pybind / pybind/pybind11

Wrap a Python io object in an ostream

Open
#1,477 2 comments 6 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

Dominant language
C++
Stars
18k
Forks
2.3k
Avg merge
5d 17h
Merged PRs (30d)
10

Description

I claim that it would be worthwhile to allow Python io objects to be wrapped into std::ostreams. Currently, one has to use scoped_ostream_redirect like so:

m.def("foo", [](pybind11::object io) {
    std::ostringstream out;

    pybind11::scoped_ostream_redirect redirect{out, file};

    // rest of code, using `out` as the std::ostream&
});

However, std::ostream can be constructed by a std::streambuf. scoped_ostream_redirect uses a streambuf implementation. Thus, it's possible to directly create a std::ostream from the object:

pybind11::detail::pythonbuf buffer{io};
std::ostream out{&buffer};

What I'm leading up to is this (currently doesn't work):

m.def("foo", [](std::ostream& out) {
    // using `out` as before
});

Which could be used in Python as if it were a regular Python io object:

import io
out = io.StringIO()
m.foo(out)
print(out.getvalue())

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reading the scoped_ostream_redirect and detail::pythonbuf implementations mentioned in the issue, then trace how std::ostream& arguments are handled. Done means a Python io.StringIO can be passed to m.foo as std::ostream& and its output is available through getvalue(); no specific files or tests are named.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp, python
Domain
api, backend-api-design
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.