Python on Altix

[Todd Miller]

On Tue, 2003-10-07 at 11:10, Skip Montanaro wrote:
> 
> You wrote:
> 
>     Todd> I configure Python like this:
> 
>     Todd> ./configure --prefix=$HOME --with-pydebug --without-threads
> 
> then you jump to:
> 
>     Todd> But as soon as I try to run my software self-tests (for the
>     Todd> numarray Numeric-like array package), I get this:
> 
>     ...
> 
> then later:
> 
>     Todd> I've poked around with this for a few hours, but I'm not getting
>     Todd> much out of GDB.  Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get
>     Todd> Python up and running on an Altix or how to solve this problem
>     Todd> more generally?
> 
> Maybe I'm being too pdeantic, but did Python's own test suite run
> successfully?  

Not completely,  but it looked close.  There were two failures which may
even be "expected":

2 tests failed:
    test_bsddb test_imp
38 tests skipped:
    test_aepack test_al test_asynchat test_audioop test_bsddb185
    test_bsddb3 test_cd test_cl test_curses test_dl test_email_codecs
    test_fork1 test_gl test_imageop test_imgfile test_linuxaudiodev
    test_logging test_macfs test_macostools test_normalization
    test_ossaudiodev test_pep277 test_plistlib test_queue test_rgbimg
    test_scriptpackages test_socket test_socket_ssl test_socketserver
    test_sunaudiodev test_thread test_threaded_import
    test_threadedtempfile test_threading test_timeout test_urllibnet
    test_winreg test_winsound
12 skips unexpected on linux2:
    test_threadedtempfile test_threaded_import test_fork1 test_rgbimg
    test_threading test_socket test_thread test_queue test_asynchat
    test_audioop test_imageop test_logging

Here are the details:

test test_imp failed -- expected imp.lock_held() to be True

test_bsddb
test test_bsddb failed -- errors occurred; run in verbose mode for
details
test_bsddb185
test_bsddb185 skipped -- No module named bsddb185
test_bsddb3
test_bsddb3 skipped -- Use of the `bsddb' resource not enabled


> You seem to be trying to run before you're walking.
> 32->64-bit issues do pop up from time-to-time.  It's possible that the
> Python developers have tackled this already but that the numarray folks
> haven't.  

Bingo.  I maintain and extend numarray.

> If you've run "make test" successfully in your Python build
> directory, I would imagine you've figured out "how to get Python up and
> running on an Altix", and that the problem lives in the numarray code.  If
> not, you probably need to ignore numarray for the time being while you debug
> your basic Python configuration.

Sounds like I may be OK already.

> At first glance, it looks like whoever wrote to the block in question got
> carried away and scribbled off the end of the block.  You might try gdb's
> "watch" command to keep an eye on that address.  You'll probably want to be
> careful when you set the watchpoint (whittle your failing test case down as
> small as possible, set the watchpoint as close as possible to the error) to
> avoid slowing your code down to an unmanageable crawl.

This sounds like good advice,  I'll give it a try and report back
later.  

Thanks for the help,
Todd

-- 
Todd Miller 			jmiller at stsci.edu
STSCI / ESS / SSB