Remove the Py_NO_NAN macro: require NAN to build Python 3.11 #90814

mdickinson · 2022-02-06T09:54:35Z

BPO	46656
Nosy	@mdickinson, @vstinner
PRs	bpo-46656: Remove Py_NO_NAN macro #31160 bpo-46656: Building Python now requires a C11 compiler #31557

^{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 2022-02-25.00:45:52.191>
created_at = <Date 2022-02-06.09:54:34.993>
labels = ['interpreter-core', 'type-bug', 'build', '3.11']
title = 'Remove the Py_NO_NAN macro: require NAN to build Python 3.11'
updated_at = <Date 2022-03-10.16:52:54.326>
user = 'https://github.com/mdickinson'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2022-03-10.16:52:54.326>
actor = 'vstinner'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2022-02-25.00:45:52.191>
closer = 'vstinner'
components = ['Build', 'Interpreter Core']
creation = <Date 2022-02-06.09:54:34.993>
creator = 'mark.dickinson'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 46656
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 13.0
messages = ['412620', '412621', '412625', '412629', '412630', '412632', '412636', '412640', '412642', '412864', '413944', '413945', '414864']
nosy_count = 2.0
nosy_names = ['mark.dickinson', 'vstinner']
pr_nums = ['31160', '31557']
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue46656'
versions = ['Python 3.11']

mdickinson · 2022-02-06T09:54:35Z

The macro Py_NAN may or may not be defined: in particular, a platform that doesn't have NaNs is supposed to be able to define Py_NO_NAN in pyport.h to indicate that.

But not all of our uses of Py_NAN are guarded by suitable #ifdef conditionals. As a result, compilation fails if Py_NAN is not defined.

mdickinson · 2022-02-06T09:55:08Z

Here's the first point of failure on my machine. Fixing this shows up more failures.

gcc -c -Wsign-compare -Wunreachable-code -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -std=c99 -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter -Wno-missing-field-initializers -Wstrict-prototypes -Werror=implicit-function-declaration -fvisibility=hidden -I./Include/internal -I. -I./Include -DPy_BUILD_CORE -o Objects/complexobject.o Objects/complexobject.c
Objects/complexobject.c:120:27: error: use of undeclared identifier 'Py_NAN'
r.real = r.imag = Py_NAN;
^
Objects/complexobject.c:206:16: error: use of undeclared identifier 'Py_NAN'
return Py_NAN;
^
2 errors generated.
make: *** [Objects/complexobject.o] Error 1

vstinner · 2022-02-06T12:29:29Z

Python uses Py_NAN without "#ifdef Py_NAN" guard since 2008. Building Python with Py_NO_NAN never worked. Nobody reported such build failure in the last 14 years...

IMO it's time to stop supporting platforms without NaN support.

Objects/complexobject.c:120:27: error: use of undeclared identifier 'Py_NAN'

I only try a few Python versions: I reproduce this issue in Python 3.11, 3.5, 3.2 and... even Python 2.7!

The Py_NO_NAN macro was introduced in Python 2.6 (2007) by bpo-1635 "Float patch for inf and nan on Windows (and other platforms)":

commit 0a8143f
Author: Christian Heimes <christian@cheimes.de>
Date: Tue Dec 18 23:22:54 2007 +0000

Applied patch bpo-1635: Float patch for inf and nan on Windows (and other platforms).

The patch unifies float("inf") and repr(float("inf")) on all platforms.

(...)

+#if !defined(Py_NAN) && !defined(Py_NO_NAN)
+#define Py_NAN (Py_HUGE_VAL * 0.)
+#endif
---

The following change started to use Py_NAN in many C files:

---
commit 6f34109 (HEAD)
Author: Christian Heimes <christian@cheimes.de>
Date: Fri Apr 18 23:13:07 2008 +0000

I finally got the time to update and merge Mark's and my trunk-math branch. The patch is collaborated w

ork of Mark Dickinson and me. It was mostly done a few months ago. The patch fixes a lot of loose ends and
edge cases related to operations with NaN, INF, very small values and complex math.

The patch also adds acosh, asinh, atanh, log1p and copysign to all platforms. Finally it fixes differen

ces between platforms like different results or exceptions for edge cases. Have fun :)
---

At this commit, floatobject.c and pymath.c use "#ifdef Py_NAN" carefully, whereas cmathmodule.c and complexobject.c use Py_NAN with no "#ifdef Py_NAN" guard.

vstinner · 2022-02-06T13:08:31Z

If someone suddenly requires platforms without NaN support, they can maintain a (downstream) patch, or we can revert the change in Python.

vstinner · 2022-02-06T13:11:53Z

See also bpo-46640 "Python can now use the C99 NAN constant or __builtin_nan()".

mdickinson · 2022-02-06T13:36:53Z

Okay, the comments I made on bpo-46640 still apply (even though they didn't properly apply on that issue). I think this needs a python-dev discussion before it can be moved forward - requiring the existence of NaNs is very close to requiring IEEE 754 floating-point, and that's something we've been historically reluctant to do.

vstinner · 2022-02-06T14:11:40Z

Is the macro PY_NO_SHORT_FLOAT_REPR also related to platforms which don't support IEEE 754?

In 2022, which platforms don't support IEEE 754?

mdickinson · 2022-02-06T14:50:59Z

Is the macro PY_NO_SHORT_FLOAT_REPR also related to platforms which don't support IEEE 754?

Yes, though it's a bit more than that: we also need the platform either not to have issues with double rounding for normal numbers, or we need to be able to control the x87 rounding mode in the case that double rounding might be an issue. See the explanations in the source.

cpython/Include/pyport.h

Lines 345 to 355 in 025cbe7

    
           /* If we can't guarantee 53-bit precision, don't use the code 
        
              in Python/dtoa.c, but fall back to standard code.  This 
        
              means that repr of a float will be long (17 sig digits). 
        
              Realistically, there are two things that could go wrong: 
        
              (1) doubles aren't IEEE 754 doubles, or 
        
              (2) we're on x86 with the rounding precision set to 64-bits 
        
                  (extended precision), and we don't know how to change 
        
                  the rounding precision. 
        
            */

In 2022, which platforms don't support IEEE 754?

None that CPython might plausibly run on that I'm aware of.

mdickinson · 2022-02-06T15:01:10Z

See the explanations in the source.

Hmm. Those explanations made more sense before PR #73068. :-(

vstinner · 2022-02-08T20:02:29Z

Requiring IEEE 754 support is being discussed on python-dev: https://mail.python.org/archives/list/python-dev@python.org/thread/J5FSP6J4EITPY5C2UJI7HSL2GQCTCUWN/

vstinner · 2022-02-25T00:31:36Z

New changeset 5f8b5e2 by Victor Stinner in branch 'main':
bpo-46656: Building Python now requires a C11 compiler (GH-31557)
5f8b5e2

vstinner · 2022-02-25T00:33:01Z

New changeset 1b2611e by Victor Stinner in branch 'main':
bpo-46656: Remove Py_NO_NAN macro (GH-31160)
1b2611e

vstinner · 2022-03-10T16:52:54Z

bpo-46656: Remove Py_NO_NAN macro (GH-31160)

Change documented by:

New changeset 7854012 by Victor Stinner in branch 'main':
bpo-46917: math.nan is now always available (GH-31793)
7854012

The current wording of this entry suggests that CPython won't work if optional compiler features are enabled. That's not the case. The change is that we require C11 rather than C89. Note that PEP 7 does say "Python 3.11 and newer versions use C11 without optional features." It is correct there: that's not a guide for users who compile Python, but for CPython devs who must avoid the features.

The previous wording of this entry suggests that CPython won't work if optional compiler features are enabled. That's not the case. The change is that we require C11 rather than C89. Note that PEP 7 does say "Python 3.11 and newer versions use C11 without optional features." It is correct there: that's not a guide for users who compile Python, but for CPython devs who must avoid the features.

…nGH-96309) The previous wording of this entry suggests that CPython won't work if optional compiler features are enabled. That's not the case. The change is that we require C11 rather than C89. Note that PEP 7 does say "Python 3.11 and newer versions use C11 without optional features." It is correct there: that's not a guide for users who compile Python, but for CPython devs who must avoid the features.

…H-96384) The previous wording of this entry suggests that CPython won't work if optional compiler features are enabled. That's not the case. The change is that we require C11 rather than C89. Note that PEP 7 does say "Python 3.11 and newer versions use C11 without optional features." It is correct there: that's not a guide for users who compile Python, but for CPython devs who must avoid the features.

mdickinson added 3.9 only security fixes 3.10 only security fixes 3.11 only security fixes type-bug An unexpected behavior, bug, or error labels Feb 6, 2022

vstinner added build The build process and cross-build interpreter-core (Objects, Python, Grammar, and Parser dirs) and removed 3.9 only security fixes 3.10 only security fixes labels Feb 25, 2022

vstinner closed this as completed Feb 25, 2022

vstinner changed the title ~~Compile fails if Py_NO_NAN is defined~~ Remove the Py_NO_NAN macro: require NAN to build Python 3.11 Feb 25, 2022

vstinner added build The build process and cross-build interpreter-core (Objects, Python, Grammar, and Parser dirs) and removed 3.9 only security fixes 3.10 only security fixes labels Feb 25, 2022

vstinner closed this as completed Feb 25, 2022

vstinner changed the title ~~Compile fails if Py_NO_NAN is defined~~ Remove the Py_NO_NAN macro: require NAN to build Python 3.11 Feb 25, 2022

ezio-melotti transferred this issue from another repository Apr 10, 2022

bedevere-bot mentioned this issue Aug 26, 2022

gh-90814: Correct NEWS wording re. optional C11 features #96309

Merged

bedevere-bot mentioned this issue Aug 29, 2022

[3.11] gh-90814: Correct NEWS wording re. optional C11 features (GH-96309) #96384

Merged

vstinner mentioned this issue May 28, 2024

gh-119613: use C99+ functions instead of Py_IS_NAN/INFINITY/FINITE #119619

Merged

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

Remove the Py_NO_NAN macro: require NAN to build Python 3.11 #90814

Remove the Py_NO_NAN macro: require NAN to build Python 3.11 #90814

mdickinson commented Feb 6, 2022

mdickinson commented Feb 6, 2022

mdickinson commented Feb 6, 2022

vstinner commented Feb 6, 2022

vstinner commented Feb 6, 2022

vstinner commented Feb 6, 2022

mdickinson commented Feb 6, 2022

vstinner commented Feb 6, 2022

mdickinson commented Feb 6, 2022

mdickinson commented Feb 6, 2022

vstinner commented Feb 8, 2022

vstinner commented Feb 25, 2022

vstinner commented Feb 25, 2022

vstinner commented Mar 10, 2022

Remove the Py_NO_NAN macro: require NAN to build Python 3.11 #90814

Remove the Py_NO_NAN macro: require NAN to build Python 3.11 #90814

Comments

mdickinson commented Feb 6, 2022

mdickinson commented Feb 6, 2022

mdickinson commented Feb 6, 2022

vstinner commented Feb 6, 2022

The Py_NO_NAN macro was introduced in Python 2.6 (2007) by bpo-1635 "Float patch for inf and nan on Windows (and other platforms)":

vstinner commented Feb 6, 2022

vstinner commented Feb 6, 2022

mdickinson commented Feb 6, 2022

vstinner commented Feb 6, 2022

mdickinson commented Feb 6, 2022

mdickinson commented Feb 6, 2022

vstinner commented Feb 8, 2022

vstinner commented Feb 25, 2022

vstinner commented Feb 25, 2022

vstinner commented Mar 10, 2022