[issue39576] Surprising MemoryError in `decimal` with MAX_PREC

[Stefan Krah]

Stefan Krah <stefan at bytereef.org> added the comment:

Thanks to David Edelsohn I have AIX access now. The issue reported
by Pablo is the same as #41540, for a summary see msg375480.

It is a trivial issue that requires that ulimits are in place due to
the fact that AIX over-allocates petabytes even when the physical memory
is just 16GB.


I have verified that the Python-3.7.7 release, which contains the
feature, behaves exactly like master:


No limits
=========

./configure CC=xlc AR="ar -X64" CFLAGS="-q64 -qmaxmem=70000 -qlanglvl=extc99 -qcpluscmt -qkeyword=inline -qalias=ansi -qthreaded -D_THREAD_SAFE -D__VACPP_MULTI__" LDFLAGS="-L/usr/lib64 -q64"

skrah at gcc119:[/home/skrah/Python-3.7.7]./python -m test -uall test_decimal
0:00:00 Run tests sequentially
0:00:00 [1/1] test_decimal
Killed


There is no segfault, the program receives SIGKILL.



Data limits (-bmaxdata)
=======================

./configure CC=xlc AR="ar -X64" CFLAGS="-q64 -qmaxmem=70000 -qlanglvl=extc99 -qcpluscmt -qkeyword=inline -qalias=ansi -qthreaded -D_THREAD_SAFE -D__VACPP_MULTI__" LDFLAGS="-L/usr/lib64 -q64 -bmaxdata:0x800000000"

skrah at gcc119:[/home/skrah/Python-3.7.7]./python -m test -uall test_decimal
0:00:00 Run tests sequentially
0:00:00 [1/1] test_decimal

== Tests result: SUCCESS ==

1 test OK.

Total duration: 18.0 sec
Tests result: SUCCESS



In summary, since 64-bit AIX users should be familiar with data limits,
I don't consider the situation a _decimal bug at all.

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<https://bugs.python.org/issue39576>
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