A function that can catch infinite recursion in python?

Question

I would've thought a question like this should be answered but it seems I can't find any of the solution in google.

So anyawy. Can anyone give me or link me a builtin function where it will check whether the function is infinite recursing?

A function that looks like this will be awesome

def Check(InputFunction):
    if InputFunction is infinite recursing 
       print("blablla")/throw exception
    else
       run inputFunction

Is there something like that in python?

Answer 1

Such a program does not exist. Not in Python, nor in any programming language.

What you're asking for is something called the "Halting Problem":

In computability theory, the halting problem is the problem of determining, from a description of an arbitrary computer program and an input, whether the program will finish running or continue to run forever.

REFERENCE:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halting_problem

Answer 2

This is equivalent to asking if we can solve the halting problem. This cannot be done. One way to check for a large number of recursive calls is to use a safety counter. This is a global numerical value that is incremented for each recursive call. If the counter reaches some extremely large value, you can throw an error and cause the recursion to stop.

Answer 3

The argument why this doesn’t work is this: you have your input_function is infinite recursing construct. Now I write this function:

def paradox():
    if paradox is infinite recursing:
        return True
    else:
        return paradox()

What do you expect the result of print paradox is infinite repeating to be?