[Debichem-devel] Bug#1107330: Bug#1107330: openbabel: autopkgtest uses incredible amount of memory on s390x

[Michael Banck]

Hi,

On Mon, Jul 28, 2025 at 02:52:15PM +0000, Pranav P via Debichem-devel wrote:
> I was currently looking into this package.
> In line no. 166 of getinchi.cpp there is a while loop that goes like the following:
> 
> while((ch=is.get())!=EOF)
> 
> Here ch is of type char. Whether char is signed or unsigned depends on
> the implementation.  Looks like in s390x char is of unsigned nature
> and the value of EOF is -1. Hence the condition always evaluates to
> true (255 != -1) causing the control to be trapped inside the loop
> resulting in the memory hog.  Changing the variable's declaration to
> unsigned char seems to fix the memory consumption issue.  But I am
> still seeing the autopkgtest as failed due to some other reason.

Good catch - but I am quite surprised it now hit so hard - according to
git blame, that line (and anything around it) hasn't been changed for 18
years, and I guess the autopkgtest have been in place for a while as
well?


Michael