[Python-Dev] Python initialization and embedded Python (original) (raw)

Steve Dower steve.dower at python.org
Fri Nov 17 19:17:25 EST 2017

On 17Nov2017 1601, Victor Stinner wrote:

In short, it means that using the "Python runtime" before it's initialized by PyRuntimeInitialize() is now likely to crash. For example, calling PyMemRawMalloc(), before calling PyRuntimeInitialize(), now calls the function NULL: dereference a NULL pointer, and so immediately crash with a segmentation fault.

I'm writing this email to ask if this change is an issue or not to embedded Python and the Python C API. Is it still possible to call "all" functions of the C API before calling PyInitialize()?

I thought it was never possible to call most of the C API without initializing, except for certain APIs that are documented as being safe. I've certainly crashed many times calling C APIs before initialization. My intuition was that the only safe ones before were those that were used to initialize the runtime (Py_SetPath and such), which are also the ones being "upgraded" as part of this work.

If we have a good idea of which ones are [un]safe now, perhaps we should tag them explicitly in the docs? Do we know which ones are [un]safe?

Cheers, Steve

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