com
Mon Oct 22 18:26:15 CEST 2012

On Mon, Oct 22, 2012 at 4:40 PM, Victor Stinner <victor.stinner at gmail.com> wrote:

_set PYTHONHOME=C:_ python The issue #8766 is about PYTHONPATH environment variable, not PYTHONHOME. Test on Linux with Python 3.4: $ PYTHONHOME=/x ./python Fatal Python error: PyInitialize: Unable to get the locale encoding ImportError: No module named 'encodings' Abandon (core dumped) It's not a segfault, but an "abort". It's different: abort() is called by the application (Python) when something goes wrong. In this case, Python is unable to locate the standard library. It's not a bug: I asked Python to look in /x directory, whereas this directory doesn't exist.

I don't know what is abort() on Linux, but I believe coredumps is not something you want to get while setting some environment variable. On Windows it outputs a standard crash dialog box, which immediately raises questions about Python stability and potential exploitability in this direction.

BTW, what is the role of PYTHONPATH on Windows? Is it a path for %INSTALLDIR%\Lib\site-packages? Same role than PYTHONPATH on Linux: specify where third party modules are installed.

I meant PYTHONHOME, sorry.

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