On 03/27/2012 06:27 PM, Michael Poeltl wrote:
hi,

can anybody tell why this 'little stupid *thing* of code' let's python-3.2.2, 
2.6.X or python 2.7.2 segfault?

def get_steps2(pos=0, steps=0):
...     if steps == 0:
...         pos = random.randint(-1,1)
...     if pos == 0:
...         return steps
...     steps += 2
...     pos += random.randint(-1,1)
...     return get_steps2(pos,steps)
...
<SNIP>
0
2
8
0
Segmentation fault
?>

funny, isn't it?
I was able to reproduce this segfault on various machines (32bit 64bit), 
ubuntu, slackware, debian
python.X segfaults on all of them

thx
Michael

Others have explained why you can't just raise the recursion limit to arbitrarily large values, and why there's no particular bound on the possible recursion size. But the real question is why you don't do the completely trivial conversion to a non-recursive equivalent.

All you need do is add a while True: to the beginning of the function, and remove the return statement.



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DaveA

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