[ARROW-8684] [Python] "SystemError: Bad call flags in _PyMethodDef_RawFastCallDict" in Python 3.7.7 on macOS when using pyarrow wheel

• Type: Bug
• Status: Resolved
• Priority: Blocker
• Resolution: Fixed
• Fix Version/s: 0.17.1, 1.0.0
• Component/s: Python
• Labels: pull-request-available
• External issue URL: https://github.com/apache/arrow/issues/24842
• Assignee: Antoine Pitrou
• Reporter: Wes McKinney
• Created: 04/May/20 01:25
• Updated: 11/Jan/23 08:01
• Resolved: 13/May/20 00:16

Description

npr reported this on the 0.17.0 RC0 vote thread but I have confirmed it independently. It was also reported at

https://github.com/apache/arrow/issues/7082

Here are steps to reproduce on macOS:

conda create -yn py-3.7-defaults python=3.7 -c defaults
conda activate py-3.7-defaults
pip install pyarrow

Now open the Python interpreter, run import pyarrow, then exit the interpreter (python -c "import pyarrow" didn't trigger it for me):

$ python
Python 3.7.7 (default, Mar 26 2020, 10:32:53) 
[Clang 4.0.1 (tags/RELEASE_401/final)] :: Anaconda, Inc. on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import pyarrow
>>> 
Error in atexit._run_exitfuncs:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "pyarrow/types.pxi", line 2638, in pyarrow.lib._unregister_py_extension_types
SystemError: Bad call flags in _PyMethodDef_RawFastCallDict. METH_OLDARGS is no longer supported!
Segmentation fault: 11

It fails with Python 3.7.6 when using -c conda-forge also, so it is not particular to defaults.

Frustratingly, the problem doesn't exist in Python 3.7.4 but occurs for me with 3.7.5, 3.7.6, and 3.7.7.

Issue Links

• links to: Cython issue 3572
• links to: GitHub Pull Request #7112