Skip to content

Navigation Menu

Sign in
Appearance settings

Search code, repositories, users, issues, pull requests...

Provide feedback

We read every piece of feedback, and take your input very seriously.

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

Appearance settings

Skip GNU backtrace test on Arm 32-bit#149493

Merged
diegorusso merged 5 commits into
python:mainpython/cpython:mainfrom
diegorusso:backtrace-armdiegorusso/cpython:backtrace-armCopy head branch name to clipboard
May 8, 2026
Merged

Skip GNU backtrace test on Arm 32-bit#149493
diegorusso merged 5 commits into
python:mainpython/cpython:mainfrom
diegorusso:backtrace-armdiegorusso/cpython:backtrace-armCopy head branch name to clipboard

Conversation

@diegorusso

@diegorusso diegorusso commented May 7, 2026

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Contributor

backtrace() and GDB use different unwinding paths.

On AArch64, runtime unwinding normally uses DWARF CFI in .eh_frame / .eh_frame_hdr.
On 32-bit ARM EABI, the runtime unwind format is .ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab, as specified by the Arm EHABI (https://github.com/ARM-software/abi-aa/blob/main/ehabi32/ehabi32.rst#the-object-producer-interface)

GDB can still unwind the 32-bit ARM binary because it can read debugger-only DWARF CFI from .debug_frame, while glibc backtrace() runs inside the process and needs runtime unwind metadata.

Without -funwind-tables, the 32-bit ARM build has effectively empty runtime unwind metadata:

  .ARM.exidx contains 1 entry:
    _start: cantunwind

With -funwind-tables, GCC emits the ARM EHABI runtime unwind tables needed by backtrace().
GCC documents -funwind-tables as generating the needed static unwind data without otherwise changing generated code.

This PR skips the GNU backtrace unwind test only on 32-bit Arm builds that lack -funwind-tables, instead of skipping all 32-bit Arm builds.

backtrace() on 32-bit ARM EABI depends on runtime unwind tables
emitted as .ARM.exidx/.ARM.extab. Without -funwind-tables,
glibc can return an empty stack even though GDB can still unwind using
debug-only .debug_frame data.

Only skip the GNU backtrace unwind test on Arm 32-bit builds that lack
-funwind-tables, instead of skipping all Arm 32-bit builds.
@encukou

encukou commented May 7, 2026

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Member

!buildbot ARM Raspbian

@bedevere-bot

Copy link
Copy Markdown

🤖 New build scheduled with the buildbot fleet by @encukou for commit 3358e2d 🤖

Results will be shown at:

https://buildbot.python.org/all/#/grid?branch=refs%2Fpull%2F149493%2Fmerge

The command will test the builders whose names match following regular expression: ARM Raspbian

The builders matched are:

  • ARM Raspbian PR

@diegorusso

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Contributor Author

still failing...

Comment thread Lib/test/test_frame_pointer_unwind.py Outdated


def _gnu_backtrace_requires_unwind_tables(machine):
if not (sys.maxsize < 2**32 and machine.startswith("arm")):

@encukou encukou May 7, 2026

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Member

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

AFAIK it's an aarch64 machine, with a 32-bit Python build?

Suggested change
if not (sys.maxsize < 2**32 and machine.startswith("arm")):
if not (sys.maxsize < 2**32 and machine.startswith(("arm", "aarch"))):

But we're deep into overfitting to Buildbot workers here :/

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Contributor Author

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

mmm I don't think this is the right approach. We need to base the condition about the build of Python

@diegorusso

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Contributor Author

!buildbot ARM Raspbian

@bedevere-bot

Copy link
Copy Markdown

🤖 New build scheduled with the buildbot fleet by @diegorusso for commit cb52a24 🤖

Results will be shown at:

https://buildbot.python.org/all/#/grid?branch=refs%2Fpull%2F149493%2Fmerge

The command will test the builders whose names match following regular expression: ARM Raspbian

The builders matched are:

  • ARM Raspbian PR

Comment thread Lib/test/test_frame_pointer_unwind.py Outdated
Comment on lines +118 to +130
for option in options:
if option == "-funwind-tables":
unwind_tables = True
elif option == "-fno-unwind-tables":
unwind_tables = False
elif option == "-fasynchronous-unwind-tables":
asynchronous_unwind_tables = True
elif option == "-fno-asynchronous-unwind-tables":
asynchronous_unwind_tables = False
elif option == "-fexceptions":
exceptions = True
elif option == "-fno-exceptions":
exceptions = False

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Member

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

That's a lot of untested logic.
Should we skip the test for any 32-bit Arm?

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Contributor Author

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

I tend to agree with you. On Arm 32bit you can have unwind data with any of these flags: -funwind-tables, -fasynchronous-unwind-tables, -fexceptions

GNU backtrace() can return an empty stack on 32-bit Arm
when the build lacks suitable runtime unwind tables.
Rather than trying to infer the effective unwind-table
compiler flags in the test, skip the GNU backtrace tests
on all 32-bit Arm builds.
@diegorusso

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Contributor Author

!buildbot ARM Raspbian

@bedevere-bot

Copy link
Copy Markdown

🤖 New build scheduled with the buildbot fleet by @diegorusso for commit 61015e1 🤖

Results will be shown at:

https://buildbot.python.org/all/#/grid?branch=refs%2Fpull%2F149493%2Fmerge

The command will test the builders whose names match following regular expression: ARM Raspbian

The builders matched are:

  • ARM Raspbian PR

@diegorusso

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Contributor Author

!buildbot ARM Raspbian

@StanFromIreland

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Member

Updating to fix some errors we introduced on the main branch.

@diegorusso

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Contributor Author

!buildbot ARM Raspbian

@bedevere-bot

Copy link
Copy Markdown

🤖 New build scheduled with the buildbot fleet by @diegorusso for commit 42177ce 🤖

Results will be shown at:

https://buildbot.python.org/all/#/grid?branch=refs%2Fpull%2F149493%2Fmerge

The command will test the builders whose names match following regular expression: ARM Raspbian

The builders matched are:

  • ARM Raspbian PR

@diegorusso diegorusso requested a review from markshannon May 8, 2026 10:36

@markshannon markshannon left a comment

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Member

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

Looks good, and much simpler now

@diegorusso diegorusso changed the title Skip GNU backtrace test on Arm 32-bit without unwind tables Skip GNU backtrace test on Arm 32-bit May 8, 2026
@diegorusso diegorusso merged commit 2a8cece into python:main May 8, 2026
54 checks passed
@diegorusso diegorusso added the needs backport to 3.15 pre-release feature fixes, bugs and security fixes label May 8, 2026
@miss-islington-app

Copy link
Copy Markdown

Thanks @diegorusso for the PR 🌮🎉.. I'm working now to backport this PR to: 3.15.
🐍🍒⛏🤖

@bedevere-app

bedevere-app Bot commented May 8, 2026

Copy link
Copy Markdown

GH-149562 is a backport of this pull request to the 3.15 branch.

@bedevere-app bedevere-app Bot removed the needs backport to 3.15 pre-release feature fixes, bugs and security fixes label May 8, 2026
@diegorusso diegorusso deleted the backtrace-arm branch May 8, 2026 13:07
Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment

Labels

skip issue skip news tests Tests in the Lib/test dir

Projects

None yet

Development

Successfully merging this pull request may close these issues.

5 participants

Morty Proxy This is a proxified and sanitized view of the page, visit original site.