Issued:
2013-01-07
Updated:
2013-01-07

RHBA-2013:0045 - python bug fix and enhancement update

Synopsis

python bug fix and enhancement update

Type/Severity

Bug Fix Advisory (none)

Topic

Updated python packages that fix several bugs and add one enhancement are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

Description

Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language often compared to Tcl, Perl, Scheme or Java. Python includes modules, classes, exceptions, very high level dynamic data types and dynamic typing. Python supports interfaces to many system calls and libraries, as well as to various windowing systems (X11, Motif, Tk, Mac and MFC).

This update fixes the following bugs:

  • Prior to this update, calling the logging.config.fileConfig() function failed when the logging handlers already existed. Consequently, a KeyError occured in the atexit() call to the logging.shutdown() function. With this update, a fix has been added into logging.config.fileConfig() in order to lose previously existing handlers. As a result, the KeyError no longer occurs. (BZ#573782)

  • IDLE is an integrated development environment for Python. With this update, support to run multiple instances of IDLE on a server has been added. As a result, multiple users can now use IDLE at the same time. (BZ#638514)

  • Previously, the os.chown() function failed on 32-bit architectures when the UID and GID parameters contained numeric values greater than 2147483647 (0x7fffffff). Consequently, an error occurred with the following message:

    OverflowError: signed integer is greater than maximum

This bug has been fixed and the os.chown function now handles larger identification numbers correctly. (BZ#640523)

  • Previously, the fcntl.ioctl() function failed on 32-bit architectures when the op parameter contained a numeric value greater than 2147483647 (0x7fffffff). Consequently, an error occurred with the following message:

    OverflowError: signed integer is greater than maximum

This bug has been fixed and the fcntl.ioctl function now handles larger request codes correctly. (BZ#822072)

  • Due to a flaw in the Makefile.pre.in file, occasional compilation or link errors appeared when Python was rebuilt on systems with more than one CPU core. This bug has been fixed, and Python can now be rebuilt on multiple-core processing units without the aforementioned errors. (BZ#701277)

  • Previously, a memory leak occurred when Python was used with the _japanese_codecs module. This bug has been fixed, and the memory leak no longer occurs in the described scenario. (BZ#701569)

This update also adds the following enhancement:

  • The gdb debugger has been enhanced to allow more effective debugging of Python code. The added hooks enable gdb to display human-readable representations of Python objects within the process being debugged. As a result, backtraces involving Python are now easier to read, and the new hooks enhance the effectiveness of the debugging process. (BZ#644661)

All users of Python are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which fix these bugs and add this enhancement.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure all previously-released errata relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via the Red Hat Network. Details on how to use the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/articles/11258

Affected Products

ProductVersionArch
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian5ppc
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems5s390x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation5x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation5i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server5x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server5ia64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server5i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI5x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI5i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop5x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop5i386

Updated Packages

  • python-2.4.3-56.el5.ppc.rpm
  • python-debuginfo-2.4.3-56.el5.i386.rpm
  • python-devel-2.4.3-56.el5.s390.rpm
  • tkinter-2.4.3-56.el5.s390x.rpm
  • python-debuginfo-2.4.3-56.el5.ia64.rpm
  • python-debuginfo-2.4.3-56.el5.s390x.rpm
  • python-devel-2.4.3-56.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • python-devel-2.4.3-56.el5.s390x.rpm
  • python-2.4.3-56.el5.src.rpm
  • python-tools-2.4.3-56.el5.ppc.rpm
  • python-libs-2.4.3-56.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • python-debuginfo-2.4.3-56.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • python-devel-2.4.3-56.el5.ppc.rpm
  • tkinter-2.4.3-56.el5.i386.rpm
  • python-debuginfo-2.4.3-56.el5.s390.rpm
  • python-debuginfo-2.4.3-56.el5.ppc64.rpm
  • python-tools-2.4.3-56.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • python-2.4.3-56.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • python-libs-2.4.3-56.el5.ppc.rpm
  • python-devel-2.4.3-56.el5.i386.rpm
  • python-libs-2.4.3-56.el5.ia64.rpm
  • python-2.4.3-56.el5.s390x.rpm
  • python-libs-2.4.3-56.el5.s390x.rpm
  • python-tools-2.4.3-56.el5.ia64.rpm
  • tkinter-2.4.3-56.el5.ppc.rpm
  • python-devel-2.4.3-56.el5.ia64.rpm
  • python-debuginfo-2.4.3-56.el5.ppc.rpm
  • python-tools-2.4.3-56.el5.i386.rpm
  • python-2.4.3-56.el5.ia64.rpm
  • python-libs-2.4.3-56.el5.ppc64.rpm
  • python-tools-2.4.3-56.el5.s390x.rpm
  • python-libs-2.4.3-56.el5.i386.rpm
  • python-2.4.3-56.el5.i386.rpm
  • tkinter-2.4.3-56.el5.ia64.rpm
  • tkinter-2.4.3-56.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • python-devel-2.4.3-56.el5.ppc64.rpm

Fixes

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)

Additional information