[Python-Dev] 3.2b2 fails test suite on (my) Windows XP

[David Bolen]

Brian Curtin <brian.curtin at gmail.com> writes:

> http://bugs.python.org/issue9116 covers this issue.
>
> The reason it doesn't fail on any of the build slaves is because they modify
> a registry value for Windows Error Reporting to not display the pop-up
> window, or at least mine does. I think I got the idea from one of the other
> Windows build slave maintainers.

(delayed message as I was traveling)

Note that the buildbot handling only prevents the pop-up dialogs.  The
underlying test that would have generated the dialog should still fail
if the pop-up would have represented a failure, either through the
Win32 API call failure, or the C RTL assertion termination the process
with an error exit code.

How that happens varies (OS dialogs are prevented from ever occurring,
while C RTL dialogs have a scripted "OK" button press).  There have been
experiments with disabling the C RTL within Python itself in the past but
never quite became consistent enough to trust on the buildbot (at least
for me).

But if somehow this is preventing a test failure from being detected on
the buildbots, that's certainly an issue, and might indicate that some
parent code to that causing the error isn't properly detecting it, either
through an API error result, or process termination code.

Of course, if the pop-up is not due to something considered a failure,
then yes, the buildbot won't reflect what an actual user may see.  I
guess 9116 is an error in a child process which under Linux just
terminates but under Win32 generates the pop-up, so perhaps aside from
the pop-up, the test is assuming such an erroneous termination is
acceptable?  In such a case, then the approach in 9116 to permit
control over the RTL is probably the only choice, but I don't think I
see any way to accurately test that fact via the buildbots, since
permitting such pop-ups are so disastrous to the overall build
process.

-- David