[Python-Dev] RFC: PEP 445: Add new APIs to customize Python memory allocators

[Antoine Pitrou]

On Wed, 19 Jun 2013 17:24:21 +0200
Victor Stinner <victor.stinner at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> For the "track memory usage" use case, it is important to track memory
> allocated in external libraries to have accurate reports, because
> these allocations may be huge.
[...]
> Not in main(). The Python expat and zlib modules call directly
> malloc() and may allocate large blocks. External libraries like
> OpenSSL or bz2 may also allocate large blocks.

Fair enough.

> >> Drawback: the caller has to check if the result is 0, or handle the
> >> error.
> >
> > Or you can just call Py_FatalError() if the domain is invalid.
> 
> I don't like Py_FatalError(), especially when Python is embedded. It's
> safer to return -1 and expect the caller to check for the error case.

I don't think you need to check for errors. The domain is always one of
the existing constants, i.e. it should be hard-coded in the source, not
computed.

Regards

Antoine.