[issue21233] Add *Calloc functions to CPython memory allocation API

[Charles-François Natali]

Charles-François Natali added the comment:

> This issue was opened to be able to use tracemalloc on numpy. I would
> like to make sure that calloc is enough for numpy. I would prefer to
> change the malloc API only once.

Then please at least rename the issue. Also, I don't see why
everything should be done at once: calloc support is a self-contained
change, which is useful outside of numpy. Enhanced tracemalloc support
for numpy certainly belongs to another issue.

Regarding the *Calloc functions: how about we provide a sane API
instead of reproducing the cumbersome C API?

I mean, why not expose:
PyAPI_FUNC(void *) PyMem_Calloc(size_t size);
insteaf of
PyAPI_FUNC(void *) PyMem_Calloc(size_t nelem, size_t elsize);

AFAICT, the two arguments are purely historical (it was used when
malloc() didn't guarantee suitable alignment, and has the advantage of
performing overflow check when doing the multiplication, but in our
code we always check for it anyway).
See
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.lang.c/jZbiyuYqjB4
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4083916/two-arguments-to-calloc

And http://www.eglibc.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/trunk/libc/malloc/malloc.c?view=markup
to check that calloc(nelem, elsize) is implemented as calloc(nelem *
elsize)

I'm also concerned about the change to _PyObject_GC_Malloc(): it now
calls calloc() instead of malloc(): it can definitely be slower.

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue21233>
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