recv_into(bytearray) complains about a "pinned buffer"

[Andrew Dalke]

In Python 2.6 I can't socket.recv_into(a byte array instance). I get a
TypeError which complains about a "pinned buffer". I have only an
inkling of what that means. Since an array.array("b") works there, and
since it works in Python 3.1.1, and since I thought the point of a
bytearray was to make things like recv_into easier, I think this
exception is a bug in Python 2.6.

I want to double check before posting it to the tracker.

Here's my reproducibles:

Python 2.6.1 (r261:67515, Jul  7 2009, 23:51:51)
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5646)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import socket
>>> sock = socket.socket()
>>> sock.connect( ("python.org", 80) )
>>> sock.send(b"GET / HTTP/1.0\r\n\r\n")
18
>>> buf = bytearray(b" " * 10)
>>> sock.recv_into(buf)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: recv_into() argument 1 must be pinned buffer, not bytearray
>>>

I expected a bytearray to work there. In fact, I thought the point of
bytearray was to allow this to work.

By comparison, an array of bytes does work:

>>> import array
>>> arr = array.array("b")
>>> arr.extend(map(ord, "This is a test"))
>>> len(arr)
14
>>> sock.recv_into(arr)
14
>>> arr
array('b', [72, 84, 84, 80, 47, 49, 46, 49, 32, 51, 48, 50, 32, 70])
>>> "".join(map(chr, arr))
'HTTP/1.1 302 F'

I don't even know what a "pinned buffer" means, and searching
python.org isn't helpful.

Using a bytearray in Python 3.1.1 *does* work:

Python 3.1.1 (r311:74480, Jan 31 2010, 23:07:16)
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5646) (dot 1)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import socket
>>> sock = socket.socket()
>>> sock.connect( ("python.org", 80) )
>>> sock.send(b"GET / HTTP/1.0\r\n\r\n")
18
>>> buf = bytearray(b" " * 10)
>>> sock.recv_into(buf)
10
>>> buf
bytearray(b'HTTP/1.1 3')
>>>

Is this a bug in Python 2.6 or a deliberate choice regarding
implementation concerns I don't know about?

If it's a bug, I'll add it to the tracker.

                                Andrew Dalke
                                dalke at dalkescientific.com