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Tue May 1 23:36:04 CEST 2007 · https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2007-May/072920.html

On 5/1/07, Tim Peters <tim.peters at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> [Neal Norwitz]
> >> In rev 54982 (the first time this crash was seen), I see something
> >> which might create a problem.  In python/trunk/Modules/posixmodule.c
> >> (near line 6300):
> >>
> >> +       PyMem_FREE(mode);
> >>        Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS
>
> Shouldn't do that.
>
> [Brett Cannon]
> > The PyMem_MALLOC call that creates 'mode' is also called without
> explicitly
> > holding the GIL.
>
> Or that ;-)

Luckily I misread the code so it doesn't do that boo-boo.

>> Can you call PyMem_FREE() without the GIL held?  I couldn't find it
> >> documented either way.
>
> > I believe the GIL does not need to be held, but obviously Tim or someone
> > with more memory experience should step in to say definitively.
>
> The GIL should be held.  The relevant docs are in the Python/C API
> manual, section "8.1 Thread State and the Global Interpreter Lock":
>
>     Therefore, the rule exists that only the thread that has acquired the
> global
>     interpreter lock may operate on Python objects or call Python/C
> API functions.
>
> PyMem_XYZ is certainly a "Python/C API function".  There are functions
> you can call without holding the GIL, and section 8.1 intends to give
> an exhaustive list of those.  These are functions that can't rely on
> the GIL, like PyEval_InitThreads() (which /creates/ the GIL), and
> various functions that create and destroy thread and interpreter
> state.
>
> > If you look at Include/pymem.h, PyMem_FREE gets defined as PyObject_FREE
> in
> > a debug build.  PyObject_Free is defined at _PyObject_DebugFree.  That
> > function checks that the memory has not been written with the debug bit
> > pattern and then calls PyObject_Free.  That call just sticks the memory
> back
> > into pymalloc's memory pool which is implemented without using any
> Python
> > objects.
>
> But pymalloc's pools have a complex internal structure of their own,
> and cannot be mucked with safely by multiple threads simultaneously.

Ah, OK.  That makes sense.  Glad I pointed out my ignorance then.  =)

-Brett
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