Thanks very much for your detailed reply. I have a few followup questions.
You said, “Some functions return an object that has already been incref'ed
("new reference"). This occurs when it has either created a new object (the
refcount will be 1) or has returned a pointer to an existing object (the
refcount will be > 1 because it has been incref'ed). Other functions return an
object that hasn't been incref'ed. This occurs when you're looking up
something, for example, looking at a member of a list or the value of an
attribute.”
In the official docs some functions show “Return value: New reference” and
others do not. Is there any reason why I should not just INCREF on every new
object, regardless of whether it’s a new reference or not, and DECREF when I am
finished with it? The answer at
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/59870703/python-c-extension-need-to-py-incref-a-borrowed-reference-if-not-returning-it-to
says “With out-of-order execution, the INCREF/DECREF are basically free
operations, so performance is no reason to leave them out.” Doing so means I
don’t have to check each object to see if it needs to be INCREF’d or not, and
that is a big help.
Also:
What is a borrowed reference, and how does it effect reference counting?
According to https://jayrambhia.com/blog/pythonc-api-reference-counting, “Use
Py_INCREF on a borrowed PyObject pointer you already have. This increments the
reference count on the object, and obligates you to dispose of it properly.”
So I guess it’s yes, but I’m confused by “pointer you already have.”
What does it mean to steal a reference? If a function steals a reference does
it have to decref it without incref (because it’s stolen)?
Finally, you said:
if (pMod_random == 0x0){
PyErr_Print();
Leaks here because of the refcount
Assuming pMod_random is not null, why would this leak?
Thanks again for your input on this question.
Jen
Sep 29, 2022, 17:33 by pyt...@mrabarnett.plus.com:
> On 2022-09-30 01:02, MRAB wrote:
>
>> On 2022-09-29 23:41, Jen Kris wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> I just solved this C API problem, and I’m posting the answer to help anyone
>>> else who might need it.
>>>
> [snip]
>
> What I like to do is write comments that state which variables hold a
> reference, followed by '+' if it's a new reference (incref'ed) and '?' if it
> could be null. '+?' means that it's probably a new reference but could be
> null. Once I know that it's not null, I can remove the '?', and once I've
> decref'ed it (if required) and no longer need it, I remobe it from the
> comment.
>
> Clearing up references, as soon as they're not needed, helps to keep the
> number of current references more manageable.
>
>
> int64_t Get_LibModules(int64_t * return_array) {
> PyObject * pName_random = PyUnicode_FromString("random");
> //> pName_random+?
> if (!pName_random) {
> PyErr_Print();
> return 1;
> }
>
> //> pName_random+
> PyObject * pMod_random = PyImport_Import(pName_random);
> //> pName_random+ pMod_random+?
> Py_DECREF(pName_random);
> //> pMod_random+?
> if (!pMod_random) {
> PyErr_Print();
> return 1;
> }
>
> //> pMod_random+
> PyObject * pAttr_seed = PyObject_GetAttrString(pMod_random, "seed");
> //> pMod_random+ pAttr_seed?
> if (!pAttr_seed) {
> Py_DECREF(pMod_random);
> PyErr_Print();
> return 1;
> }
>
> //> pMod_random+ pAttr_seed
> PyObject * pAttr_randrange = PyObject_GetAttrString(pMod_random,
> "randrange");
> //> pMod_random+ pAttr_seed pAttr_randrange?
> Py_DECREF(pMod_random);
> //> pAttr_seed pAttr_randrange?
> if (!pAttr_randrange) {
> PyErr_Print();
> return 1;
> }
>
> //> pAttr_seed pAttr_randrange
> return_array[0] = (int64_t)pAttr_seed;
> return_array[1] = (int64_t)pAttr_randrange;
>
> return 0;
> }
>
> int64_t C_API_2(PyObject * pAttr_seed, Py_ssize_t value_1) {
> PyObject * value_ptr = PyLong_FromLong(value_1);
> //> value_ptr+?
> if (!!value_ptr) {
> PyErr_Print();
> return 1;
> }
>
> //> value_ptr+
> PyObject * p_seed_calc = PyObject_CallFunctionObjArgs(pAttr_seed, value_ptr,
> NULL);
> //> value_ptr+ p_seed_calc+?
> Py_DECREF(value_ptr);
> //> p_seed_calc+?
> if (!p_seed_calc) {
> PyErr_Print();
> return 1;
> }
>
> //> p_seed_calc+
> Py_DECREF(p_seed_calc);
> return 0;
> }
>
> int64_t C_API_12(PyObject * pAttr_randrange, Py_ssize_t value_1) {
> PyObject * value_ptr = PyLong_FromLong(value_1);
> //> value_ptr+?
> if (!value_ptr) {
> PyErr_Print();
> return 1;
> }
>
> //> value_ptr+
> PyObject * p_randrange_calc = PyObject_CallFunctionObjArgs(pAttr_randrange,
> value_ptr, NULL);
> //> value_ptr+ p_randrange_calc+?
> Py_DECREF(value_ptr);
> //> p_randrange_calc+?
> if (!p_randrange_calc) {
> PyErr_Print();
> return 1;
> }
>
> //Prepare return values
> //> p_randrange_calc+
> return_val = PyLong_AsLong(p_randrange_calc);
> Py_DECREF(p_randrange_calc);
>
> return return_val;
> }
>
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>
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