how reliable is os.cpu_count()? - python-3.x

I am using this method in one of my applications. Should one be wary of it returning None/0 or raising error in some operating systems?
I know that os.stat(path) might return some dummy 0s if info is not available.

The nice thing about open-source projects like Python is that you can check the source when you're not sure how something works!
From searching for cpu_count in the Python repo, it appeared that os.cpu_count() is defined in C, rather than pure python:
#define OS_CPU_COUNT_METHODDEF \
{"cpu_count", (PyCFunction)os_cpu_count, METH_NOARGS, os_cpu_count__doc__},
Looking at the C source code, it appears that it could return None if the operating system doesn't support the syscall to find number of processors in the current context. I'd expect this to be quite rare.

Related

How to find TLS segments of the current thread on linux amd64?

I'm looking for a way to find out the memory addresses of TLS segments for the current thread on linux, amd64. Bonus point for a solution that works on OSX.
Looked into various language runtime or GC (like boehm), but couldn't go through the multiple layer of abstractions to support all kind of systems so far. Any help appreciated.
Did you have a look at the solution Martin and I came up with in druntime?
What we do there boils down to scanning the segments in the corresponding dl_phdr_info (obtained by looking for the correct one using dl_iterate_phdr) for the segment with type PT_TLS, and storing its module id and size.
You can then get the start of the address range on the current thread by calling __tls_get_addr for offset 0 and the module id (there is an offset on some archs), and the end by simply adding the size you determined to that. If you do not need to support shared libraries, you can also simply use fs/gs on x86 for that (might be required if you want to link a static executable).
This works for Linux and FreeBSD (and probably other ELF platforms), but not OS X. There, the best I could come up with so far is this:
void _d_dyld_getTLSRange(void* arbitraryTLSSymbol, void** start, size_t* size) {
dyld_enumerate_tlv_storage(
^(enum dyld_tlv_states state, const dyld_tlv_info *info) {
assert(state == dyld_tlv_state_allocated);
if (info->tlv_addr <= arbitraryTLSSymbol &&
arbitraryTLSSymbol < (info->tlv_addr + info->tlv_size)
) {
// Found the range we are looking for.
*start = info->tlv_addr;
*size = info->tlv_size;
}
}
);
}
The naive implementation currently used in LDC's druntime does not quite handle shared libraries, though, and dyld_enumerate_tlv_storage is from dyld_priv.h, which might or might not be a problem for App Store publishing.
On Linux, the thread-specific segment is set up via arch_prtcl(ARCH_SET_FS, <addr>) call. You can find out what it was set to in the current thread via arch_prctl(ARCH_GET_FS, ...).
Bonus point for a solution that works on OSX.
OSX is a completely different OS, and uses completely different mechanism for its TLS support.

Function graph (timestamped entry and exit) for both user, library and kernel space in Linux?

I'm writing this more-less in frustration - but who knows, maybe there's a way for this too...
I would like to analyze what happens with a function from ALSA, say snd_pcm_readi; for that purpose, let's say I have prepared a small testprogram.c, where I have this:
void doCapture() {
ret = snd_pcm_readi(handle, buffer, period_size);
}
The problem with this function is that it eventually (should) hook into snd_pcm_readi in the shared system library /usr/lib/libasound.so; from there, I believe via ioctl, it would somehow communicate to snd_pcm_read in the kernel module /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/sound/core/snd-pcm.ko -- and that should ultimately talk to whatever .ko kernel module which is a driver for a particular soundcard.
Now, with the organization like above, I can do something like:
valgrind --tool=callgrind --toggle-collect=doCapture ./testprogram
... and then kcachegrind callgrind.out.12406 does indeed reveal a relationship between snd_pcm_readi, libasound.so and an ioctl (I cannot get the same information to show with callgrind_annotate) - so that somewhat covers userspace; but that is as far as it goes. Furthermore, it produces a call graph, that is to say general caller/callee relationships between functions (possibly by a count of samples/ticks each function has spent working as scheduled).
However, what I would like to get instead, is something like the output of the Linux ftrace tracer called function_graph, which provides a timestamped entry and exit of traced kernel functions... example from ftrace: add documentation for function graph tracer [LWN.net]:
$ cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/trace
# tracer: function_graph
#
# TIME CPU DURATION FUNCTION CALLS
# | | | | | | | |
2105.963678 | 0) | mutex_unlock() {
2105.963682 | 0) 5.715 us | __mutex_unlock_slowpath();
2105.963693 | 0) + 14.700 us | }
2105.963698 | 0) | dnotify_parent() {
(NB: newer ftrace documentation seems to not show a timestamp at first for the function\_graph, only duration - but I think it's still possible to modify that)
With ftrace, one can filter so one can only trace functions in a given kernel module - so in my case, I could add the functions of snd-pcm.ko and whatever .ko module is the soundcard driver, and I'd have whatever I find interesting in kernel-space covered. But then, I lose the link to the user-space program (unless I explicitly printf to /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/trace_marker, or do a trace_printk from user-space .c files)
Ultimately, what I'd like, is to have the possibility to specify an executable, possibly also library files and kernel modules - and obtain a timestamped function graph (with indented/nested entry and exit per function) like ftrace provides. Are there any alternatives for something like this? (Note I can live without the function exits - but I'd really like to have timestamped function entries)
As a PS: it seems I actually found something that fits the description, which is the fulltrace application/script:
fulltrace [andreoli#Github]
fulltrace traces the execution of an ELF program, providing as output a full trace of its userspace, library and kernel function calls. ...
(prerequisites) the following kernel configuration options and their dependencies must be set as enabled (=y): FTRACE, TRACING_SUPPORT, UPROBES, UPROBE_EVENT, FUNCTION_GRAPH_TRACER.
Sounds perfect - but the problem is, I'm on Ubuntu 11.04, and while this 2.6.38 kernel luckily has CONFIG_FTRACE=y enabled -- its /boot/config-`uname -r`
doesn't even mention UPROBES :/ And since I'd like to avoid doing kernel hacking, unfortunately I cannot use this script...
(Btw, if UPROBES were available, (as far as I understand) one sets a trace probe on a symbol address (as obtained from say objdump -d), and output goes again to /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/trace - so some custom solution would have been possible using UPROBES, even without the fulltrace script)
So, to narrow down my question a bit - is there a solution, that would allow simultaneous user-space (incl. shared libraries) and kernel-space "function graph" tracing, but where UPROBES are not available in the kernel?

gdb break when program opens specific file

Back story: While running a program under strace I notice that '/dev/urandom' is being open'ed. I would like to know where this call is coming from (it is not part of the program itself, it is part of the system).
So, using gdb, I am trying to break (using catch syscall open) program execution when the open call is issued, so I can see a backtrace. The problem is that open is being called alot, like several hundred times so I can't narrow down the specific call that is opening /dev/urandom. How should I go about narrowing down the specific call? Is there a way to filter by arguments, and if so how do I do it for a syscall?
Any advice would be helpful -- maybe I am going about this all wrong.
GDB is a pretty powerful tool, but has a bit of a learning curve.
Basically, you want to set up a conditional breakpoint.
First use the -i flag to strace or objdump -d to find the address of the open function or more realistically something in the chain of getting there, such as in the plt.
set a breakpoint at that address (if you have debug symbols, you can use those instead, omitting the *, but I'm assuming you don't - though you may well have them for library functions if nothing else.
break * 0x080482c8
Next you need to make it conditional
(Ideally you could compare a string argument to a desired string. I wasn't getting this to work within the first few minutes of trying)
Let's hope we can assume the string is a constant somewhere in the program or one of the libraries it loads. You could look in /proc/pid/maps to get an idea of what is loaded and where, then use grep to verify the string is actually in a file, objdump -s to find it's address, and gdb to verify that you've actually found it in memory by combining the high part of the address from maps with the low part from the file. (EDIT: it's probably easier to use ldd on the executable than look in /proc/pid/maps)
Next you will need to know something about the abi of the platform you are working on, specifically how arguments are passed. I've been working on arm's lately, and that's very nice as the first few arguments just go in registers r0, r1, r2... etc. x86 is a bit less convenient - it seems they go on the stack, ie, *($esp+4), *($esp+8), *($esp+12).
So let's assume we are on an x86, and we want to check that the first argument in esp+4 equals the address we found for the constant we are trying to catch it passing. Only, esp+4 is a pointer to a char pointer. So we need to dereference it for comparison.
cond 1 *(char **)($esp+4)==0x8048514
Then you can type run and hope for the best
If you catch your breakpoint condition, and looking around with info registers and the x command to examine memory seems right, then you can use the return command to percolate back up the call stack until you find something you recognize.
(Adapted from a question edit)
Following Chris's answer, here is the process that eventually got me what I was looking for:
(I am trying to find what functions are calling the open syscall on "/dev/urandom")
use ldd on executable to find loaded libraries
grep through each lib (shell command) looking for 'urandom'
open library file in hex editor and find address of string
find out how parameters are passed in syscalls (for open, file is first parameter. on x86_64 it is passed in rdi -- your mileage may vary
now we can set the conditional breakpoint: break open if $rdi == _addr_
run program and wait for break to hit
run bt to see backtrace
After all this I find that glib's g_random_int() and g_rand_new() use urandom. Gtk+ and ORBit were calling these functions -- if anybody was curious.
Like Andre Puel said:
break open if strcmp($rdi,"/dev/urandom") == 0
Might do the job.

wxCriticalSection under Linux/Unix

i discovered that a wxCriticalSection is not recursive ( does deadlock when a thread grabs a section more than once ) under linux. Looking at the sources, i discovered that a wxCriticalSection is implemented using a wxMutex under Linux, but without using wxMUTEX_RECURSIVE. I have a codebase that runs well under Win and Mac, and i want to port it to Linux, but i have deadlocks at some places where i did not avoid recursion.
Now i have two possibilities:
Changing and rebuilding wxWidgets for my purpose ( brrr - by any chance i want to avpid that since i do not know too much about the design decisions behind that )
debugging each and all of my possible code paths ( brrr - will take days and is horribly bug - prone )
Is there a third way, replacing/extending wxCriticalSection with a construct that behaves equally under Mac/Win/Unix?
ps. could someone explain the design decision to me? Mr. Vadim Z says ...
I had temporarily forgot the reason I was against this (making wxCriticalSections recursive) but I did recall it 30 seconds later (after sending my message, of course ). Please see my follow-up
But there was never a follow-up ...
In version 2.9.1, it appears that the default should be recursive. In file \wxWidgets-2.9.1\include\wx\thread.h:
inline wxCriticalSection::wxCriticalSection( wxCriticalSectionType critSecType )
: m_mutex( critSecType == wxCRITSEC_DEFAULT ? wxMUTEX_RECURSIVE : wxMUTEX_DEFAULT ) { }
And in class wxCriticalSection the constructor declaration is
wxCRITSECT_INLINE wxCriticalSection( wxCriticalSectionType critSecType = wxCRITSEC_DEFAULT );
I don't use Linux, so I can't verify that wxCriticalSection is actually recursive when compiled.

Visual C++ App crashes before main in Release, but runs fine in Debug

When in release it crashes with an unhandled exception: std::length error.
The call stack looks like this:
msvcr90.dll!__set_flsgetvalue() Line 256 + 0xc bytes C
msvcr90.dll!__set_flsgetvalue() Line 256 + 0xc bytes C
msvcr90.dll!_getptd_noexit() Line 616 + 0x7 bytes C
msvcr90.dll!_getptd() Line 641 + 0x5 bytes C
msvcr90.dll!rand() Line 68 C
NEM.exe!CGAL::Random::Random() + 0x34 bytes C++
msvcr90.dll!_initterm(void (void)* * pfbegin=0x00000003, void (void)* * pfend=0x00345560) Line 903 C
NEM.exe!__tmainCRTStartup() Line 582 + 0x17 bytes C
kernel32.dll!7c817067()
Has anyone got any clues?
Examining the stack dump:
InitTerm is simply a function that walks a list of other functions and executes each in step - this is used for, amongst other things, global constructors (on startup), global destructors (on shutdown) and atexit lists (also on shutdown).
You are linking with CGAL, since that CGAL::Random::Random in your stack dump is due to the fact that CGAL defines a global variable called default_random of the CGAL::Random::Random type. That's why your error is happening before main, the default_random is being constructed.
From the CGAL source, all it does it call the standard C srand(time(NULL)) followed by the local get_int which, in turn, calls the standard C rand() to get a random number.
However, you're not getting to the second stage since your stack dump is still within srand().
It looks like it's converting your thread into a fiber lazily, i.e., this is the first time you've tried to do something in the thread and it has to set up fiber-local storage before continuing.
So, a couple of things to try and investigate.
1/ Are you running this code on pre-XP? I believe fiber-local storage (__set_flsgetvalue) was introduced in XP. This is a long shot but we need to clear it up anyway.
2/ Do you need to link with CGAL? I'm assuming your application needs something in the CGAL libraries, otherwise don't link with it. It may be a hangover from another project file.
3/ If you do use CGAL, make sure you're using the latest version. As of 3.3, it supports a dynamic linking which should prevent the possibility of mixing different library versions (both static/dynamic and debug/nondebug).
4/ Can you try to compile with VC8? The CGAL supported platforms do NOT yet include VC9 (VS2008). You may need to follow this up with the CGAL team itself to see if they're working on that support.
5/ And, finally, do you have Boost installed? That's another long shot but worth a look anyway.
If none of those suggestions help, you'll have to wait for someone more knowledgable than I to come along, I'm afraid.
Best of luck.
Crashes before main() are usually caused by a bad constructor in a global or static variable.
Looks like the constructor for class Random.
Do you have a global or static variable of type Random? Is it possible that you're trying to construct it before the library it's in has been properly initialized?
Note that the order of construction of global and static variables is not fixed and might change going from debug to release.
Could you be more specific about the error you're receiving? (unhandled exception std::length sounds weird - i've never heard of it)
To my knowledge, FlsGetValue automatically falls back to TLS counterpart if FLS API is not available.
If you're still stuck, take .dmp of your process at the time of crash and post it (use any of the numerous free upload services - and give us a link) (Sounds like a missing feature in SO - source/data file exchange?)

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