Solaris/Oracle Studio: Fatal Python error: PyThreadState_Get when built --with-pymalloc

[jbeck]

BPO	21412
Nosy	@jcea, @vstinner, @ned-deily
Superseder	bpo-21166: Bus error in pybuilddir.txt 'python -m sysconfigure --generate-posix-vars' build step
Files	where.out: output (260 frames) of 'where' in gdb

^{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 2014-08-12.03:30:29.104>
created_at = <Date 2014-05-01.20:37:58.716>
labels = ['build', 'type-crash']
title = 'Solaris/Oracle Studio: Fatal Python error: PyThreadState_Get when built --with-pymalloc'
updated_at = <Date 2014-08-18.23:11:28.323>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/jbeck'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2014-08-18.23:11:28.323>
actor = 'jbeck'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2014-08-12.03:30:29.104>
closer = 'ned.deily'
components = ['Build']
creation = <Date 2014-05-01.20:37:58.716>
creator = 'jbeck'
dependencies = []
files = ['35140']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 21412
keywords = []
message_count = 11.0
messages = ['217723', '217724', '217733', '217735', '217782', '217804', '218386', '218396', '218410', '225218', '225511']
nosy_count = 5.0
nosy_names = ['jcea', 'vstinner', 'ned.deily', 'swalker', 'jbeck']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'duplicate'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = '21166'
type = 'crash'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue21412'
versions = ['Python 3.4']

[jbeck]

I am porting Python 3.4.0 to Solaris 12. The Makefile I inherited from my predecessor had --without-pymalloc as an option to be passed to configure. Curious why, I removed this line, only to find that after python was built, it core dumped:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/builds/jbeck/ul-python-3/components/python/python34/build/sparcv9 ./python -E -S -m sysconfig --generate-posix-vars
Fatal Python error: PyThreadState_Get: no current thread
make[3]: *** [pybuilddir.txt] Abort (core dumped)

But if I add the --without-pymalloc line back to my Makefile, everything works fine.

Note that although this example was on sparc, the exact same thing occurred on x86.

I searched for a similar bug but did not find out; please feel free to close this as a duplicate if there is one that I missed. I also suspect I have not provided enough information, out of a desire not to trigger information overload. But I would be happy to provide whatever specifics might be requested.

[skrah]

On SPARC/suncc the flags in http://bugs.python.org/issue15963#msg170661
appear to work.

Also, we have several Solaris build slaves that don't core dump.
Some are offline, but you can click through to the ./configure
steps of past builds to see the build flags.

http://buildbot.python.org/all/waterfall?category=3.x.stable&category=3.x.unstable

[jcea]

What compiler are you using?.

I compile fine on Solaris with GCC.

[jbeck]

Using Oracle Studio 12.3, same as mentioned in http://bugs.python.org/issue15963#msg170661 (as Stefan pointed out). I am using some of those flags but not all of them. I will try the others when I have a chance, then report back.

[vstinner]

"LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/builds/jbeck/ul-python-3/components/python/python34/build/sparcv9 ./python -E -S -m sysconfig --generate-posix-vars
Fatal Python error: PyThreadState_Get: no current thread"

Could you please run this command in gdb and copy/paste the C traceback (gdb command "where") where the fatal error occurs?

[jbeck]

Victor: sure; see attached.

[vstinner]

Victor: sure; see attached.

Ok, so the error occurs when Python tries to import the _heapq dynamic module: PyModule_Create2() calls PyThreadState_Get() to retrieve to current thread, but it fails. There is a current thread because PyModule_Create2() is called indirectly by PyEval_EvalFrameExReal() (and I don't see where the GIL would be released in the call stack).

It looks like a bug in PyThreadState_Get(). This function relies on _Py_atomic_load_relaxed() which is defined in Include/pyatomic.h. This file has an implementation of atomic functions for Intel processors and contains an interesting comment:

...
#else /* !gcc x86 */
/* Fall back to other compilers and processors by assuming that simple
volatile accesses are atomic. This is false, so people should port
this. */
...

It looks like John tries Python on SPARC which may explain the issue.

This is just a theory. It also looks like we had SPARC buildbots running on Solaris with system C compiler ("/opt/solarisstudio12.3/bin/cc") and it was able to run tests.

I don't understand the link with pymalloc.

@john: Did you try to build Python 3.3? Did it work?

[jbeck]

Victor:

• This is not a SPARC-specific issue; the exact same failure occurs
  on x86.

• I had built Python 3.3 (some time ago) but only --without-pymalloc.
  But I tried just now rebuilt Python 3.3 --with-pymalloc, and it
  failed in the exact same way.

[vstinner]

"This is not a SPARC-specific issue; the exact same failure occurs on x86."

Ah ok, good to know. To me, it looks like a compiler issue. Did you try Stefan's advices in issue bpo-15963?

You may try to disable compiler optimizations to see if you get the same behaviour.

[ned-deily]

This appears to be another variation on the problem recently identified in bpo-21166, namely that the pybuildir.txt Makefile rule can incorrectly import a shared library module from a previously installed Python instance and, if the ABIs of the installed and being-built Pythons differ, the newly-built interpreter can fail in various ways. From your supplied trace, one can see that _heapq.so has incorrectly been inported from the installed system Python 3.4 which was probably built with --without-pymalloc:

#7 0x00007ff2f9ee2a6d in PyInit__heapq ()
from /usr/lib/python3.4/lib-dynload/64/_heapq.so
#8 0x00007ff2f94c7c78 in _PyImport_LoadDynamicModule ()
from /builds/jbeck/ul-python-3/components/python/python34/build/amd64/libpython3.4m.so.1.0

The fixes for bpo-21166, when applied, should prevent this problem.

[jbeck]

Ned: yes, I can confirm that the patch from http://bugs.python.org/issue21166 does indeed fix the problem. Thank you very much!