[C++-sig] How to deep-copy and delete a mixed python/C++ object from C++

[Achim H.]

Hi,

I have a base class in C++ (MyClass), a wrapper class for boost::python 
(Wrapper) and a class derived from that in Python (MyPythonClass) that 
implements a pure virtual function of MyClass. So far so good. 

However, when I copy an object of Wrapper in C++, the new instance still 
points to the old python object and calls to the virtual function implemented 
in python will access the old data. I had hoped that the wrapper<MyClass> 
base class would copy the python object and everything would work.

Furthermore, I want to be able to delete the object (in C++) through the 
pointer to its base class (it is stored in a std::vector<MyClass*>, together 
with MyClass objects completely implemented in C++). If I do now, the Python 
object stays around, still holds a pointer to a now dead object and at some 
point tries to kill it with not-so-nice consequences.

How can I achieve both correct copying and deletion semantics ?

I built a work-around: Wrapper is copied by a clone() function, that looks up 
the definition of the Python class (MyPythonClass) and, creates a new object 
from this class and then fills in the missing data (no data on the Python 
side, inheritance is only for overwriting virtual functions). However, then I 
get a lifetime problem with the object. Currently, I directly use 
Py_INCREF(copy) to keep it alive to the end of program runtime and then get 
an error message, beacuse the C++ object was already deleted when the 
std::vector<MyClass*> was cleaned up.

TIA,
Achim.