C extension question about avoiding memory leaks with the object returned...

[Martin v. Löwis]

seberino at spawar.navy.mil (Christian Seberino) writes:

>    return Py_BuildValue("s", my_string);

In this case, Py_BuildValue is very expensive. Use PyString_FromString
instead.

> If my_string allocated dynamically:
> ==========================
> Will Python successfully handle garbage collection of my_string?

No. The resulting Python string object will be a copy; the original
string is considered read-only, and no attempt to release it is made.

> Will there be any problems because it was built within my C function?

If you don't release it, there will be a memory leak. Apart from that:
no.

> If my_string allocated statically:
> ==========================
> Don't all statically declared objects get killed when you exit a C function?

You might need to explain what a statically declared string is, in
C. If you are talking about string literals: no, they don't get killed
when a C function exits. They exist from the start of the program
until it ends.

> This is not a problem because Python will get a COPY right?

Right.

Regards,
Martin