python.exe crashes or hangs on help() modules when bad modules found

[devplayer]

BPO	10060
Nosy	@terryjreedy, @vstinner, @merwok, @bitdancer, @serhiy-storchaka
Files	python_help_modules_help_dialog.png: Hidden prompt window. unnamed python_exe_help()_modules_app_modal_popup_window_behind_main_window_a.png

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

Show more details

GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2013-06-30.05:34:25.534>
created_at = <Date 2010-10-10.02:03:45.036>
labels = ['library', 'type-crash']
title = 'python.exe crashes or hangs on help() modules when bad modules found'
updated_at = <Date 2013-06-30.05:34:25.528>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/devplayer'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2013-06-30.05:34:25.528>
actor = 'terry.reedy'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2013-06-30.05:34:25.534>
closer = 'terry.reedy'
components = ['Library (Lib)']
creation = <Date 2010-10-10.02:03:45.036>
creator = 'devplayer'
dependencies = []
files = ['19421', '20245', '21805']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 10060
keywords = []
message_count = 19.0
messages = ['118298', '118301', '118362', '118380', '118397', '118822', '119345', '119955', '120007', '125149', '125150', '125151', '125168', '125242', '134571', '134594', '134608', '134609', '192061']
nosy_count = 6.0
nosy_names = ['terry.reedy', 'vstinner', 'eric.araujo', 'r.david.murray', 'devplayer', 'serhiy.storchaka']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'wont fix'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'crash'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue10060'
versions = ['Python 2.7']

[devplayer]

2010-10-10 python.exe crashes or hangs on help() modules
when bad modules found

#######################################################################
SUMMARY

The python.exe command line interpreter crashes or hangs when
typing first >>>help() then >modules and a corrupt module is found.

Python 2.7 WinXP SP3 see version details in OUTPUT sections
#######################################################################
EXPLANATION

# -----------------------
I have a workaround as a user. However it appears to be a bug
from previous Python versions, 2.5 and 2.6 from what I've seen
through Google and other help() module tickets.

The workaround is simply remove the corrupt package.

# -----------------------
I've noticed when there is a corrupt package on my PC in the
Q:\Python27\Lib\site-packages folder that seems to cause
a problem when issuing >>>help() then >modules in Python.

Python command line interperter doesn't gracefully exit the
assertion, it crashes or hangs.

When entering python.exe, idle.exe or pycrust.bat (runs pycrust.py),
typing help(), then typing modules, the help routine runs most of
the "search-for-packages" routine fine (see OUTPUT SECTION below)
and seems to find all the installed modules but when it's
finished it does the following:

• python.exe either crashes, or puts up a help> prompt window and
  then drops to the DOS command prompt as seen below.

  MS window error:
  python.exe has encountered a problem and needs to clos.
  We are sorry for the inconvienience
  AppName: python.exe
  AppVer: 0.0.0.0
  ModName: unknown
  ModVer: 0.0.0.0
  Offset: 00a20fdf

• IDLE.py doesn't crash but after the >>>help() >modules it shows
  the errors in .py files

• PyCrust.py runs the >>>help() > modules it then shows errors
  in .py files, it then crashes

In my case you will note the problem occurs on my install of the
pythonwin package. On my system pythonwin will work until I exit.

I installed a new version pythonwin just after installing Python 2.7.
The pythonwin version always crashed on exit since it was installed.
The old pythonwin was deinstalled before installation of the new.

However, having a corrupt installed package shouldn't crash python.

pythonwin version: pywin32 build214

# -----------------------
Something of note:
All my development, including Python 2.7 installation and
packages and projects are on my Q: drive, which is
a mapped drive pointing to a sub-folder on a
networked-shared folder in WinXP.

Actual Folder:
    D:\SUBST_DRIVES\DRIVE_Q_DEVELOPMENT
Net-shared Folder:
   \\Mycomp\D$\Subst_drives
Mapped Folder:
    Q: = \\Mycomp\D$\Subst_drives\DRIVE_Q_DEVELOPMENT

Although not directly used by the user (me) I also have 
subst'd drives attached to sub-folders of:
D:\SUBST_DRIVES\DRIVE_Q_DEVELOPMENT
such as:
U: = D:\SUBST_DRIVES\DRIVE_Q_DEVELOPMENT\Projects\Python27\current

I only mention this in case the >>>help() >modules routine, 
while seeking modules, can traverse folder structure attached 
to soft and hard link combos, symbolic links and junction points 
or whether they have an effect on traversing the folder structure 
while searching for packages.

However, I went directly to the folder holding python.exe
at D:\SUBST_DRIVES\DRIVE_Q_DEVELOPMENT\Python27\python.exe
When doing help() modules .\python.exe crashed at the end of
executing "modules" as well.

# -----------------------
So far, I personally have not come across any other issues
with my installation and python programs and demo code run
with Python 2.7 except the previously noted exiting-of-pythonwin

# -----------------------
Further details and output from running help() modules below for each
of python.exe, pycrust and idle.

#######################################################################
OUTPUT
(3 Sections for 3 programs packaged with Python distribution)
#######################################################################
#######################################################################
#######################################################################
SECTION 1 OF 3
python.exe
#----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q:\Projects\Python27>python.exe
Python 2.7 (r27:82525, Jul  4 2010, 09:01:59) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> help()

Welcome to Python 2.7! This is the online help utility.

If this is your first time using Python, you should definitely check out
the tutorial on the Internet at http://docs.python.org/tutorial/.

Enter the name of any module, keyword, or topic to get help on writing
Python programs and using Python modules. To quit this help utility and
return to the interpreter, just type "quit".

To get a list of available modules, keywords, or topics, type "modules",
"keywords", or "topics". Each module also comes with a one-line summary
of what it does; to list the modules whose summaries contain a given word
such as "spam", type "modules spam".

help> modules

Please wait a moment while I gather a list of all available modules...

AutoComplete _threading_local itertools sspi
AutoCompleteWindow _tkinter json sspicon
AutoExpand _warnings keybindingDialog stat
BaseHTTPServer _weakref keyword statvfs
Bastion _weakrefset lib string
Bindings _win32sysloader lib2to3 stringold
CGIHTTPServer _winreg linecache stringprep
CallTipWindow _winxptheme locale strop
CallTips abc logging struct
Canvas aboutDialog macosxSupport subprocess
ClassBrowser adodbapi macpath sunau
CodeContext afxres macurl2path sunaudio
ColorDelegator aifc mailbox symbol
ConfigParser antigravity mailcap symtable
Cookie anydbm markupbase sys
CreateBatchFiles app marshal sysconfig
CreateMacScripts argparse math tabbedpages
Debugger array md5 tabnanny
Delegator ast media tarfile
Dialog asynchat mhlib telnetlib
DocXMLRPCServer asyncore mimetools tempfile
EditorWindow atexit mimetypes test
Enums audiodev mimify testcode
FileDialog audioop mmap tests
FileList base64 mmapfile text
FixTk bdb mmsystem textView
FormatParagraph binascii modulefinder textwrap
GrepDialog binhex msilib this
HTMLParser bisect msvcrt thread
HyperParser bsddb multifile threading
ID_NS bz2 multiprocessing time
IOBinding cPickle mutex timeit
IdleHistory cProfile netbios timer
MOCK_WX cStringIO netrc tkColorChooser
MimeWriter calendar new tkCommonDialog
MultiCall cgi nntplib tkFileDialog
MultiStatusBar cgitb nt tkFont
ObjectBrowser chunk ntpath tkMessageBox
ObjectListView clock ntsecuritycon tkSimpleDialog
OutputWindow cmath nturl2path toaiff
ParenMatch cmd numbers token
PathBrowser code odbc tokenize
Percolator codecs opcode trace
PyParse codeop operator traceback
PyShell collections optparse ttk
PythonOgreConfig colorsys os tty
Queue com os2emxpath turtle
RemoteDebugger commands parser types
RemoteObjectBrowser commctrl pdb unicodedata
ReplaceDialog compileall perfmon unittest
ReportVersion compiler pickle urllib
RstripExtension configDialog pickletools urllib2
SampleFramework configHandler pipes urlparse
ScriptBinding configHelpSourceEdit pkgutil user
ScrolledList configSectionNameDialog platform utils
ScrolledText contextlib plistlib uu
SearchDialog convert_to_PANP popen2 uuid
SearchDialogBase cookielib poplib warnings
SearchEngine copy posixfile wave
SimpleDialog copy_reg posixpath weakref
SimpleHTTPServer core pprint webbrowser
SimpleXMLRPCServer csv profile whichdb
SocketServer ctypes pstats win2kras
StackViewer curses pty win32api
StringIO datetime pub win32clipboard
Tix dbhash pubsub win32com
Tkconstants dbi pubsub1 win32con
Tkdnd dde pubsubconf win32console
Tkinter decimal py_compile win32cred
ToolTip difflib pyclbr win32crypt
TreeWidget dircache pycrust_c win32cryptcon
UndoDelegator dis pycrust_gdir win32event
UserDict distutils pydoc win32evtlog
UserList doctest pydoc_data win32evtlogutil
UserString dprint pyexpat win32file
WidgetRedirector dumbdbm pyglet win32gui
WindowList dummy_thread pythoncom win32gui_struct
ZoomHeight dummy_threading pythonstartup win32help
_LWPCookieJar dynOptionMenuWidget pywin win32inet
_MozillaCookieJar email pywin32_postinstall win32inetcon
__builtin__ encodings pywin32_testutil win32job
__future__ errno pywintypes win32lz
_abcoll event quopri win32net
_ast exceptions random win32netcon
_autosetuppubsubv1 filecmp rasutil win32pdh
_bisect fileinput re win32pdhquery
_bsddb fnmatch regcheck win32pdhutil
_codecs font regutil win32pipe
_codecs_cn formatter repr win32print
_codecs_hk fpformat resource win32process
_codecs_iso2022 fractions rexec win32profile
_codecs_jp ftplib rfc822 win32ras
_codecs_kr functools rlcompleter win32rcparser
_codecs_tw future_builtins robotparser win32security
_collections gc rpc win32service
_csv genericpath run win32serviceutil
_ctypes getopt runpy win32timezone
_ctypes_test getpass sched win32trace
_elementtree gettext select win32traceutil
_functools gl servicemanager win32transaction
_hashlib glob sets win32ts
_heapq graphics setup win32ui
_hotshot gzip setuparg1 win32uiole
_io hashlib setupkwargs win32verstamp
_json heapq setupv1 win32wnet
_locale hmac setupv2 window
_lsprof hotshot sgmllib winerror
_md5 htmlentitydefs sha winioctlcon
_msi htmllib shelve winnt
_multibytecodec httplib shlex winperf
_multiprocessing idle shutil winsound
_pyio idlelib signal winxpgui
_random idlever singletonmixin winxptheme
_sha ihooks site wsgiref
_sha256 image smtpd wx
_sha512 imageop smtplib wxPython
_socket imaplib sndhdr wxversion
_sqlite3 imghdr socket xdrlib
_sre imp sprite xml
_ssl importlib sqlite3 xmllib
_strptime imputil sre xmlrpclib
_struct info sre_compile xxsubtype
_subprocess inspect sre_constants zipfile
_symtable io sre_parse zipimport
_testcapi isapi ssl zlib

Enter any module name to get more help. Or, type "modules spam" to search
for modules whose descriptions contain the word "spam".

Q:\Projects\Python27>

#----------------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT YOU SEE ABOVE a copy and past:
python.exe either crashes, or puts up a help> prompt window and then
drops to the DOS command prompt as seen above without indicating
there was a corrupt package.

#######################################################################
#######################################################################
#######################################################################
SECTION 2 OF 3
IDLE
#----------------------------------------------------------------------

Python 2.7 (r27:82525, Jul 4 2010, 09:01:59) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "copyright", "credits" or "license()" for more information.

>> help()

Welcome to Python 2.7! This is the online help utility.

If this is your first time using Python, you should definitely check out
the tutorial on the Internet at http://docs.python.org/tutorial/.

Enter the name of any module, keyword, or topic to get help on writing
Python programs and using Python modules. To quit this help utility and
return to the interpreter, just type "quit".

To get a list of available modules, keywords, or topics, type "modules",
"keywords", or "topics". Each module also comes with a one-line summary
of what it does; to list the modules whose summaries contain a given word
such as "spam", type "modules spam".

help> modules

Please wait a moment while I gather a list of all available modules...

AutoComplete _threading_local itertools sspi
AutoCompleteWindow _tkinter json sspicon
AutoExpand _warnings keybindingDialog stat
BaseHTTPServer _weakref keyword statvfs
Bastion _weakrefset lib string
Bindings _win32sysloader lib2to3 stringold
CGIHTTPServer _winreg linecache stringprep
CallTipWindow _winxptheme locale strop
CallTips abc logging struct
Canvas aboutDialog macosxSupport subprocess
ClassBrowser adodbapi macpath sunau
CodeContext afxres macurl2path sunaudio
ColorDelegator aifc mailbox symbol
ConfigParser antigravity mailcap symtable
Cookie anydbm markupbase sys
CreateBatchFiles app marshal sysconfig
CreateMacScripts argparse math tabbedpages
Debugger array md5 tabnanny
Delegator ast media tarfile
Dialog asynchat mhlib telnetlib
DocXMLRPCServer asyncore mimetools tempfile
EditorWindow atexit mimetypes test
Enums audiodev mimify testcode
FileDialog audioop mmap tests
FileList base64 mmapfile text
FixTk bdb mmsystem textView
FormatParagraph binascii modulefinder textwrap
GrepDialog binhex msilib this
HTMLParser bisect msvcrt thread
HyperParser bsddb multifile threading
ID_NS bz2 multiprocessing time
IOBinding cPickle mutex timeit
IdleHistory cProfile netbios timer
MOCK_WX cStringIO netrc tkColorChooser
MimeWriter calendar new tkCommonDialog
MultiCall cgi nntplib tkFileDialog
MultiStatusBar cgitb nt tkFont
ObjectBrowser chunk ntpath tkMessageBox
ObjectListView clock ntsecuritycon tkSimpleDialog
OutputWindow cmath nturl2path toaiff
ParenMatch cmd numbers token
PathBrowser code odbc tokenize
Percolator codecs opcode trace
PyParse codeop operator traceback
PyShell collections optparse ttk
PythonOgreConfig colorsys os tty
Queue com os2emxpath turtle
RemoteDebugger commands parser types
RemoteObjectBrowser commctrl pdb unicodedata
ReplaceDialog compileall perfmon unittest
ReportVersion compiler pickle urllib
RstripExtension configDialog pickletools urllib2
SampleFramework configHandler pipes urlparse
ScriptBinding configHelpSourceEdit pkgutil user
ScrolledList configSectionNameDialog platform utils
ScrolledText contextlib plistlib uu
SearchDialog convert_to_PANP popen2 uuid
SearchDialogBase cookielib poplib warnings
SearchEngine copy posixfile wave
SimpleDialog copy_reg posixpath weakref
SimpleHTTPServer core pprint webbrowser
SimpleXMLRPCServer csv profile whichdb
SocketServer ctypes pstats win2kras
StackViewer curses pty win32api
StringIO datetime pub win32clipboard
Tix dbhash pubsub win32com
Tkconstants dbi pubsub1 win32con
Tkdnd dde pubsubconf win32console
Tkinter decimal py_compile win32cred
ToolTip difflib pyclbr win32crypt
TreeWidget dircache pycrust_c win32cryptcon
UndoDelegator dis pycrust_gdir win32event
UserDict distutils pydoc win32evtlog
UserList doctest pydoc_data win32evtlogutil
UserString dprint pyexpat win32file
WidgetRedirector dumbdbm pyglet win32gui
WindowList dummy_thread pythoncom win32gui_struct
ZoomHeight dummy_threading pythonstartup win32help
_LWPCookieJar dynOptionMenuWidget pywin win32inet
_MozillaCookieJar email pywin32_postinstall win32inetcon
__builtin__ encodings pywin32_testutil win32job
__future__ errno pywintypes win32lz
_abcoll event quopri win32net
_ast exceptions random win32netcon
_autosetuppubsubv1 filecmp rasutil win32pdh
_bisect fileinput re win32pdhquery
_bsddb fnmatch regcheck win32pdhutil
_codecs font regutil win32pipe
_codecs_cn formatter repr win32print
_codecs_hk fpformat resource win32process
_codecs_iso2022 fractions rexec win32profile
_codecs_jp ftplib rfc822 win32ras
_codecs_kr functools rlcompleter win32rcparser
_codecs_tw future_builtins robotparser win32security
_collections gc rpc win32service
_csv genericpath run win32serviceutil
_ctypes getopt runpy win32timezone
_ctypes_test getpass sched win32trace
_elementtree gettext select win32traceutil
_functools gl servicemanager win32transaction
_hashlib glob sets win32ts
_heapq graphics setup win32ui
_hotshot gzip setuparg1 win32uiole
_io hashlib setupkwargs win32verstamp
_json heapq setupv1 win32wnet
_locale hmac setupv2 window
_lsprof hotshot sgmllib winerror
_md5 htmlentitydefs sha winioctlcon
_msi htmllib shelve winnt
_multibytecodec httplib shlex winperf
_multiprocessing idle shutil winsound
_pyio idlelib signal winxpgui
_random idlever singletonmixin winxptheme
_sha ihooks site wsgiref
_sha256 image smtpd wx
_sha512 imageop smtplib wxPython
_socket imaplib sndhdr wxversion
_sqlite3 imghdr socket xdrlib
_sre imp sprite xml
_ssl importlib sqlite3 xmllib
_strptime imputil sre xmlrpclib
_struct info sre_compile xxsubtype
_subprocess inspect sre_constants zipfile
_symtable io sre_parse zipimport
_testcapi isapi ssl zlib

Enter any module name to get more help. Or, type "modules spam" to search
for modules whose descriptions contain the word "spam".

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#0>", line 1, in <module>
    help()
  File "Q:\Python27\lib\site.py", line 453, in __call__
    return pydoc.help(*args, **kwds)
  File "Q:\Python27\lib\pydoc.py", line 1723, in __call__
    self.interact()
  File "Q:\Python27\lib\pydoc.py", line 1735, in interact
    request = self.getline('help> ')
  File "Q:\Python27\lib\pydoc.py", line 1746, in getline
    return raw_input(prompt)
  File "Q:\Python27\Lib\site-packages\pythonwin\pywin\framework\app.py", line 367, in Win32RawInput
    ret=dialog.GetSimpleInput(prompt)
  File "Q:\Python27\Lib\site-packages\pythonwin\pywin\mfc\dialog.py", line 223, in GetSimpleInput
    if title is None: title=win32ui.GetMainFrame().GetWindowText()
error: The frame does not exist
>>> 

#----------------------------------------------------------------------
IDLE doesn't crash

#######################################################################
#######################################################################
#######################################################################
SECTION 3 OF 3
PyCrust
#----------------------------------------------------------------------

PyCrust 0.9.8 - The Flakiest Python Shell
Python 2.7 (r27:82525, Jul 4 2010, 09:01:59) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
Startup script executed: C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\pycrust\startup
help()

Welcome to Python 2.7! This is the online help utility.

If this is your first time using Python, you should definitely check out
the tutorial on the Internet at http://docs.python.org/tutorial/.

Enter the name of any module, keyword, or topic to get help on writing
Python programs and using Python modules. To quit this help utility and
return to the interpreter, just type "quit".

To get a list of available modules, keywords, or topics, type "modules",
"keywords", or "topics". Each module also comes with a one-line summary
of what it does; to list the modules whose summaries contain a given word
such as "spam", type "modules spam".

help> modules

Please wait a moment while I gather a list of all available modules...

AutoComplete _threading_local itertools sspi
AutoCompleteWindow _tkinter json sspicon
AutoExpand _warnings keybindingDialog stat
BaseHTTPServer _weakref keyword statvfs
Bastion _weakrefset lib string
Bindings _win32sysloader lib2to3 stringold
CGIHTTPServer _winreg linecache stringprep
CallTipWindow _winxptheme locale strop
CallTips abc logging struct
Canvas aboutDialog macosxSupport subprocess
ClassBrowser adodbapi macpath sunau
CodeContext afxres macurl2path sunaudio
ColorDelegator aifc mailbox symbol
ConfigParser antigravity mailcap symtable
Cookie anydbm markupbase sys
CreateBatchFiles app marshal sysconfig
CreateMacScripts argparse math tabbedpages
Debugger array md5 tabnanny
Delegator ast media tarfile
Dialog asynchat mhlib telnetlib
DocXMLRPCServer asyncore mimetools tempfile
EditorWindow atexit mimetypes test
Enums audiodev mimify testcode
FileDialog audioop mmap tests
FileList base64 mmapfile text
FixTk bdb mmsystem textView
FormatParagraph binascii modulefinder textwrap
GrepDialog binhex msilib this
HTMLParser bisect msvcrt thread
HyperParser bsddb multifile threading
ID_NS bz2 multiprocessing time
IOBinding cPickle mutex timeit
IdleHistory cProfile netbios timer
MOCK_WX cStringIO netrc tkColorChooser
MimeWriter calendar new tkCommonDialog
MultiCall cgi nntplib tkFileDialog
MultiStatusBar cgitb nt tkFont
ObjectBrowser chunk ntpath tkMessageBox
ObjectListView clock ntsecuritycon tkSimpleDialog
OutputWindow cmath nturl2path toaiff
ParenMatch cmd numbers token
PathBrowser code odbc tokenize
Percolator codecs opcode trace
PyParse codeop operator traceback
PyShell collections optparse ttk
PythonOgreConfig colorsys os tty
Queue com os2emxpath turtle
RemoteDebugger commands parser types
RemoteObjectBrowser commctrl pdb unicodedata
ReplaceDialog compileall perfmon unittest
ReportVersion compiler pickle urllib
RstripExtension configDialog pickletools urllib2
SampleFramework configHandler pipes urlparse
ScriptBinding configHelpSourceEdit pkgutil user
ScrolledList configSectionNameDialog platform utils
ScrolledText contextlib plistlib uu
SearchDialog convert_to_PANP popen2 uuid
SearchDialogBase cookielib poplib warnings
SearchEngine copy posixfile wave
SimpleDialog copy_reg posixpath weakref
SimpleHTTPServer core pprint webbrowser
SimpleXMLRPCServer csv profile whichdb
SocketServer ctypes pstats win2kras
StackViewer curses pty win32api
StringIO datetime pub win32clipboard
Tix dbhash pubsub win32com
Tkconstants dbi pubsub1 win32con
Tkdnd dde pubsubconf win32console
Tkinter decimal py_compile win32cred
ToolTip difflib pyclbr win32crypt
TreeWidget dircache pycrust_c win32cryptcon
UndoDelegator dis pycrust_gdir win32event
UserDict distutils pydoc win32evtlog
UserList doctest pydoc_data win32evtlogutil
UserString dprint pyexpat win32file
WidgetRedirector dumbdbm pyglet win32gui
WindowList dummy_thread pythoncom win32gui_struct
ZoomHeight dummy_threading pythonstartup win32help
_LWPCookieJar dynOptionMenuWidget pywin win32inet
_MozillaCookieJar email pywin32_postinstall win32inetcon
__builtin__ encodings pywin32_testutil win32job
__future__ errno pywintypes win32lz
_abcoll event quopri win32net
_ast exceptions random win32netcon
_autosetuppubsubv1 filecmp rasutil win32pdh
_bisect fileinput re win32pdhquery
_bsddb fnmatch regcheck win32pdhutil
_codecs font regutil win32pipe
_codecs_cn formatter repr win32print
_codecs_hk fpformat resource win32process
_codecs_iso2022 fractions rexec win32profile
_codecs_jp ftplib rfc822 win32ras
_codecs_kr functools rlcompleter win32rcparser
_codecs_tw future_builtins robotparser win32security
_collections gc rpc win32service
_csv genericpath run win32serviceutil
_ctypes getopt runpy win32timezone
_ctypes_test getpass sched win32trace
_elementtree gettext select win32traceutil
_functools gl servicemanager win32transaction
_hashlib glob sets win32ts
_heapq graphics setup win32ui
_hotshot gzip setuparg1 win32uiole
_io hashlib setupkwargs win32verstamp
_json heapq setupv1 win32wnet
_locale hmac setupv2 window
_lsprof hotshot sgmllib winerror
_md5 htmlentitydefs sha winioctlcon
_msi htmllib shelve winnt
_multibytecodec httplib shlex winperf
_multiprocessing idle shutil winsound
_pyio idlelib signal winxpgui
_random idlever singletonmixin winxptheme
_sha ihooks site wsgiref
_sha256 image smtpd wx
_sha512 imageop smtplib wxPython
_socket imaplib sndhdr wxversion
_sqlite3 imghdr socket xdrlib
_sre imp sprite xml
_ssl importlib sqlite3 xmllib
_strptime imputil sre xmlrpclib
_struct info sre_compile xxsubtype
_subprocess inspect sre_constants zipfile
_symtable io sre_parse zipimport
_testcapi isapi ssl zlib

Enter any module name to get more help. Or, type "modules spam" to search
for modules whose descriptions contain the word "spam".

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<input>", line 1, in <module>
  File "Q:\Python27\lib\site.py", line 453, in __call__
    return pydoc.help(*args, **kwds)
  File "Q:\Python27\lib\pydoc.py", line 1723, in __call__
    self.interact()
  File "Q:\Python27\lib\pydoc.py", line 1735, in interact
    request = self.getline('help> ')
  File "Q:\Python27\lib\pydoc.py", line 1746, in getline
    return raw_input(prompt)
  File "Q:\Python27\Lib\site-packages\pythonwin\pywin\framework\app.py", line 367, in Win32RawInput
    ret=dialog.GetSimpleInput(prompt)
  File "Q:\Python27\Lib\site-packages\pythonwin\pywin\mfc\dialog.py", line 223, in GetSimpleInput
    if title is None: title=win32ui.GetMainFrame().GetWindowText()
error: The frame does not exist

#----------------------------------------------------------------------
Then after doing anything in PyCrust it crashes

#######################################################################
#######################################################################
#######################################################################

[bitdancer]

There isn't much that Python can do if there is a sufficiently broken C-based module in sys.path. All you report about the problematic module is that it is 'bad' or 'corrupt'. Can you give more information about what makes it bad?

[devplayer]

I believe that a 3rd party package is corrupt. Whether it is or not I don't know. However whether or not a package is corrupt or not is not what I am reporting as a bug.

I am reporting that python.exe crashes when I do help() modules.

In GUI wrappers around python.exe, such as idle and pycrust, I get more information to the problem then when just in python.exe command line interpreter. As per the first post the errors I get in pycrust and idle are:
...
File "Q:\Python27\Lib\site-packages\pythonwin\pywin\framework\app.py", line 367, in Win32RawInput
ret=dialog.GetSimpleInput(prompt)
File "Q:\Python27\Lib\site-packages\pythonwin\pywin\mfc\dialog.py", line 223, in GetSimpleInput
if title is None: title=win32ui.GetMainFrame().GetWindowText()
error: The frame does not exist

To be honest the meaning of these errors is beyond my expertise, or lack of thereof. I attempted to give as much info on what I experienced with running python.exe help() modules as I saw.

If there is a direction you can point me to that I can gather more information then what I've already given, I'll give that a go as well.

Other pointers to reported problems of a similar nature:
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/pythonmac-sig/2008-November/020712.html
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/python2.5/+bug/137210

Again this is not a report of a corrupt package.

It is a report of python.exe crashing using commands considered part of Python.exe; that being help() then modules.

An external library may be the cause or may not. But if it is an external library that is corrupt I would hope python.exe would not fail because of it, but instead just either ignore the package or report an error. Another reason why I think python.exe shouldn't crash because of external library integrity is what if there is a file or some such thing in one's Python path that looks like and smells like a Python module/package but isn't? Should python.exe fail because of such a file?

I do not know the structure of a Python package or whether pythonwin on my PC is corrupt. However I imaging that if a fake package can be made so that IT is corrupt (perhaps make a missing file) that testing would be relatively easy.

Sorry I don't have more information for you. But hearing from others who have tried their python.exe help() modules works or fails would be a start.

[bitdancer]

What I am saying is that if an extension module (one that provides non-python code in a load module) is corrupt, then it can totally screw up Python's internal bookkeeping, and there is nothing Python can do to protect itself against that.

If the "corrupt" module in question is pure Python, then you are correct, 'help' should not fail. If, however, the corrupt module is not pure Python, then there may be nothing that can be done by Python to prevent the failure.

Can you reproduce the problem using a pure Python 'corrupt' module?

[devplayer]

On Mon, Oct 11, 2010 at 1:43 PM, R. David Murray <report@bugs.python.org>wrote:
R. David Murray <rdmurray@bitdance.com> added the comment:
Can you reproduce the problem using a pure Python 'corrupt' module?
----------

When in python.exe, and you type help() then modules, aren't you really
asking for packages?
I don't know how to make a package let alone a corrupt one.

If help() modules is in fact looking for just a Python module file with
extension _.py in lib\site-packages I don't know what Python help() modules
looks for in that source code _.py file to be considered a module worth
reporting back to the user. Certain module attributes?

I do not know enough atm about how PythonWin is packaged. I'll look into it
but I'm a newbie here and hopes for well informed facts on PythonWin may be
... well leave it at that.

Perhaps an idea here too: If python.exe help() modules crashes when it
passes control to a module or package that is not pure Python (source code
or byte code) but some kind of C SWIG thing, then perhaps to make python.exe
more robust it should simulate what idle does, as idle does not crash and it
reports error when finished with calling python.exe help() modules.

In other words, perhaps the Python interpreter can call an external routine
(another program) that behaves like help() modules, perhaps using something
like os.system() or subprocess.Popen(). Call it help.py or help.exe or
something. If help.exe returns, all is good. If help crashes just like
Python did at least Python can handle the crashing of help.exe gracefully.
This idea is purely with the interest to make python.exe more robust.

[terryjreedy]

The unnamed quasi-html file loaded with msg118397 was a unless, essentially unreadable duplicate of that message, hence removed.

[merwok]

There are half a dozen duplicate bugs of this one, with various suggestions on each. They should be summed up and linked. I should be able to do it this week-end if no-one does it first.

[devplayer]

Another thing I've noticed that makes the issue more complicated (or perhaps less complicated depending on your view).

When running the python.exe at the DOS prompt (in a window on WinXP), then issuing the help() then modules commands, python.exe seems to hang at times, when it doesn't crash. However this apparent hang sometimes seems to be related to the attached "help" child window/dialog popup instantating with "focus" behind the DOS window. This popup with the focus (and behind it's parent window and being modal) prevents the mouse from moving the DOS window (holding the running python.exe) from being moved. The -sometimes- solution to this "apparent" hang is ALT-TAB back to the DOS window which will put the help-modal-dialog on top of said DOS window (which is running Python).

[terryjreedy]

Éric, go ahead and consolidate to one issue if you can get to it.
Do the other issues shows problems with 3.1 or 3.2 also? I wonder because I have never seen the box in the posted .png and wonder if that is a new 'feature' with 2.7 and possibly 3.2 that was not in 3.1 and possibly the cause. Has anyone posted a 'corrupt module' that reliably reproduces the problem? It is hard to investigate when 'help> modules' works just fine, as it does on my 3.1.2 install.

'Dev': your original post is way too long. The welcome message and module lists could have been snipped to one line plus ellipsis. Example:

>> help()

Welcome ....
[snip]

help> modules

Please wait....
[snip]

and continue with traceback.

[devplayer]

import win32ui
from win32ui import GetMainFrame

dir(win32ui.GetMainFrame)
['__call__', '__class__', '__cmp__', '__delattr__', '__doc__', '__eq__', '__format__', '__ge__', '__getattribute__', '__gt__', '__hash__', '__init__', '__le__', '__lt__', '__module__', '__name__', '__ne__', '__new__', '__reduce__', '__reduce_ex__', '__repr__', '__self__', '__setattr__', '__sizeof__', '__str__', '__subclasshook__']

dir(GetMainFrame)
['__call__', '__class__', '__cmp__', '__delattr__', '__doc__', '__eq__', '__format__', '__ge__', '__getattribute__', '__gt__', '__hash__', '__init__', '__le__', '__lt__', '__module__', '__name__', '__ne__', '__new__', '__reduce__', '__reduce_ex__', '__repr__', '__self__', '__setattr__', '__sizeof__', '__str__', '__subclasshook__']

Is this normal? I'd expect at least GetWindowText() in the dir().

[devplayer]

from GetMainFrame import GetWindowText
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<input>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named GetMainFrame

Also, I installed from the MS-Windows installer file:
pywin32-214.win32-py2.7.exe

not from "pywin32-214.zip" which I think is the source distrobution.

I've tried reinstallation but I get the same results.

[devplayer]

Oh I am running on an Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz/3.2Ghz.
Windows XP Pro SP3 32 bit
So I presume I should not have used the AMD 64 versions of course.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32/files/pywin32/Build%20214/

[bitdancer]

Dev: I have no idea how what you just posted relates to the subject of this issue. Could you clarify please?