Caching objects in a C extension

[Diez B. Roggisch]

casevh schrieb:
> On Jan 8, 2:59 am, "Diez B. Roggisch" <de... at nospam.web.de> wrote:
>> casevh schrieb:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> I'm working with a C extension that needs to rapidly create and delete
>>> objects. I came up with an approach to cache objects that are being
>>> deleted and resurrect them instead of creating new objects. It appears
>>> to work well but I'm afraid I may be missing something (besides
>>> heeding the warning in the documentation that _Py_NewReference is for
>>> internal interpreter use only).
>>> Below is a simplified version of the approach I'm using:
>>> MyType_dealloc(MyTypeObject *self)
>>> {
>>>     if(I_want_to_save_MyType(self)) {
>>>         // Save the object pointer in a cache
>>>         save_it(self);
>>>     } else {
>>>         PyObject_Del(self);
>>>     }
>>> }
>>> MyType_new(void)
>>> {
>>>     MyTypeObject *self;
>>>     if(there_is_an_object_in_the_cache) {
>>>         self = get_object_from_cache;
>>>         _Py_NewReference((PyObject*)self);
>>>     } else {
>>>         if(!(self = PyObjectNew(MyTypeObject, &MyType))
>>>             return NULL;
>>>         initialize_the_new_object(self);
>>>     }
>>>     return self;
>>> }
>>> The objects referenced in the cache have a reference count of 0 and I
>>> don't increment the reference count until I need to resurrect the
>>> object. Could these objects be clobbered by the garbage collector?
>>> Would it be safer to create the new reference before stuffing the
>>> object into the cache (even though it will look like there is a memory
>>> leak when running under a debug build)?
>> Deep out of my guts I'd say keeping a reference, and using you own
>> LRU-scheme would be the safest without residing to use dark magic.
>>
>> Diez- Hide quoted text -
>>
>> - Show quoted text -
> 
> Thanks for the reply. I realized that I missed one detail. The objects
> are created by the extension but are deleted by Python. I don't know
> that an object is no longer needed until its tp_dealloc is called. At
> that point, its reference count is 0.

I don't fully understand. Whoever creates these objects, you get a 
reference to them at some point. Then you increment (through the 
destined Macros) the ref-count.

All objects in your pool with refcount 1 are canditates for removal. All 
you need to do is to keep a kind of timestamp together with them, since 
when they are released. If that's to old, fully release them.

Diez