sys.setrecursionlimit no longer affecting pickle.dump
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Description
Bug report
Bug description:
This is a follow up of https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/112282 (updating doc).
It's also a different case of https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/128544 (import chains impacted).
In particular, on top of the doc no longer being correct for sys.setrecursionlimit, the regression needs to be fixed.
Note: this works in python 3.11 or below.
import pickle
import sys
nested_object = current = {}
for i in range(10000):
current['nested'] = {}
current = current['nested']
sys.setrecursionlimit(3750000)
x = pickle.dumps(nested_object)
Result of the run:
▶▶ python3.11 test-issue.py
# runs ok
▶▶ python3.12 test-issue.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "~/test-issue.py", line 10, in <module>
x = pickle.dumps(nested_object)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
RecursionError: maximum recursion depth exceeded while pickling an object
Impact: all programs trying to pickle data that is too nested cannot be ported to python 3.12 or 3.13 so far
CPython versions tested on:
3.12, 3.13
Operating systems tested on:
Linux, macOS, Windows
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Run the provided nested-dictionary reproducer under Python 3.11 and 3.12, then trace how pickle.dumps handles recursion after sys.setrecursionlimit is raised. The fix is complete when the example succeeds on the affected versions without the RecursionError, while preserving the documented recursion-limit behavior.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- python
- Domain
- backend
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Clearly specified
- Newbie friendliness
- 45/100