Just to see this test running to completion, I applied the following (ugly) patch:

--- Lib/test/test_socket.py.orig    2012-04-09 17:07:32.000000000 -0600
+++ Lib/test/test_socket.py     2013-02-03 06:56:11.778118985 -0700
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 import array
 import contextlib
 from weakref import proxy
-import signal
+#import signal
 import math
 
 def try_address(host, port=0, family=socket.AF_INET):
@@ -33,6 +33,12 @@
 MSG = b'Michael Gilfix was here\n'
 SUPPORTS_IPV6 = socket.has_ipv6 and try_address('::1', family=socket.AF_INET6)
 
+signal = "not a signal"
+
 try:
     import thread


With it, the test case completed as follows, which at least confirmed that the only broken part is sendall_interrupted. I'll live with it for now, but I'll be happy to work with the maintainer of these tests to understand what are they trying to accomplish, how to make them fail more gracefully (I tried installing a signal handler without success), and how to tell what to do to users of systems affected by the issue.


./python Lib/test/regrtest.py -v test_socket
== CPython 2.7.3 (default, Feb 2 2013, 11:27:13) [GCC 4.7.2]
==   Linux-2.6.32-220.13.1.el6.x86_64-x86_64-with-redhat-6.2-Santiago little-endian
==   /glade/scratch/ddvento/build/Python-2.7.3-westmere-gdb-without-tipc/build/test_python_16005
Testing with flags: sys.flags(debug=0, py3k_warning=0, division_warning=0, division_new=0, inspect=0, interactive=0, optimize=0, dont_write_bytecode=0, no_user_site=0, no_site=0, ignore_environment=0, tabcheck=0, verbose=0, unicode=0, bytes_warning=0, hash_randomization=0)
test_socket
testCrucialConstants (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... ok
testDefaultTimeout (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... ok
testGetServBy (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... ok
testGetSockOpt (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... ok
testGetaddrinfo (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... ok
testHostnameRes (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... ok
testIPv4_inet_aton_fourbytes (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... ok
testIPv4toString (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... ok
testIPv6toString (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... ok
testInterpreterCrash (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... ok
testListenBacklog0 (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... ok
testNewAttributes (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... ok
testNtoH (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... ok
testNtoHErrors (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... ok
testRefCountGetNameInfo (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... ok
testSendAfterClose (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... ok
testSendtoErrors (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... ok
testSetSockOpt (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... ok
testSockName (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... ok
testSocketError (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... ok
testStringToIPv4 (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... ok
testStringToIPv6 (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... ok
test_flowinfo (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... ok
test_getsockaddrarg (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... ok
test_sendall_interrupted (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... skipped 'signal.alarm and socket.socketpair required for this test'
test_sendall_interrupted_with_timeout (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... skipped 'signal.alarm and socket.socketpair required for this test'
test_sock_ioctl (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... skipped 'Windows specific'
test_weakref (test.test_socket.GeneralModuleTests) ... ok
testDup (test.test_socket.BasicTCPTest) ... ok
testFromFd (test.test_socket.BasicTCPTest) ... ok
testOverFlowRecv (test.test_socket.BasicTCPTest) ... ok
testOverFlowRecvFrom (test.test_socket.BasicTCPTest) ... ok
testRecv (test.test_socket.BasicTCPTest) ... ok
testRecvFrom (test.test_socket.BasicTCPTest) ... ok
testSendAll (test.test_socket.BasicTCPTest) ... ok
testShutdown (test.test_socket.BasicTCPTest) ... ok
testClose (test.test_socket.TCPCloserTest) ... ok
testInterruptedTimeout (test.test_socket.TCPTimeoutTest) ... ok
testTCPTimeout (test.test_socket.TCPTimeoutTest) ... ok
testTimeoutZero (test.test_socket.TCPTimeoutTest) ... ok
testExceptionTree (test.test_socket.TestExceptions) ... ok
testRecvFromIntoArray (test.test_socket.BufferIOTest) ... ok
testRecvFromIntoBytearray (test.test_socket.BufferIOTest) ... ok
testRecvFromIntoMemoryview (test.test_socket.BufferIOTest) ... ok
testRecvIntoArray (test.test_socket.BufferIOTest) ... ok
testRecvIntoBytearray (test.test_socket.BufferIOTest) ... ok
testRecvIntoMemoryview (test.test_socket.BufferIOTest) ... ok
testDup (test.test_socket.BasicTCPTest2) ... ok
testFromFd (test.test_socket.BasicTCPTest2) ... ok
testOverFlowRecv (test.test_socket.BasicTCPTest2) ... ok
testOverFlowRecvFrom (test.test_socket.BasicTCPTest2) ... ok
testRecv (test.test_socket.BasicTCPTest2) ... ok
testRecvFrom (test.test_socket.BasicTCPTest2) ... ok
testSendAll (test.test_socket.BasicTCPTest2) ... ok
testShutdown (test.test_socket.BasicTCPTest2) ... ok
testRecvFrom (test.test_socket.BasicUDPTest) ... ok
testRecvFromNegative (test.test_socket.BasicUDPTest) ... ok
testSendtoAndRecv (test.test_socket.BasicUDPTest) ... ok
testTimeoutZero (test.test_socket.UDPTimeoutTest) ... ok
testUDPTimeout (test.test_socket.UDPTimeoutTest) ... ok
testAccept (test.test_socket.NonBlockingTCPTests) ... ok
testConnect (test.test_socket.NonBlockingTCPTests) ... ok
testRecv (test.test_socket.NonBlockingTCPTests) ... ok
testSetBlocking (test.test_socket.NonBlockingTCPTests) ... ok
testClosedAttr (test.test_socket.FileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testFullRead (test.test_socket.FileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testReadline (test.test_socket.FileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testReadlineAfterRead (test.test_socket.FileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testReadlineAfterReadNoNewline (test.test_socket.FileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testSmallRead (test.test_socket.FileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testUnbufferedRead (test.test_socket.FileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
test_default (test.test_socket.FileObjectInterruptedTestCase) ... ok
test_no_buffer (test.test_socket.FileObjectInterruptedTestCase) ... ok
test_with_1k_buffer (test.test_socket.FileObjectInterruptedTestCase) ... ok
testClosedAttr (test.test_socket.UnbufferedFileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testFullRead (test.test_socket.UnbufferedFileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testReadline (test.test_socket.UnbufferedFileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testReadlineAfterRead (test.test_socket.UnbufferedFileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testReadlineAfterReadNoNewline (test.test_socket.UnbufferedFileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testSmallRead (test.test_socket.UnbufferedFileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testUnbufferedRead (test.test_socket.UnbufferedFileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testUnbufferedReadline (test.test_socket.UnbufferedFileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testClosedAttr (test.test_socket.LineBufferedFileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testFullRead (test.test_socket.LineBufferedFileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testReadline (test.test_socket.LineBufferedFileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testReadlineAfterRead (test.test_socket.LineBufferedFileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testReadlineAfterReadNoNewline (test.test_socket.LineBufferedFileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testSmallRead (test.test_socket.LineBufferedFileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testUnbufferedRead (test.test_socket.LineBufferedFileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testClosedAttr (test.test_socket.SmallBufferedFileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testFullRead (test.test_socket.SmallBufferedFileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testReadline (test.test_socket.SmallBufferedFileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testReadlineAfterRead (test.test_socket.SmallBufferedFileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testReadlineAfterReadNoNewline (test.test_socket.SmallBufferedFileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testSmallRead (test.test_socket.SmallBufferedFileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testUnbufferedRead (test.test_socket.SmallBufferedFileObjectClassTestCase) ... ok
testClose (test.test_socket.Urllib2FileobjectTest) ... ok
test_connect (test.test_socket.NetworkConnectionNoServer) ... ok
test_create_connection (test.test_socket.NetworkConnectionNoServer) ... ok
test_create_connection_timeout (test.test_socket.NetworkConnectionNoServer) ... ok
testFamily (test.test_socket.NetworkConnectionAttributesTest) ... ok
testSourceAddress (test.test_socket.NetworkConnectionAttributesTest) ... ok
testTimeoutDefault (test.test_socket.NetworkConnectionAttributesTest) ... ok
testTimeoutNone (test.test_socket.NetworkConnectionAttributesTest) ... ok
testTimeoutValueNamed (test.test_socket.NetworkConnectionAttributesTest) ... ok
testTimeoutValueNonamed (test.test_socket.NetworkConnectionAttributesTest) ... ok
testInsideTimeout (test.test_socket.NetworkConnectionBehaviourTest) ... ok
testOutsideTimeout (test.test_socket.NetworkConnectionBehaviourTest) ... ok
testRecv (test.test_socket.BasicSocketPairTest) ... ok
testSend (test.test_socket.BasicSocketPairTest) ... ok
testLinuxAbstractNamespace (test.test_socket.TestLinuxAbstractNamespace) ... ok
testMaxName (test.test_socket.TestLinuxAbstractNamespace) ... ok
testNameOverflow (test.test_socket.TestLinuxAbstractNamespace) ... ok

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 113 tests in 9.957s

OK (skipped=3)
1 test OK.