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Author serhiy.storchaka
Recipients docs@python, loewis, serhiy.storchaka
Date 2016-05-08.18:24:38
SpamBayes Score -1.0
Marked as misclassified Yes
Message-id <1462731878.82.0.9073654009.issue26979@psf.upfronthosting.co.za>
In-reply-to
Content
There is a catch when convert static types to dynamic types using PyType_FromSpec(). tp_new is not inherited for static types whose base class is 'object' (see a comment in inherit_special() in Objects/typeobject.c:4569 for explanation). Such types left not callable and not pickleable unless tp_new is explicitly specified. But since PyType_FromSpec() creates heap types, tp_new is inherited from the base 'object' class. Converted types unexpectedly becomes callable and pickleable. Since object.__new__ wouldn't insure the invariants that the extension type's own factory function ensures, instantiated object can be in inconsistent state. Using it can lead to a crash. We already fallen two time in this catch with _tkinter (issue15721) and curses.panel (issue14936) modules (fixed in issue23815).

We should document this catch and a way to avoid it (explicitly set tp_new to NULL for the result of PyType_FromSpec()). Both the C API documentation and PEP 384 should be updated. Would be great if standard examples include a case of non-callable heap type.

As option we can introduce more handy way to set tp_new to NULL by adding {Py_tp_new, NULL} to slots array (currently this doesn't have any effect). But this is new feature.
History
Date User Action Args
2016-05-08 18:24:38serhiy.storchakasetrecipients: + serhiy.storchaka, loewis, docs@python
2016-05-08 18:24:38serhiy.storchakasetmessageid: <1462731878.82.0.9073654009.issue26979@psf.upfronthosting.co.za>
2016-05-08 18:24:38serhiy.storchakalinkissue26979 messages
2016-05-08 18:24:38serhiy.storchakacreate