[Python-Dev] bsddb test case deadlocks fixed

[Gregory P. Smith]

On Mon, Nov 03, 2003 at 09:54:24AM +0100, Alex Martelli wrote:
> On Monday 03 November 2003 09:48 am, Anthony Baxter wrote:
> > From what I understand, these fixes aren't just fixes to the test suite,
> > but also to fix real problems with the bsddb code itself. In that case,
> > should it be added to the 23 branch? I'd be a solid +1 on this for 2.3.3.
> >
> > Anyone else?
> 
> Anything that makes bsddb less flaky on 2.3.* gets a big hearty enthusiastic 
> +1 from me too.
> 
> Alex

There are no deadlock problems in the current 2.3.2 bsddb module as
it does not have thread support enabled (meaning is likely to crash if
someone uses it from multiple threads at once).

The recent changes to bsddb have been to enable thread support and fix
some singlethreaded deadlocks that thread support introduced due to
the BerkeleyDB's internal locking.

There is still the potential for multithreaded bsddb compatibility
interface use to deadlock.  This bug tracks the issue:

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=834461&group_id=5470&atid=105470

Net effect on release23-branch if we did this today:

  + multithreaded bsddb use now allowed (instead of crashes or corruption)
  - multithreaded bsddb use could deadlock depending on how it is used.
    (anything that creates a cursor internally including many of the
    inherited DictMixin dictionary methods could cause it)