[docs] [issue15412] Note in documentation for weakrefs

Antoine Pitrou report at bugs.python.org
Sat Jul 21 12:23:53 CEST 2012


Antoine Pitrou <pitrou at free.fr> added the comment:

> In the documentation on weakrefs there is the following quote
> 
>     Note: Weak references to an object are cleared before the object’s
>     __del__() is called, to ensure that the weak reference callback 
>     (if any) finds the object still alive.
> 
> But I think the weakref is always dead by the time the callback is
> invoked.

It's true, the doc needs fixing.

> Which does prompt a question: what use is there for the weakref
> argument to the callback if it already dead?

The weakref is "dead" but it's still a weakref, and it can be used to
e.g. index a container of existing weakrefs (cf. WeakSet,
WeakKeyDictionary, WeakValueDictionary).

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<http://bugs.python.org/issue15412>
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