datetime: Stop Exposing Process-Global Objects in the datetime C-API
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Description
Feature or enhancement
Proposal:
The datetime module has its own C-API which is enabled with PyDateTime_IMPORT. From the docs:
Before using any of these functions, the header file datetime.h must be included in your source
(note that this is not included by Python.h), and the macro PyDateTime_IMPORT must be invoked,
usually as part of the module initialisation function. The macro puts a pointer to a C structure into
a static variable, PyDateTimeAPI, that is used by the following macros.
My main concern is that the PyDateTimeAPI struct is a process-global value, but it exposes object pointers (which should always be per-interpreter). We have worked around this in 3.13+, but it would be better if we could make the objects per-interpreter.
FTR, here are the objects exposed directly by PyDateTimeAPI:
- (static type)
PyDateTime_DateType - (static type)
PyDateTime_DateTimeType - (static type)
PyDateTime_TimeType - (static type)
PyDateTime_DeltaType - (static type)
PyDateTime_TZInfoType - (singleton)
utc_timezone(an instance ofPyDateTime_TimeZoneType)
exposed indirectly:
- (static type)
PyDateTime_TimeZoneType
In order to make these objects per-interpreter, it would require changes to the datetime C-API. [^1] I expect we would leave PyDateTime_IMPORT alone. Instead, we'd need to update the macros in datetime.h to get the objects from the module associated with the current interpreter. [^2]
[^1]: These would be ABI-incompatible changes, which wouldn't be a problem unless the datetime C-API is part of the limited API).
[^2]: Anyone who is accessing the PyDateTimeAPI struct directly would have to change their code. It might make sense to provide a getter function/macro for each of the objects.
Has this already been discussed elsewhere?
This is a minor feature, which does not need previous discussion elsewhere
Links to previous discussion of this feature:
No response
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start with the datetime C-API documentation and the datetime.h macros described in the proposal, then inspect how PyDateTimeAPI exposes the listed types and utc_timezone. Done means those objects are per-interpreter while PyDateTime_IMPORT remains unchanged, with any required getter or direct-access changes documented and tested.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- c, python
- Domain
- api
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 25/100