[issue18843] Py_FatalError (msg=0x7f0e3b373232 "bad leading pad byte") at Python-2.7.5/Python/pythonrun.c:1689

[Tim Peters]

Tim Peters added the comment:

Hmm.  I don't quite know what you're doing:  you said you're getting away from --with-pydebug, but these "bad leading pad byte" messages can't be generated unless Python is compiled with (at least) PYMALLOC_DEBUG defined.

That said, my advice remains the same:  whittle down the program (instead of fiddling with tools) to get a failing case as small & fast as possible.  In your "few dozens of seconds at most", many _millions_ of things happen, and there's scant chance of out-thinking them.

In the newest traceback (core.emerge.8425.gdb.txt), Python detected the corruption while running its cyclic-garbage collector.  Forcing gc to run more often may catch the corruption sooner (use Python's gc.set_threshold() to force more frequent collections).

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