[Zope-xml] Help test ParsedXML on Zope 2.5

[Martijn Faassen]

Hi there,

Since the first Zope 2.5 betas have been coming out I've been testing 
ParsedXML with it. Unfortunately on the platforms I've tested it on
I've seen some bad crashing behavior. Since they don't see this
behavior at Zope corporation, I'd like to get some other people to test
this, so we can track down the problem.

Your help will be greatly appreciated!

What you need to do:

* be on a unix box, or be on windows with a compiler, as you still need to 
  compile ParsedXML's Expat extension

* download and install the latest Zope 2.5 beta, currently:

http://www.zope.org/Products/Zope/2.5.0b4/

* download and install a ParsedXML tarball from CVS

http://cvs.zope.org/Products/ParsedXML/ParsedXML.tar.gz?tarball=1

* compile the Expat extension. With the Python you use for Zope,
  in the Products/ParsedXML/Expat directory, do:

  python setup.py

* now load a largish XML document into a ParsedXML document in this Zope.
  I myself have been using timon.xml, which can be found here:

  http://collector.zope.org/Zope/83/timon.xml

* now go to the DOM tree view, and try to open nodes in the tree
  (and subnodes, etc). 

If Zope crashes during the latter step, please mail to this list to
let us know. Any symptoms and speculations are of course welcome. :)

What I know:

I've tested this on two Debian Unstable linux machines as well as Red Hat 7.x 
box, with various beta versions of Zope 2.5, and various versions of
Python 2.1 (hand-compiled, with Debian, with Zope binary version, 
latest CVS (now 2.1.2), etc). In all these circumstances, I've seen
the following behavior:

  * crashes occur straight away; I open a single node and then do anything
    else in Zope, and Zope crashes (I see a Zope restart)

  * once I set ZOPE_SECURITY_POLICY to PYTHON
    ("export ZOPE_SECURITY_POLICY=PYTHON" in my shell) the crashes 
    disappear.

  * the crashes don't occur when the DOM is accessed without Zope security
    policy anyway (just Python, such as from an external method or Python
    product)

This seems to hint at a problem with the new cAccessControl in Zope 2.5,
as during the DOM tree access only exercises Python code (not even the
Expat parser in ParsedXML).

Unfortunately I can't get the ZC guys to replicate my results; it works
for them (platform is still forthcoming). So I'm asking for your help in
replicating these crashes (or alternatively so you can point out to
me what I'm doing wrong..) and in finding out more information.
It could after all point at a serious crashbug in Zope 2.5, and of course
I'd just like ParsedXML to work with it!

Please help!

Regards,

Martijn