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23c5f93b83
Add "borrowed reference" and "strong reference" to the documentation glossary. Enhance also Py_INCREF() and Py_NewRef() documentation.
121 lines
4 KiB
ReStructuredText
121 lines
4 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. highlight:: c
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.. _countingrefs:
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******************
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Reference Counting
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******************
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The macros in this section are used for managing reference counts of Python
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objects.
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.. c:function:: void Py_INCREF(PyObject *o)
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Increment the reference count for object *o*.
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This function is usually used to convert a :term:`borrowed reference` to a
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:term:`strong reference` in-place. The :c:func:`Py_NewRef` function can be
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used to create a new :term:`strong reference`.
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The object must not be ``NULL``; if you aren't sure that it isn't
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``NULL``, use :c:func:`Py_XINCREF`.
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.. c:function:: void Py_XINCREF(PyObject *o)
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Increment the reference count for object *o*. The object may be ``NULL``, in
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which case the macro has no effect.
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See also :c:func:`Py_XNewRef`.
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.. c:function:: PyObject* Py_NewRef(PyObject *o)
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Create a new :term:`strong reference` to an object: increment the reference
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count of the object *o* and return the object *o*.
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When the :term:`strong reference` is no longer needed, :c:func:`Py_DECREF`
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should be called on it to decrement the object reference count.
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The object *o* must not be ``NULL``; use :c:func:`Py_XNewRef` if *o* can be
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``NULL``.
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For example::
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Py_INCREF(obj);
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self->attr = obj;
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can be written as::
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self->attr = Py_NewRef(obj);
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See also :c:func:`Py_INCREF`.
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.. versionadded:: 3.10
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.. c:function:: PyObject* Py_XNewRef(PyObject *o)
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Similar to :c:func:`Py_NewRef`, but the object *o* can be NULL.
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If the object *o* is ``NULL``, the function just returns ``NULL``.
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.. versionadded:: 3.10
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.. c:function:: void Py_DECREF(PyObject *o)
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Decrement the reference count for object *o*.
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If the reference count reaches zero, the object's type's deallocation
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function (which must not be ``NULL``) is invoked.
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This function is usually used to delete a :term:`strong reference` before
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exiting its scope.
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The object must not be ``NULL``; if you aren't sure that it isn't ``NULL``,
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use :c:func:`Py_XDECREF`.
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.. warning::
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The deallocation function can cause arbitrary Python code to be invoked (e.g.
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when a class instance with a :meth:`__del__` method is deallocated). While
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exceptions in such code are not propagated, the executed code has free access to
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all Python global variables. This means that any object that is reachable from
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a global variable should be in a consistent state before :c:func:`Py_DECREF` is
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invoked. For example, code to delete an object from a list should copy a
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reference to the deleted object in a temporary variable, update the list data
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structure, and then call :c:func:`Py_DECREF` for the temporary variable.
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.. c:function:: void Py_XDECREF(PyObject *o)
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Decrement the reference count for object *o*. The object may be ``NULL``, in
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which case the macro has no effect; otherwise the effect is the same as for
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:c:func:`Py_DECREF`, and the same warning applies.
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.. c:function:: void Py_CLEAR(PyObject *o)
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Decrement the reference count for object *o*. The object may be ``NULL``, in
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which case the macro has no effect; otherwise the effect is the same as for
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:c:func:`Py_DECREF`, except that the argument is also set to ``NULL``. The warning
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for :c:func:`Py_DECREF` does not apply with respect to the object passed because
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the macro carefully uses a temporary variable and sets the argument to ``NULL``
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before decrementing its reference count.
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It is a good idea to use this macro whenever decrementing the reference
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count of an object that might be traversed during garbage collection.
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The following functions are for runtime dynamic embedding of Python:
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``Py_IncRef(PyObject *o)``, ``Py_DecRef(PyObject *o)``. They are
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simply exported function versions of :c:func:`Py_XINCREF` and
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:c:func:`Py_XDECREF`, respectively.
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The following functions or macros are only for use within the interpreter core:
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:c:func:`_Py_Dealloc`, :c:func:`_Py_ForgetReference`, :c:func:`_Py_NewReference`,
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as well as the global variable :c:data:`_Py_RefTotal`.
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