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platform.uname() periodically spews EINTR errors on mac - so use subproces.communicate() which is EINTR safe after http://bugs.python.org/issue1068268
Calling f.read() on naked os.open() output can produce "IOError: [Errno 4] Interrupted system call". Attached is a suggested fix.

Here is a different but similar patch for _syscmd_uname():
- use os.fsdecode() to use the locale encoding instead of latin-1
- use subprocess.DEVNULL to redirect errors to /dev/null
- use "with proc:" to ensure that the subprocesss is cleaned in case of error

> Calling f.read() on naked os.open() output can produce "IOError: [Errno 4] Interrupted system call". Attached is a suggested fix.
I cannot reproduce your issue. What is your exact Python version and OS?
I tried to run 100 threads calling 100 times platform._syscmd_uname('-p'). I didn't reproduce the issue on Python 2.7 or 3.5.
---
import platform
import threading
def test():
 for x in range(100):
 p = platform._syscmd_uname('-p')
threads = [threading.Thread(target=test) for n in range(100)]
for thread in threads:
 thread.start()
for thread in threads:
 thread.join()
---

2.7.6 or 3.4.1 with OS X 10.8. I can only reproduce it an automated test environment when the load is high on the machine. I've also seen it with 10.6/10.7. It's definitely inconsistently reproducible.

I'm not sure whether using os.fsencoding() is a good idea. The encoding used by uname is not defined anywhere and it's possible that Python using a wrong encoding may cause the call to fail (e.g. in case the host name includes non-ASCII chars).
Then again: _syscmd_uname() is currently only used to determine the processor, which will most likely always be ASCII.
BTW: It would be good to replace all other calls to os.popen() by subprocess as well. platform.py in Python 3 no longer has the requirement to stay compatible with earlier Python 2 releases.

"I'm not sure whether using os.fsencoding() is a good idea. The encoding used by uname is not defined anywhere and it's possible that Python using a wrong encoding may cause the call to fail (e.g. in case the host name includes non-ASCII chars)."
I also expect ASCII, but I prefer os.fsdecode() because it's the encoding used almost everywhere in Python 3. It's for example the encoding (and error handler) currently used by _syscmd_uname() indirectly by TextIOWrapper.

On 17.06.2014 11:21, STINNER Victor wrote:
> 
> STINNER Victor added the comment:
> 
> "I'm not sure whether using os.fsencoding() is a good idea. The encoding used by uname is not defined anywhere and it's possible that Python using a wrong encoding may cause the call to fail (e.g. in case the host name includes non-ASCII chars)."
> 
> I also expect ASCII, but I prefer os.fsdecode() because it's the encoding used almost everywhere in Python 3. It's for example the encoding (and error handler) currently used by _syscmd_uname() indirectly by TextIOWrapper.
Ok.

"2.7.6 or 3.4.1 with OS X 10.8. I can only reproduce it an automated test environment when the load is high on the machine. I've also seen it with 10.6/10.7. It's definitely inconsistently reproducible."
I'm surprised that the Python read() method doesn't handle EINTR internally.
I'm in favor of handling EINTR internally almost everywhere, I mean in the Python modules implemented in the C, not in each call using these C methods. "handling EINTR" means calling PyErr_CheckSignals() which may raises a Python exception (ex: KeyboardInterrupt).

> I'm surprised that the Python read() method doesn't handle EINTR internally.
>
> I'm in favor of handling EINTR internally almost everywhere, I mean in the Python modules implemented in the C, not in each call using these C methods. "handling EINTR" means calling PyErr_CheckSignals() which may raises a Python exception (ex: KeyboardInterrupt).
It's good, we all agree on that.
I think the different EINTR-related reports should be closed as #18885
duplicates.
Then we need a patch for #18885: my idea was to write a pair of macros
similar to Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS/Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS that would
handle the retry logic, instead of having to check for EINTR and
calling Py_CheckPendingSignals() everywhere.

You can't use subprocess. platform is used during build. subprocess needs select, but select is a compiled module and at that specific time in the build process is not compiled yet.

On 08.07.2014 11:40, Stefano Borini wrote:
> 
> You can't use subprocess. platform is used during build. subprocess needs select, but select is a compiled module and at that specific time in the build process is not compiled yet.
Good point :-)

Wouldn't it make sense to use the same strategy used in the subprocess fix (that is, retry?). See http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/6e664bcc958d/