From 72f29dc704812aa846b10323a31743d6df37cc2c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: =?UTF-8?q?Maurycy=20Paw=C5=82owski-Wiero=C5=84ski?=
 <maurycy@maurycy.com>
Date: Mon, 4 May 2026 15:45:31 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] gh-147998: Fix possible memory leak in _pop_preserved
 (crossinterp.c) (GH-147999)

---
 .../2026-04-02-13-25-09.gh-issue-147998.wnzkRT.rst             | 3 +++
 Python/crossinterp.c                                           | 2 +-
 2 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
 create mode 100644 Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2026-04-02-13-25-09.gh-issue-147998.wnzkRT.rst

diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2026-04-02-13-25-09.gh-issue-147998.wnzkRT.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2026-04-02-13-25-09.gh-issue-147998.wnzkRT.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e83d9929eae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2026-04-02-13-25-09.gh-issue-147998.wnzkRT.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+Fixed a memory leak in interpreter helper calls so cleanup works when an
+operation falls across interpreter boundaries. Patch by Maurycy
+Pawłowski-Wieroński.
diff --git a/Python/crossinterp.c b/Python/crossinterp.c
index 4cd4b32ef90..6b489bf03f8 100644
--- a/Python/crossinterp.c
+++ b/Python/crossinterp.c
@@ -3006,7 +3006,7 @@ _pop_preserved(_PyXI_session *session,
         *p_xidata = NULL;
     }
     else {
-        _PyXI_namespace *xidata = _create_sharedns(session->_preserved);
+        xidata = _create_sharedns(session->_preserved);
         if (xidata == NULL) {
             failure.code = _PyXI_ERR_PRESERVE_FAILURE;
             goto error;