Issue 32241: Add the const qualifier for char and wchar_t pointers to unmodifiable strings (original) (raw)

Py_SetProgramName() and Py_SetPythonHome() take a pointer to a string that shouldn't be changed for the duration of the program's execution. But the type of their arguments is "wchar_t *", therefore passing just a pointer to a constant static string will cause a compiler warning. The proposed PR changes the type to "const wchar_t *". This is backward compatible change.

The PR also adds the const qualifier to internal pointers that point on to unmodifiable strings. This could help to distinguish them from pointers on modifiable strings and can prevent unintentional modifications.