Gentoo linux, trunk r73699.  test_socketserver fails with the following
tracebacks:

======================================================================
FAIL: test_ForkingTCPServer (test.test_socketserver.SocketServerTest)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/rdmurray/python/trunk/Lib/test/test_socketserver.py", line
189, in test_ForkingTCPServer
    self.stream_examine)
  File "/home/rdmurray/python/trunk/Lib/test/test_socketserver.py", line
147, in run_server
    testfunc(svrcls.address_family, addr)
  File "/home/rdmurray/python/trunk/Lib/test/test_socketserver.py", line
161, in stream_examine
    self.assertEquals(buf, TEST_STR)
AssertionError: '' != 'hello world\n'

======================================================================
FAIL: test_ForkingUnixStreamServer (test.test_socketserver.SocketServerTest)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/rdmurray/python/trunk/Lib/test/test_socketserver.py", line
207, in test_ForkingUnixStreamServer
    self.stream_examine)
  File "/home/rdmurray/python/trunk/Lib/test/test_socketserver.py", line
147, in run_server
    testfunc(svrcls.address_family, addr)
  File "/home/rdmurray/python/trunk/Lib/test/test_socketserver.py", line
161, in stream_examine
    self.assertEquals(buf, TEST_STR)
AssertionError: '' != 'hello world\n'

This is a "fork" problem.
socket.close must be done on the parent, while socket.shutdown and 
socket.close must be performed on the child.
I must restructure this a little bit to make it work.

submitted revision 73863.  Please test for me on gentoo.

I now get a different error, followed by zsh detecting an alarm:

rdmurray@partner:~/python/trunk>./python -m test.regrtest -uall
test_socketserver
Could not find '/home/rdmurray/python/trunk/Lib/test' in sys.path to
remove it
test_socketserver
Exception in thread SocketServer.ForkingUDPServer serving:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/rdmurray/python/trunk/Lib/threading.py", line 524, in
__bootstrap_inner
    self.run()
  File "/home/rdmurray/python/trunk/Lib/threading.py", line 477, in run
    self.__target(*self.__args, **self.__kwargs)
  File "/home/rdmurray/python/trunk/Lib/SocketServer.py", line 226, in
serve_forever
    self._handle_request_noblock()
  File "/home/rdmurray/python/trunk/Lib/SocketServer.py", line 283, in
_handle_request_noblock
    self.handle_error(request, client_address)
  File "/home/rdmurray/python/trunk/Lib/SocketServer.py", line 281, in
_handle_request_noblock
    self.process_request(request, client_address)
  File "/home/rdmurray/python/trunk/Lib/SocketServer.py", line 535, in
process_request
    request.close() #close socket handle in parent process
AttributeError: 'tuple' object has no attribute 'close'

zsh: alarm      ./python -m test.regrtest -uall test_socketserver

How unfortunate.  This means that we need to virtualize the shutdown. I'll 
submit a proposed patch.

I'm uploading a patched SocketServer.py.  Could you please try it out on 
the gentoo box before I commit it?

I had to fix one line, but after that it runs successfully.  Updated
patch attached.  The change is to add the 'request' argument to the
close_request call on line 549.

committed in revision 73877 and revision 73878