python reliability with EINTR handling in general modules

[oleg korenevich]

On Feb 1, 6:07 pm, Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfr... at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 1 Feb 2012 06:15:22 -0800 (PST), oleg korenevich
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> <void.of.t... at gmail.com> wrote:
> >I have linux board on samsung SoC s3c6410 (ARM11). I build rootfs with
> >buildroot: Python 2.7.1, uClibc-0.9.31. Linux kernel: Linux buildroot
> >2.6.28.6 #177 Mon Oct 3 12:50:57 EEST 2011 armv6l GNU/Linux
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> >My app, written on python, in some mysterios conditons raise this
> >exceptions:
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> >1) exception:
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> > File "./dfbUtils.py", line 3209, in setItemData
> >ValueError: (4, 'Interrupted system call')
> >code:
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> >currentPage=int(math.floor(float(rowId)/
> >self.pageSize))==self.selectedPage
> >2) exception:
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> >File "./terminalGlobals.py", line 943, in getFirmawareName
> >OSError: [Errno 4] Interrupted system call: 'firmware'
> >code:
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> >for fileName in os.listdir('firmware'):
> >Some info about app: it have 3-7 threads, listen serial ports via
> >'serial' module, use gui implemented via c extension that wrap
> >directfb, i can't reproduce this exceptions, they are not predictable.
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> >I googled for EINTR exceptions in python, but only found that EINTR
> >can occur only on slow system calls and python's modules socket,
> >subprocess and another one is already process EINTR. So what happens
> >in my app? Why simple call of math function can interrupt program at
> >any time, it's not reliable at all. I have only suggestions: ulibc
> >bug, kernel/hw handling bug. But this suggestions don't show me
> >solution.
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>         I see nothing in your traceback that indicates that the interrupt
> occurred in the math library call -- unless you deleted that line. In
> the first one, I'd be more likely to suspect your C extension/wrapper...
> (are the fields .pageSize and .selectedPage coming from an object
> implemented in C?)
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>         As for the math stuff... I presume both rowID and .pageSize are
> constrained to be 0 or positive integers. If that is the case, invoking
> math.floor() is just redundant overhead as the documented behavior of
> int() is to truncate towards 0, which for a positive value, is the same
> as floor()
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> >>> neg = -3.141592654
> >>> pos = 3.141592654
> >>> int(neg)
> -3
> >>> math.floor(neg)
> -4.0
> >>> int(pos)
> 3
> >>> math.floor(pos)
> 3.0
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>         In the second case... Well, os.listdir() is most likely translated
> into some operating system call.
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> http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/Interrupted-Primiti...
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> And, while that call is waiting for I/O to complete, some sort of signal
> is being received.
> --
>         Wulfraed                 Dennis Lee Bieber         AF6VN
>         wlfr... at ix.netcom.com    HTTP://wlfraed.home.netcom.com/

Thanks for help. In first case all vars is python integers, maybe
math.floor is redundant, but i'm afraid that same error with math
module call will occur in other places of app, where math is needed.
Strange thing here is that math library call is not a system call, and
strange exception ValueError (all values have right values) and why in
braces i have (4, Interruted system call).

For second case: if python really does some slow system call from
module os, why it doesn't handle EINTR and not restart call. Is
SA_RESTART flag in signal can be solution? But how i can set this
flag? By placing flag for signal handler in c extension (or ctypes
manipulation)?