Python 2.7 segfaults on 'import site'

[Peter Otten]

Chris Angelico wrote:

> On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 3:05 AM, Irmen de Jong <irmen.NOSPAM at xs4all.nl>
> wrote:
>> On 29-12-2014 15:33, Chris Angelico wrote:
>>
>>> So clearly an empty 'site' can be imported safely, but running Python
>>> without -S segfaults.
>>>
>>> Can anyone advise as to where I should look for the cause of the
>>> trouble?
>>>
>>> ChrisA
>>
>> Perhaps starting python with -v provides some more info on when exactly
>> it is crashing during the startup process. (i.e. is it really site.py
>> that crashes it?)
> 
> *facepalm* Yeah, that's the one I didn't think of. But now I have an
> even bigger question.
> 
> ...
> ...
> ...
> # /usr/lib/python2.7/sre_constants.pyc matches
> /usr/lib/python2.7/sre_constants.py
> import sre_constants # precompiled from
> /usr/lib/python2.7/sre_constants.pyc Segmentation fault
> 
> Why is sre_constants segfaulting?! It's such a simple file! I assume
> the "matches" comment means it thinks there's no problem with the .pyc
> file; is it possible that, despite those checks, there's an issue
> there? I could delete the .pyc and try again, but I'm scared that'll
> fix the problem and leave me unable to figure out the true cause :)

Maybe the interpreter itself is corrupted? Google suggests that debsums may 
be the tool to find out.