The

        list(xrange(sys.maxint / 4))
test.  Changed 4 to 2.

The belief is that this test intended to trigger a bit of code in
listobject.c's NRESIZE macro that's looking for arithmetic overflow.  As
written, it doesn't achieve that, though, and leaves it up to the platform
realloc() as to whether it wants to allocate 2 gigabytes.  Some platforms
say "sure!", although they don't appear to mean it, and disaster ensues.

Changing 4 to 2 (just barely) manages to trigger the arithmetic overflow
test instead, leaving the platform realloc() out of it.

diff --git a/Lib/test/test_b1.py b/Lib/test/test_b1.py
index a3c886fdaff30bd68b5863956d3cf692e64be8f0..15c93e577bdee8e4f50c2854bf6a5724932cb267 100644 (file)
--- a/Lib/test/test_b1.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_b1.py
@@ -515,7 +515,7 @@ if sys.maxint == 0x7fffffff:
         # thread for the details:
 
         #     http://sources.redhat.com/ml/newlib/2002/msg00369.html
-        list(xrange(sys.maxint / 4))
+        list(xrange(sys.maxint // 2))
     except MemoryError:
         pass
     else: