Merge 23c1-branch back into the head. Barry will send email about the

New Plan (releases to be made off the head, ongoing random 2.4 stuff
to be done on a short-lived branch, provided anyone is motivated enough
to create one).

Misc/NEWS

@@ -4,6 +4,40 @@ Python News
 
 (editors: check NEWS.help for information about editing NEWS using ReST.)
 
+What's New in Python 2.3 release candidate 2?
+=============================================
+
+*Release date: DD-MMM-YYYY*
+
+Core and builtins
+-----------------
+
+Extension modules
+-----------------
+
+- A longstanding bug in the parser module's initialization could cause
+  fatal internal refcount confusion when the module got initialized more
+  than once.  This has been fixed.
+
+Library
+-------
+
+Tools/Demos
+-----------
+
+Build
+-----
+
+C API
+-----
+
+Windows
+-------
+
+Mac
+---
+
+
 What's New in Python 2.3 release candidate 1?
 =============================================
 

Modules/parsermodule.c

@@ -2904,11 +2904,19 @@ initparser(void)
     if (parser_error == 0)
         parser_error = PyErr_NewException("parser.ParserError", NULL, NULL);
 
-    if ((parser_error == 0)
-        || (PyModule_AddObject(module, "ParserError", parser_error) != 0)) {
+    if (parser_error == 0)
         /* caller will check PyErr_Occurred() */
         return;
-    }
+    /* CAUTION:  The code next used to skip bumping the refcount on
+     * parser_error.  That's a disaster if initparser() gets called more
+     * than once.  By incref'ing, we ensure that each module dict that
+     * gets created owns its reference to the shared parser_error object,
+     * and the file static parser_error vrbl owns a reference too.
+     */
+    Py_INCREF(parser_error);
+    if (PyModule_AddObject(module, "ParserError", parser_error) != 0)
+        return;
+
     Py_INCREF(&PyST_Type);
     PyModule_AddObject(module, "ASTType", (PyObject*)&PyST_Type);
     Py_INCREF(&PyST_Type);