horribly slimy segault c-extension

[Carl Banks]

John Does wrote:
> There should be no need for me to show all my code for this issue.
> 
> 
> First off: i run a program and it sefaults normally, but when i run it
> through gdb it does not.
> 
> Here are the relevant lines of code:
> 
>        printf("q:%i \n",Q->ob_refcnt);
>        Py_DECREF(Q);
>        printf("qa:%i \n",Q->ob_refcnt);
>        Q = newQ ;
>        printf("qaa:%i \n",Q->ob_refcnt);
> 
> And the output:
> 
> q:1 
> Segmentation fault
> 
> Without asking me for any more code, can someone give me some
> precise steps that I could take to begin resolving/exposing this
> issue.


First thing to try:

    printf("q:%i \n",Q->ob_refcnt);
    Py_DECREF(Q);
    /* printf("qa:%i \n",Q->ob_refcnt); */
    Q = newQ ;
    printf("qaa:%i \n",Q->ob_refcnt);

You're trying to access Q after its refcount fell to zero.  Py_DECREF
frees the memory pointed at by Q when that happens.  Trying to access
freed memory (as your printf does) is an undefined operation, and
could very well segfault.

Just a guess, does the DECREFed object have a large memory footprint
(say, more than 8K)?


-- 
CARL BANKS