Use of ftplib or urllib causes page fault on exit

[50eff062-408a-4098-b1b2-8222303b9d0c]

BPO	219123
Nosy	@gvanrossum, @tim-one

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GitHub fields: ```python assignee = 'https://github.com/gvanrossum' closed_at = created_at = labels = ['invalid', 'library'] title = 'Use of ftplib or urllib causes page fault on exit' updated_at = user = 'https://bugs.python.org/anonymous' ``` bugs.python.org fields: ```python activity = actor = 'tim.peters' assignee = 'gvanrossum' closed = True closed_date = None closer = None components = ['Library (Lib)'] creation = creator = 'anonymous' dependencies = [] files = [] hgrepos = [] issue_num = 219123 keywords = [] message_count = 4.0 messages = ['2173', '2174', '2175', '2176'] nosy_count = 3.0 nosy_names = ['gvanrossum', 'tim.peters', 'jhylton'] pr_nums = [] priority = 'normal' resolution = 'not a bug' stage = None status = 'closed' superseder = None type = None url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue219123' versions = [] ```

[3772858d-27d8-44b0-a664-d68674859f36]

I work at a government office and have been using Python for over a year. Our office upgraded all the PC with the latest version of Netscape, IE Explorer, and security patches to Windows. After this upgrade, all scripts that use either ftplib or urllib cause a page fault in KERNEL32.DLL whenever Python exits. This page fault happens on every machine (Win95 & Win98) using Python, Pythonw, IDLE, or scripts; with version 1.5.2 and 2.0. The fault does not pop up until the script exits or interactive Python exits.

Because of this development, all Python work has stopped and my supervisors are re-evaluating the use Python for production work. I have been an avid promoter of Python, but now I am completely stuck. Other programs on the machines still work, only Python seems to be affected. Please help!

Below is the page fault message: PYTHONW caused an invalid page fault in module KERNEL32.DLL at 0167:bff7b9a6. Registers: EAX=00000000 CS=0167 EIP=bff7b9a6 EFLGS=00000246 EBX=0087b650 SS=016f ESP=0062fbdc EBP=0084d73c ECX=00000000 DS=016f ESI=020325f0 FS=4207 EDX=00000000 ES=016f EDI=00671d68 GS=0000 Bytes at CS:EIP: ff 76 04 e8 13 89 ff ff 5e c2 04 00 56 8b 74 24 Stack dump: 0087b650 02020b13 020325f0 0062fbf8 76003481 0062fbf8 0084d730 0087b650 7600265e 00000000 0084d730 0084d6d0 0084d6dc 76003283 0084d6d0 7600e420

Please contact mike.callahan@noaa.gov or call 800-292-5588 if you have any answers. I want to keep Python in our office, but right now, I am fighting a losing battle.

Mike Callahan National Weather Service Louisville KY

[03bde425-37ce-4291-88bd-d6cecc46a30e]

This is a pretty strange bug report. Many, many people use Python on Windows and do not experience any such problem.

[tim-one]

Reduced priority; mailed this msg to Mike:

Hi, Mike. This is about the Python bug you reported at:

http://sourceforge.net/bugs/?func=detailbug&bug_id=119123&group_id=5470

I don't see that we can do much about this:

1. Tens of thousands of people use Python on Windows, and yours is the only report of this.

2. There's no evidence of a Python bug. KERNEL32.DLL, where the error happens, is a core Microsoft DLL, and its source code is an MS secret -- i.e., the error is in MS's code, and you'd probably have to pay Microsoft support staff to find out exactly what's going wrong in their code.

That said, at least post a small and self-contained program that exhibits the problem so others can *try it. Since you have no idea what's going wrong either, saying "all scripts that use either ftplib or urllib" gives us no information. There may well be something your site's particular scripts have in common that's important! It's certainly *not the case that other people using ftplib or urllib on Windows are having troubles.

Since your uses of ftplib and urllib presumably access info across a network, a likely cause of errors in KERNEL32.DLL is a misconfigured network, or non-MS "security programs" that poke around where they shouldn't (incl. virus checkers, which are a notorious source of problems -- have you tried running your scripts w/ virus checkers disabled? with all background tasks other than Explorer and Systray killed off? that's just basic Windows debugging procedure, but can't tell whether you've done any of it).

About "I want to keep Python in our office, but right now, I am fighting a losing battle", ask them to *think* a little. In the old days, people used to take canaries into coal mines, because (or so the story goes ...) if there was a potentially fatal buildup of gases, the canaries would pass out before people noticed. Throwing out Python because your sysadmins changed your setup in such a way that Microsoft's software blows up is a lot like saying the canary keeps passing out, so let's ignore it \<0.5 wink>. Python didn't cause this problem -- indeed, you said there was no problem before they "upgraded" your systems!

[tim-one]

Closed, changed Group to 3rd-party and Resolution to Invalid. Mike reports:

""" We found the problem. It was a program which I did not know about called CyberSitter which was on all the network PCs. We turned it off and all is well again with Python. Thanks for your help. """

CyberSitter sure qualifies as a "non-MS 'security program' that pokes around where it shouldn't"! I pointed him to news://news.cybersitter.com, which has many reports of CyberSitter crashing all sorts of things.