Running multiple tests that call python-casacore 3.4.0 throws a "Fatal Python error: Aborted" error on GitLab runner 13.7.0, with python3.7

[gabicca]

This is a long-shot but maybe someone else also encountered this problem.

When running tests on a python3.7 linux container built via GitLab runner 13.7.0, the following error is produced:

============================= test session starts ==============================
platform linux -- Python 3.7.10, pytest-6.2.2, py-1.10.0, pluggy-0.13.1
rootdir: ..., configfile: pytest.ini
plugins: metadata-1.11.0, forked-1.3.0, xdist-2.2.1, pylint-0.17.0, json-report-1.2.4, cov-2.11.1
collected 9 items
tests/test1 .....                              [ 55%]
tests/test2 F                                       [ 66%]
tests/test3 Fatal Python error: Aborted
Thread 0x00007fb580ff9700 (most recent call first):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/threading.py", line 300 in wait
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/queue.py", line 179 in get
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/distributed/threadpoolexecutor.py", line 51 in _worker
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/threading.py", line 870 in run
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/threading.py", line 926 in _bootstrap_inner
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/threading.py", line 890 in _bootstrap
Thread 0x00007fb5817fa700 (most recent call first):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/multiprocessing/popen_fork.py", line 28 in poll
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/multiprocessing/popen_fork.py", line 48 in wait
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/multiprocessing/process.py", line 140 in join
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/distributed/process.py", line 233 in _watch_process
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/threading.py", line 870 in run
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/threading.py", line 926 in _bootstrap_inner
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/threading.py", line 890 in _bootstrap
.....
File "/usr/local/bin/py.test", line 8 in <module>
/bin/bash: line 159:   501 Aborted   

This is the python-casacore installation:

Collecting python-casacore==3.4.0
  Downloading python_casacore-3.4.0-cp37-cp37m-manylinux2014_x86_64.whl

When I install python-casacore 3.3.1, the error doesn't occur. So that's why I thought that the problem is either comming from here or casacore itself.

I'm also wondering if it's a runner problem or underlying machine incompatibility because when I run it in the same python:3.7 docker container on my MacOS, the tests pass.

Finally, when the tests run individually, they don't fail, at lest what I call "test2" in the output, runs fine on its own, but fails when run together with all the other tests. Again, this doesn't happen when python-casacore 3.3.1 is installed.

Any input on this would be useful. I haven't managed to find the rootcause of thigns..