test_set_reprs in test_pprint creates a complex arrangement of frozensets and tests the pretty-printed repr against a string hard-coded in the test.  The hard-coded repr depends on the sort order of frozensets.  

However, "Since sets only define partial ordering (subset relationships), the output of the list.sort() method is undefined for lists of sets." (quoting http://docs.python.org/release/3.1/library/stdtypes.html#set-types-set-frozenset)

In a nutshell, the test assumes frozenset({0}) will always sort before frozenset({1}), but:

>>> frozenset({0}) < frozenset({1})
False
>>> frozenset({1}) < frozenset({0})
False

Consequently, this test is fragile.  Small changes to Python's sort algorithm cause the test to fail when it should pass.

I ran into this while playing with optimizations to the sort function, but I imagine other Python implementations will also run into trouble with this test.

I agree that this looks a bit suspicious.

Adding Raymond to the nosy list, since it looks like this is his code (r60264).

Yes, it's a fragile and crummy test.
Feel free to delete it.

After discussion on #python-dev, have decided to mark the test as implementation specific and add a comment about why the test is fragile.

How do we mark a test as implementation specific?  Is there a decorator for that?

Nevermind, I found it: @support.cpython_only

I'll work on a patch to add the decorator and a comment about why the test is fragile.

errr... ignore that first patch (now deleted)

:-)

Committed in r84961