[Python-Dev] Make extension module initialisation more like Python module initialisation

[Stefan Behnel]

Hi Brett,

thanks for the feedback.

Brett Cannon, 08.11.2012 15:41:
> On Thu, Nov 8, 2012 at 7:47 AM, Stefan Behnel wrote:
>> I propose to split the extension module initialisation into two steps in
>> Python 3.4, in a backwards compatible way.
>>
>> Step 1: The current module init function can be reduced to just creating
>> the module instance and returning it (and potentially doing some simple C
>> level setup). Optionally, after creating the module (and this is the new
>> part), the module init code can register a C callback function that will be
>> called after setting up the module.
> 
> Why even bother with the module creation? Why can't Python do that as well
> and then call the callback?
> 
> 
>> Step 2: The shared library importer receives the module instance from the
>> module init function, adds __file__, __path__, __package__ and friends to
>> the module dict, and then checks for the callback. If non-NULL, it calls it
>> to continue the module initialisation by user code.
> [...]
> An alternative to the alternative is that if the PyInit2 function exists
> it's called instead of the the PyInit function, and then the PyInit
> function is nothing more than a single line function call (or whatever the
> absolute bare minimum is) into some helper that calls the PyInit2 call
> properly for backwards ABI compatibility (i.e. passes in whatever details
> are lost by the indirection in function call). That provides an eventual
> upgrade path of dropping PyInit and moving over to PyInit2.

In that case, you'd have to export the PyModuleDef descriptor as well,
because that's what tells CPython how the module behaves and what to do
with it to set it up properly (e.g. allocate module state space on the heap).

In fact, if the module init function became a field in the descriptor, it
would be enough (taking backwards compatibility aside) if *only* the
descriptor was exported and used by the module loader.

With the caveat that this might kill some less common but not necessarily
illegitimate use cases that do more than just creating and initialising a
single module...

Stefan