python-peps/pep-3123.txt

PEP: 3123
Title: Making PyObject_HEAD conform to standard C
Version: $Revision$
Last-Modified: $Date$
Author: Martin v. Löwis <martin@v.loewis.de>
Status: Draft
Type: Standards Track
Content-Type: text/x-rst
Created: 27-Apr-2007
Python-Version: 3.0
Post-History:

Abstract
========

Python currently relies on undefined C behavior, with its
usage of PyObject_HEAD. This PEP proposes to change that
into standard C.

Rationale
=========

Standard C defines that an object must be accessed only through a
pointer of its type, and that all other accesses are undefined
behavior, with a few exceptions. In particular, the following
code has undefined behavior::

  struct FooObject{
    PyObject_HEAD
    int data;
  };

  PyObject *foo(struct FooObject*f){
   return (PyObject*)f;
  }

  int bar(){
   struct FooObject *f = malloc(sizeof(struct FooObject));
   struct PyObject *o = foo(f);
   f->ob_refcnt = 0;
   o->ob_refcnt = 1;
   return f->ob_refcnt;
  }

The problem here is that the storage is both accessed as
if it where struct PyObject, and as struct FooObject.

Historically, compilers did not cause any problems with this
code. However, modern compiler use that clause as an 
optimization opportunity, finding that f->ob_refcnt and
o->ob_refcnt cannot possibly refer to the same memory, and
that therefore the function should return 0, without having
to fetch the value of ob_refcnt at all in the return
statement. For GCC, Python now uses -fno-strict-aliasing
to work around that problem; with other compilers, it
may just see undefined behavior. Even with GCC, using
-fno-strict-aliasing may pessimize the generated code
unnecessarily.

Specification
=============

Standard C has one specific exception to its aliasing rules precisely
designed to support the case of Python: a value of a struct type may
also be accessed through a pointer to the first field. E.g. if a
struct starts with an int, the struct\* may also be cast to an int\*,
allowing to write int values into the first field.

For Python, PyObject_HEAD and PyObject_VAR_HEAD will be changed
to not list all fields anymore, but list a single field of type
PyObject/PyVarObject::

  typedef struct _object{
    _PyObject_HEAD_EXTRA
    Py_ssize_t ob_refcnt;
    struct _typeobject *ob_type;
  }PyObject;

  typedef struct {
    PyObject ob_base;
    Py_ssize_t ob_size;
  } PyVarObject;

  #define PyObject_HEAD        PyObject ob_base;
  #define PyObject_VAR_HEAD    PyVarObject ob_base;

Types defined as fixed-size structure will then include PyObject
as its first field; variable-sized objects PyVarObject. E.g.::

  typedef struct{
    PyObject ob_base;
    PyObject *start, *stop, *step;
  } PySliceObject;

  typedef struct{
    PyVarObject ob_base;
    PyObject **ob_item;
    Py_ssize_t allocated;
  } PyListObject;

The above definitions of PyObject_HEAD is normative, so extension
authors MAY either use the macro, or put the ob_base field explicitly
into their structs.

As a convention, the base field SHOULD be called ob_base. However, all
accesses to ob_refcnt and ob_type MUST cast the object pointer to
PyObject* (unless the pointer is already known to have that type), and
SHOULD use the respective accessor macros. To simplify access to
ob_type, a macro::

  #define Py_Type(o) (((PyObject*)o)->ob_type)

is added.

Compatibility with Python 2.6
=============================

To support modules that compile with both Python 2.6 and Python 3.0,
the Py_Type macro is added to Python 2.6. The macros Py_INCREF
and Py_DECREF will be changed to cast their argument to PyObject\*,
so that module authors can also explicitly declare the ob_base
field in modules designed for Python 2.6. 

Copyright
=========

This document has been placed in the public domain.



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