Segmentation Fault

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  • pycraze

    #1

    Segmentation Fault

    I would like to ask a question. How do one handle the exception due to
    Segmentation fault due to Python ? Our bit operations and arithmetic
    manipulations are written in C and to some of our testcases we
    experiance Segmentation fault from the python libraries.

    If i know how to handle the exception for Segmentation fault , it will
    help me complete the run on any testcase , even if i experiance Seg
    Fault due to any one or many functions in my testcase.

  • Simon Forman

    #2
    Re: Segmentation Fault

    pycraze wrote:
    I would like to ask a question. How do one handle the exception due to
    Segmentation fault due to Python ? Our bit operations and arithmetic
    manipulations are written in C and to some of our testcases we
    experiance Segmentation fault from the python libraries.
    >
    If i know how to handle the exception for Segmentation fault , it will
    help me complete the run on any testcase , even if i experiance Seg
    Fault due to any one or many functions in my testcase.
    AFAIK, seg fault kills your program dead. There's no exception to
    handle. If you're getting seg faults from the python standard library,
    that's a pretty serious thing, way more serious than just not-passed
    testcases.

    An uncaught exception in python should generate a traceback. If it
    does, please post that.

    Whether it does or not, could you post a minimal example of the code
    that causes the seg fault? Python standard lib is fairly robust but of
    course not bullet-proof. If there's a way to make it seg fault (and
    it's in the standard lib and not your C code) people will want to know.

    HTH,
    ~Simon

    Comment

    • John Machin

      #3
      Re: Segmentation Fault

      pycraze wrote:
      I would like to ask a question. How do one handle the exception due to
      Segmentation fault due to Python ?
      This is confusing. A seg fault kills the process immediately. No
      exception (in the Python sense of that word) is raised.
      Our bit operations and arithmetic
      manipulations are written in C
      Do you have a Python extension that is written in C, or are you
      embedding Python in a C program -- in other words, is a Python script
      calling a C function, or is a C program calling a Python function?
      and to some of our testcases we
      experiance Segmentation fault from the python libraries.
      What is it that you are calling "the python libraries"? Tell us the
      filenames of these libraries. *Show us what is output on your stderr
      when you experience "Segmentati on fault from the python libraries".*

      Was this Python/C combination recently created by current personnel, or
      do we have a case of vanished author(s)?
      >
      If i know how to handle the exception for Segmentation fault , it will
      help me complete the run on any testcase , even if i experiance Seg
      Fault due to any one or many functions in my testcase.
      It would also help if you told us what platform (hardware and software)
      that you are running on, what version of Python, and what versions of
      any 3rd-party Python modules/packages that may be involved.

      Cheers,
      John

      Comment

      • Steve Holden

        #4
        Re: Segmentation Fault

        pycraze wrote:
        I would like to ask a question. How do one handle the exception due to
        Segmentation fault due to Python ? Our bit operations and arithmetic
        manipulations are written in C and to some of our testcases we
        experiance Segmentation fault from the python libraries.
        >
        If i know how to handle the exception for Segmentation fault , it will
        help me complete the run on any testcase , even if i experiance Seg
        Fault due to any one or many functions in my testcase.
        >
        You will observe, if you look at the list of Python exceptions, that a
        segfault isn't among them. A segfault is a trap to the hardware, and
        generally indicates that a program is so badly hosed that it wouldn't
        make much sense to rely on any further computation in it.

        regards
        Steve
        --
        Steve Holden +44 150 684 7255 +1 800 494 3119
        Holden Web LLC/Ltd http://www.holdenweb.com
        Skype: holdenweb http://holdenweb.blogspot.com
        Recent Ramblings http://del.icio.us/steve.holden

        Comment

        • Duncan Booth

          #5
          Re: Segmentation Fault

          pycraze wrote:
          I would like to ask a question. How do one handle the exception due to
          Segmentation fault due to Python ? Our bit operations and arithmetic
          manipulations are written in C and to some of our testcases we
          experiance Segmentation fault from the python libraries.
          >
          From what you said, I guess you mean that you have written some extensions
          to Python in C, but that the segmentation fault is generated when you call
          standard Python library functions.

          Most likely your C code has bugs: quite possibly you have messed up
          reference counting so some objects you use are being freed and then the
          Python libraries allocate other objects into the same memory. It is very
          easy to do that especially if you are in the habit of trying to 'borrow'
          references instead of religiously incrementing/decrementing reference
          counts everywhere.

          Try to eliminate the problem down to the smallest reproducable code sample
          and post that.

          Another suggestion I would make is to see if you can use ctypes or Pyrex to
          form the glue between Python and C so that none of the C code you write
          knows anything about Python. That should eliminate some possible sources
          for error.

          Comment

          • thomas.samson@gmail.com

            #6
            Re: Segmentation Fault

            "Simon Forman" <rogue_pedro@ya hoo.comwrites:
            pycraze wrote:
            >I would like to ask a question. How do one handle the exception due to
            >Segmentation fault due to Python ? Our bit operations and arithmetic
            >manipulation s are written in C and to some of our testcases we
            >experiance Segmentation fault from the python libraries.
            >>
            >If i know how to handle the exception for Segmentation fault , it will
            >help me complete the run on any testcase , even if i experiance Seg
            >Fault due to any one or many functions in my testcase.
            >
            AFAIK, seg fault kills your program dead. There's no exception to
            handle. If you're getting seg faults from the python standard library,
            that's a pretty serious thing, way more serious than just not-passed
            testcases.
            Segfault handling is platform-dependant... So, at least on unix-like
            platform, you can use the signal module to detect segfault:

            import signal

            def handler(signum, frame):
            print 'Segfault detected'
            # you may use the stack frame here to help debugging

            signal.signal(s ignal.SIGSEGV, handler)

            --
            Thomas SAMSON
            "You're very sure of your facts, " he said at last, "I
            couldn't trust the thinking of a man who takes the Universe
            - if there is one - for granted. "

            Comment

            • Simon Forman

              #7
              Re: Segmentation Fault

              thomas.samson@g mail.com wrote:
              "Simon Forman" <rogue_pedro@ya hoo.comwrites:
              >
              pycraze wrote:
              I would like to ask a question. How do one handle the exception due to
              Segmentation fault due to Python ? Our bit operations and arithmetic
              manipulations are written in C and to some of our testcases we
              experiance Segmentation fault from the python libraries.
              >
              If i know how to handle the exception for Segmentation fault , it will
              help me complete the run on any testcase , even if i experiance Seg
              Fault due to any one or many functions in my testcase.
              AFAIK, seg fault kills your program dead. There's no exception to
              handle. If you're getting seg faults from the python standard library,
              that's a pretty serious thing, way more serious than just not-passed
              testcases.
              >
              Segfault handling is platform-dependant... So, at least on unix-like
              platform, you can use the signal module to detect segfault:
              >
              import signal
              >
              def handler(signum, frame):
              print 'Segfault detected'
              # you may use the stack frame here to help debugging
              >
              signal.signal(s ignal.SIGSEGV, handler)
              >
              --
              Thomas SAMSON
              "You're very sure of your facts, " he said at last, "I
              couldn't trust the thinking of a man who takes the Universe
              - if there is one - for granted. "
              It's good to know that this is possible. However, it's almost
              certainly a bad idea to "catch" seg faults and then just proceed with
              further testcases. Printing out debugging information would be pretty
              good though.

              Peace,
              ~Simon

              Comment

              • John Savage

                #8
                Re: Segmentation Fault

                "pycraze" <dennis.varghes e@wipro.comwrit es:
                >I would like to ask a question. How do one handle the exception due to
                >Segmentation fault due to Python ? Our bit operations and arithmetic
                >manipulation s are written in C and to some of our testcases we
                >experiance Segmentation fault from the python libraries.
                You don't happen to be using the MSDOS executable do you? I find I get
                a segmentation violation with the MSDOS version when I try to print
                coloured text. I think I have narrowed it down further: to the situation
                where coloured text extends to or beyond the edge of the screen--maybe
                it's the text wrapping that causes the seg fault.
                --
                John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)

                Comment

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