Argument Clinic: move converters defined in several files to libclinic
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Description
Several custom converters are defined in more than one C file:
pid_t— inposixmodule.c,_posixsubprocess.candresource.c.Py_off_t— inposixmodule.cand_ssl.c; thePy_off_ttype and the converter function are duplicated as well, and_iohas yet another copy of the type.HANDLE— in_multiprocessing/multiprocessing.c,overlapped.c,msvcrtmodule.c,_testconsole.cand_winapi.c.DWORD— inoverlapped.c,winreg.cand_winapi.c.BOOL— inoverlapped.cand_winapi.c.
The copies are not always equivalent: two of the pid_t converters compare the result with -1 instead of (pid_t)-1, and DWORD in _winapi.c uses the format unit "k", which accepts negative values, while in other modules it rejects them.
The registry of converters is global, so the definition in the file which is processed first can be used in other files. The generated code therefore depends on the order of processing — removing the definition of HANDLE from one module silently changes the code generated for others.
Other converters are defined only in posixmodule.c, although the corresponding C functions are already shared, so other modules convert the argument in the "impl" function instead of declaring its type:
uid_tandgid_t—_Py_Uid_Converter()and_Py_Gid_Converter()are declared inposixmodule.hand are called by hand inpwd.getpwuid(),grp.getgrgid()and_posixsubprocess.fork_exec().
There is no converter for time_t at all: time.gmtime(), time.localtime() and time.ctime() parse their argument with a hand-written helper, and _datetime calls _PyTime_ObjectToTime_t() directly.
I am going to move these converters to Tools/clinic/libclinic/converters.py.
Linked PRs
- gh-156262
- gh-156294
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 in Tools/clinic/libclinic/converters.py, then inspect the converter definitions and shared declarations in posixmodule.c, _posixsubprocess.c, resource.c, _ssl.c, _io, and the Windows modules listed in the issue. Check how Argument Clinic processes modules and compare generated code; done means the converters are centralized without changing their accepted values or generated behavior.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- c, python
- Domain
- build-system, tooling
- Issue type
- Refactor
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Clearly specified
- Newbie friendliness
- 25/100