[Python-Dev] survey of extension module memory managment (original) (raw)

Martin v. Loewis martin@v.loewis.de
19 Mar 2002 08:11:54 +0100

Neil Schemenauer <nas@python.ca> writes:

I randomly grabbed a bunch of extension modules by searching the python.org topic guides and by using Parnassus. I looked at 20 different packages. 12 of them implemented an extension type. 12 of them use the memory management API incorrectly and will break if pymalloc is enabled. That's worse than I thought.

It's actually better than you thought. Using PyObject_NEW is the 1.5.2 way to spell "allocate and initialize object"; it is the rename2.h name for NEWOBJ.

Your review shows that using PyObject_New and PyObject_Del is not common, I'd now question that there actually is real-world code that uses them incorrectly. So here is my theory:

If PyObject_NEW becomes malloc, and PyObject_New becomes pymalloc, nothing would break.

Regards, Martin