multiprocessing build fails on AIX - /dev/urandom (or equivalent) not found

[srid]

BPO	6645
Files	multiprocessing-urandom-fallback.patch: Patch that includes a fallback to the 'random' module if os.urandom() is not available.

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2010-10-29.16:04:04.921>
created_at = <Date 2009-08-04.19:27:31.113>
labels = ['extension-modules', 'build']
title = 'multiprocessing build fails on AIX - /dev/urandom (or equivalent) not found'
updated_at = <Date 2010-10-29.16:04:04.919>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/srid'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2010-10-29.16:04:04.919>
actor = 'jnoller'
assignee = 'jnoller'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2010-10-29.16:04:04.921>
closer = 'jnoller'
components = ['Build', 'Extension Modules']
creation = <Date 2009-08-04.19:27:31.113>
creator = 'srid'
dependencies = []
files = ['15445']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 6645
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 9.0
messages = ['91270', '91319', '91343', '95930', '101590', '105832', '119554', '119911', '119913']
nosy_count = 3.0
nosy_names = ['jnoller', 'srid', 'davidnarayan']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = None
stage = 'needs patch'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'compile error'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue6645'
versions = ['Python 2.6', 'Python 3.1']

[srid]

./Modules/ld_so_aix cc_r -qlanglvl=ansi -bI:Modules/python.exp build/
temp.aix-5.1-2.6/home/apy/rrun/build/activ
epython-DEV/build/py2_6_2-aix-powerpc-apyee26-rrun/python/Modules/
_multiprocessing/multiprocessing.o build/temp
.aix-5.1-2.6/home/apy/rrun/build/activepython-DEV/build/py2_6_2-aix-
powerpc-apyee26-rrun/python/Modules/_multip
rocessing/socket_connection.o build/temp.aix-5.1-2.6/home/apy/rrun/
build/activepython-DEV/build/py2_6_2-aix-pow
erpc-apyee26-rrun/python/Modules/_multiprocessing/semaphore.o -o build/
lib.aix-5.1-2.6/_multiprocessing.so
*** WARNING: importing extension "_multiprocessing" failed with <type
'exceptions.NotImplementedError'>: /dev/u
random (or equivalent) not found

[jnoller]

Without access to an AIX machine, and even with it (I'm not an AIX guy by
any stretch) it's going to be virtually impossible for me to fix this. A
patch would be appreciated.

[srid]

I suppose multiprocessing invokes os.random somewhere. And os.random
fails on AIX for obvious reasons:

>>> os.urandom(10)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/tmp/srid/ActivePythonEE-2.6.2.3-aix-powerpc64/i/lib/python2.6/
os.py", line 755, in urandom
    raise NotImplementedError("/dev/urandom (or equivalent) not found")
NotImplementedError: /dev/urandom (or equivalent) not found
>>> 

Why should multiprocessing require urandom at all? Can't it fallback
to os.random, if os.urandom is unavailable?

try:
os.urandom(10)
except NotImplementedError:
urandom = os.urandom
else:
urandom = os.random

[davidnarayan]

This is a patch that I have used on AIX. The idea for this patch came
from uuid.py. This patch was created against Python 2.6.4.

[srid]

This also breaks pydoc on AIX (Python 2.6.5).

help> modules pydoc

Here is a list of matching modules. Enter any module name to get more help.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/home/qatest/APy/lib/python2.6/site.py", line 438, in __call__
    return pydoc.help(*args, **kwds)
  File "/home/qatest/APy/lib/python2.6/pydoc.py", line 1722, in __call__
    self.interact()
  File "/home/qatest/APy/lib/python2.6/pydoc.py", line 1740, in interact
    self.help(request)
  File "/home/qatest/APy/lib/python2.6/pydoc.py", line 1760, in help
    self.listmodules(split(request)[1])
  File "/home/qatest/APy/lib/python2.6/pydoc.py", line 1865, in listmodules
    apropos(key)
  File "/home/qatest/APy/lib/python2.6/pydoc.py", line 1965, in apropos
    ModuleScanner().run(callback, key)
  File "/home/qatest/APy/lib/python2.6/pydoc.py", line 1930, in run
    for importer, modname, ispkg in pkgutil.walk_packages(onerror=onerror):
  File "/home/qatest/APy/lib/python2.6/pkgutil.py", line 110, in walk_packages
    __import__(name)
  File "/home/qatest/APy/lib/python2.6/multiprocessing/__init__.py", line 63, in <module>
    from multiprocessing.process import Process, current_process, active_children
  File "/home/qatest/APy/lib/python2.6/multiprocessing/process.py", line 286, in <module>
    _current_process = _MainProcess()
  File "/home/qatest/APy/lib/python2.6/multiprocessing/process.py", line 283, in __init__
    self._authkey = AuthenticationString(os.urandom(32))
  File "/home/qatest/APy/lib/python2.6/os.py", line 756, in urandom
    raise NotImplementedError("/dev/urandom (or equivalent) not found")
NotImplementedError: /dev/urandom (or equivalent) not found

[srid]

Looks like this has been fixed, at least on Python trunk (2.7).

[jnoller]

Sridhar can you confirm if this is still a problem on 3.2?

[srid]

No, this is not an issue for me on Python 3.2 and AIX 5.1.

[jnoller]

Closing per Sridhar