Bugzilla Bug 177866

Python 2.4.4-r2 introduces the "threads" use fly which appears to be off by
default on my system.  When python is merged with -threads some third party
python extensions have problems, in particular pygobject:

----
Python 2.4.4 (#1, May  9 2007, 16:43:56) 
[GCC 4.1.2 (Gentoo 4.1.2)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import gobject
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/gtk-2.0/gobject/__init__.py", line 30,
in ?
    from _gobject import *
ImportError: /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/gtk-2.0/gobject/_gobject.so:
undefined symbol: PyGILState_Ensure
----

Re-emerging pygobject makes no difference.  However downgrading python or
re-emerging it with the "threads" USE flag fixes the issue.

I'm not sure what a resolution would be.  You'd think perhaps requiring the
threads use flag in python for those extensions that need it, but I have a
feeling that's going to be a lot of extensions (maybe not).

*** Bug 177867 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 177871 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

as discussed in #-dev with kloeri the other night, python[threads] as default
is pretty much required; there isn't any reason to disable it by default.

@kloeri: whats up with nothreads?  Seemed to be the resolution after
discussion, but yet to see any commits either masking the python versions
involved or fixing it.

*** Bug 177899 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

The same gentoolkit needs the module,even after reemerging it after python
update without thread flag the result is bad, this flag is a critical issue,
please remove:

#equery w gimp
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/equery", line 25, in ?
    import gentoolkit
  File "/usr/lib/gentoolkit/pym/gentoolkit/__init__.py", line 25, in ?
    from threading import Lock
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/threading.py", line 6, in ?
    import thread
ImportError: No module named thread

Revbumped affected versions and changed USE=threads to USE=nothreads.

*** Bug 177910 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

On that note, please stick something like "DON'T USE THIS UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT
YOU'RE DOING" to the flag description (shameless copy from nocxx). People
should really not be given a false impression that python w/ nothreads will be
supported by anyone.

*** Bug 123318 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 178035 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 178783 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

This issue still seems to be present in dev-lang/python-2.5.2-r2 (i.e. that a
"threads" USE flag exists which is disabled by default). Should this bug be
reopened, or a new one created?

Bug regressed in dev-lang/python-2.4.4-r13 pygobject (possibly others) fail if
threads flag is not enabled. Output is identical to the original reporter. Bug
should be reopened.

*** Bug 244274 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 244272 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 244276 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 274496 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***