On Sun, 2018-07-08 at 13:17 +0200, Jiri Olsa wrote: > On Fri, Jul 06, 2018 at 09:53:44AM +0300, Janne Huttunen wrote: > > > > The dictionaries are attached to the parameter tuple that steals the > > references. The code should not decrement the reference counters > > explicitly. Otherwise the objects might be released while they are > > still in use which may cause perf crashes, assertions or just plain > > weird behavior like unexpected data changes in stored objects. > > > > Signed-off-by: Janne Huttunen <janne.huttu...@nokia.com> > > --- > > tools/perf/util/scripting-engines/trace-event-python.c | 8 ++------ > > 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-) > > > > diff --git a/tools/perf/util/scripting-engines/trace-event-python.c > > b/tools/perf/util/scripting-engines/trace-event-python.c > > index 46e9e19..60fce44 100644 > > --- a/tools/perf/util/scripting-engines/trace-event-python.c > > +++ b/tools/perf/util/scripting-engines/trace-event-python.c > > @@ -908,14 +908,11 @@ static void python_process_tracepoint(struct > > perf_sample *sample, > > if (_PyTuple_Resize(&t, n) == -1) > > Py_FatalError("error resizing Python tuple"); > > > > - if (!dict) { > > + if (!dict) > > call_object(handler, t, handler_name); > > - } else { > > + else > > call_object(handler, t, default_handler_name); > > - Py_DECREF(dict); > > - } > > > > - Py_XDECREF(all_entries_dict); > > Py_DECREF(t); > > } > > > > @@ -1235,7 +1232,6 @@ static void python_process_general_event(struct > > perf_sample *sample, > > > > call_object(handler, t, handler_name); > > > > - Py_DECREF(dict); > > Py_DECREF(t); > > so the dict is released when the tuple is released?
To the best of my knowledge, yes. As far as I can see, there is only a single reference to each dict and according to the Python documentation PyTuple_SetItem() "steals" the reference passed to it. If so, afterwards the tuple owns the only reference to the dict(s) and should take care of releasing them when appropriate. I even built libpython with reference debugging enabled and when I run perf without the fix I get this: Fatal Python error: Objects/tupleobject.c:238 object at 0x7f10f2041b40 has negative ref count -1 Aborted (core dumped) With the fix I get no errors.