Python segmentation fault on Thread switch
<p>I'm developing an application that should check if the computer is able to ping google.com. To do that I use python subprocess module and issue a call as shown in the code below:</p>

<pre><code>response = subprocess.call("ping -c 1 google.com -q", shell=True) 
</code></pre>

<p>However, after running for some time, the program exits with a segmentation fault.</p>

<p>I Have the following code:</p>

<p><strong>daemon.py</strong></p>

<pre><code>def dataset_save(smartphone, mote):
print("DATA LOGGER:\tStarting Now")
with open('dataset.csv', 'a+') as dataset:
    dataset.write(str(datetime.datetime.today()) + ',' + \
            str(datetime.datetime.today().weekday()) + ',' + \
            str(smartphone.connected) + ',' + \
            str(mote.A0_pw) + ',' + \
            str(mote.B00_pw) + ',' + \
            str(mote.B01_pw) + ',' + \
            str(mote.B10_pw) + ',' + \
            str(mote.B11_pw) + ',' + \
            str(presence.get_value()) + ',' + \
            str(temperature.get_value()) + ',' + \
            str(luminosity.get_value()) + '\n')
    print("DATA LOGGER: \tData successfully logged @ %s!" %str(datetime.datetime.today()))
return


def run():
    check_internet()
    while True:
        dataset_save(smartphone, gateway)
        check_presence()
</code></pre>

<p><strong>check_internet.py</strong></p>

<pre><code>def check_internet():
response = subprocess.call("ping -c 1 google.com -q", shell=True)
print(response)
if response == 0:
    print ("CONNECTIVITY: \tConnected to internet")
    threading.Timer(1, check_internet).start()
    return

else: 
    print("CONNECTIVITY: \tUnable to connect to internet")
    threading.Timer(1, check_internet).start()
    return
</code></pre>

<p>Running this on GDB I get the following trace upon the segmentation fault:</p>

<pre><code>--- google.com ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 1 received, 0% packet loss, time 0ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 146.626/146.626/146.626/0.000 ms
0
CONNECTIVITY:   Connected to internet
[New Thread 0xb55ffb40 (LWP 4064)]

Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
[Switching to Thread 0xb65ffb40 (LWP 4043)]
PING google.com (216.58.222.110) 56(84) bytes of data.
__deallocate_stack (pd=0xb65ffb40) at allocatestack.c:760
760 allocatestack.c: No such file or directory.
(gdb) 
--- google.com ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 1 received, 0% packet loss, time 0ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 146.504/146.504/146.504/0.000 ms

(gdb) bt
#0  __deallocate_stack (pd=0xb65ffb40) at allocatestack.c:760
#1  0xb7fc3eab in start_thread (arg=0xb65ffb40) at pthread_create.c:427
#2  0xb7e8164e in clone () at ../sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/i386/clone.S:129
(gdb) 
</code></pre>

<p>Is there any reason why I should not use threding.Timer like I'm using? It seems to me that the successive creation of threads is responsible for this segmentation fault.</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>You're rearming the timer from within the timer itself, which may not be too good (recursive call with threads, argh). You don't really need <code>Timer</code> if you're not too demanding about ping delay accuracy: you could start a thread that loops and pings google periodically like this:</p>

<pre><code>import threading,subprocess,time

def check_internet():
    while True:
        time.sleep(1)
        response = subprocess.call("ping -n 1 google.com".split())
        print(response)
        if response == 0:
            print("CONNECTIVITY: \tConnected to internet")
        else:
            print("CONNECTIVITY: \tUnable to connect to internet")

t=threading.Thread(target=check_internet)
t.start()

print("Started")
t.join()
</code></pre>

<p>you only create 1 thread, which creates 1 ping process every 1+ seconds (it's not a regulated timer, but it should be enough).</p>

<p>EDIT: version without <code>ping</code> output:</p>

<pre><code>import threading,subprocess,time

def check_internet():
    while True:
        time.sleep(1)
        p = subprocess.Popen("ping -n 1 google.com".split(),stdout=subprocess.PIPE,stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
        out,err = p.communicate()
        response = p.wait()
        if response == 0:
            print("CONNECTIVITY: \tConnected to internet")
        else:
            print("CONNECTIVITY: \tUnable to connect to internet")

t=threading.Thread(target=check_internet)
t.start()

print("Started")
t.join()
</code></pre>

python multithreading segmentation-fault