<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <title>Initialization, Finalization, and Threads — Python v2.6.5 documentation</title> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/default.css" type="text/css" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/pygments.css" type="text/css" /> <script type="text/javascript"> var DOCUMENTATION_OPTIONS = { URL_ROOT: '../', VERSION: '2.6.5', COLLAPSE_MODINDEX: false, FILE_SUFFIX: '.html', HAS_SOURCE: true }; </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/jquery.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/doctools.js"></script> <link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" title="Search within Python v2.6.5 documentation" href="../_static/opensearch.xml"/> <link rel="author" title="About these documents" href="../about.html" /> <link rel="copyright" title="Copyright" href="../copyright.html" /> <link rel="top" title="Python v2.6.5 documentation" href="../index.html" /> <link rel="up" title="Python/C API Reference Manual" href="index.html" /> <link rel="next" title="Memory Management" href="memory.html" /> <link rel="prev" title="Set Objects" href="set.html" /> <link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/png" href="../_static/py.png" /> </head> <body> <div class="related"> <h3>Navigation</h3> <ul> <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px"> <a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index" accesskey="I">index</a></li> <li class="right" > <a href="../modindex.html" title="Global Module Index" accesskey="M">modules</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="memory.html" title="Memory Management" accesskey="N">next</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="set.html" title="Set Objects" accesskey="P">previous</a> |</li> <li><img src="../_static/py.png" alt="" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-top: -1px"/></li> <li><a href="../index.html">Python v2.6.5 documentation</a> »</li> <li><a href="index.html" accesskey="U">Python/C API Reference Manual</a> »</li> </ul> </div> <div class="document"> <div class="documentwrapper"> <div class="bodywrapper"> <div class="body"> <div class="section" id="initialization-finalization-and-threads"> <span id="initialization"></span><h1>Initialization, Finalization, and Threads<a class="headerlink" href="#initialization-finalization-and-threads" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="Py_Initialize"> void <tt class="descname">Py_Initialize</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#Py_Initialize" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p id="index-39">Initialize the Python interpreter. In an application embedding Python, this should be called before using any other Python/C API functions; with the exception of <a title="Py_SetProgramName" class="reference internal" href="#Py_SetProgramName"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_SetProgramName()</span></tt></a>, <a title="PyEval_InitThreads" class="reference internal" href="#PyEval_InitThreads"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyEval_InitThreads()</span></tt></a>, <a title="PyEval_ReleaseLock" class="reference internal" href="#PyEval_ReleaseLock"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyEval_ReleaseLock()</span></tt></a>, and <a title="PyEval_AcquireLock" class="reference internal" href="#PyEval_AcquireLock"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyEval_AcquireLock()</span></tt></a>. This initializes the table of loaded modules (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.modules</span></tt>), and creates the fundamental modules <a title="The module that provides the built-in namespace." class="reference external" href="../library/__builtin__.html#module-__builtin__"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">__builtin__</span></tt></a>, <a title="The environment where the top-level script is run." class="reference external" href="../library/__main__.html#module-__main__"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">__main__</span></tt></a> and <a title="Access system-specific parameters and functions." class="reference external" href="../library/sys.html#module-sys"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys</span></tt></a>. It also initializes the module search path (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.path</span></tt>). It does not set <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.argv</span></tt>; use <a title="PySys_SetArgv" class="reference internal" href="#PySys_SetArgv"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PySys_SetArgv()</span></tt></a> for that. This is a no-op when called for a second time (without calling <a title="Py_Finalize" class="reference internal" href="#Py_Finalize"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_Finalize()</span></tt></a> first). There is no return value; it is a fatal error if the initialization fails.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="Py_InitializeEx"> void <tt class="descname">Py_InitializeEx</tt><big>(</big>int<em> initsigs</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#Py_InitializeEx" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>This function works like <a title="Py_Initialize" class="reference internal" href="#Py_Initialize"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_Initialize()</span></tt></a> if <em>initsigs</em> is 1. If <em>initsigs</em> is 0, it skips initialization registration of signal handlers, which might be useful when Python is embedded.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.4.</span></p> </dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="Py_IsInitialized"> int <tt class="descname">Py_IsInitialized</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#Py_IsInitialized" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Return true (nonzero) when the Python interpreter has been initialized, false (zero) if not. After <a title="Py_Finalize" class="reference internal" href="#Py_Finalize"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_Finalize()</span></tt></a> is called, this returns false until <a title="Py_Initialize" class="reference internal" href="#Py_Initialize"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_Initialize()</span></tt></a> is called again.</dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="Py_Finalize"> void <tt class="descname">Py_Finalize</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#Py_Finalize" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Undo all initializations made by <a title="Py_Initialize" class="reference internal" href="#Py_Initialize"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_Initialize()</span></tt></a> and subsequent use of Python/C API functions, and destroy all sub-interpreters (see <a title="Py_NewInterpreter" class="reference internal" href="#Py_NewInterpreter"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_NewInterpreter()</span></tt></a> below) that were created and not yet destroyed since the last call to <a title="Py_Initialize" class="reference internal" href="#Py_Initialize"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_Initialize()</span></tt></a>. Ideally, this frees all memory allocated by the Python interpreter. This is a no-op when called for a second time (without calling <a title="Py_Initialize" class="reference internal" href="#Py_Initialize"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_Initialize()</span></tt></a> again first). There is no return value; errors during finalization are ignored.</p> <p>This function is provided for a number of reasons. An embedding application might want to restart Python without having to restart the application itself. An application that has loaded the Python interpreter from a dynamically loadable library (or DLL) might want to free all memory allocated by Python before unloading the DLL. During a hunt for memory leaks in an application a developer might want to free all memory allocated by Python before exiting from the application.</p> <p><strong>Bugs and caveats:</strong> The destruction of modules and objects in modules is done in random order; this may cause destructors (<a title="object.__del__" class="reference external" href="../reference/datamodel.html#object.__del__"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">__del__()</span></tt></a> methods) to fail when they depend on other objects (even functions) or modules. Dynamically loaded extension modules loaded by Python are not unloaded. Small amounts of memory allocated by the Python interpreter may not be freed (if you find a leak, please report it). Memory tied up in circular references between objects is not freed. Some memory allocated by extension modules may not be freed. Some extensions may not work properly if their initialization routine is called more than once; this can happen if an application calls <a title="Py_Initialize" class="reference internal" href="#Py_Initialize"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_Initialize()</span></tt></a> and <a title="Py_Finalize" class="reference internal" href="#Py_Finalize"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_Finalize()</span></tt></a> more than once.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="Py_NewInterpreter"> <a title="PyThreadState" class="reference internal" href="#PyThreadState">PyThreadState</a>* <tt class="descname">Py_NewInterpreter</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#Py_NewInterpreter" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p id="index-40">Create a new sub-interpreter. This is an (almost) totally separate environment for the execution of Python code. In particular, the new interpreter has separate, independent versions of all imported modules, including the fundamental modules <a title="The module that provides the built-in namespace." class="reference external" href="../library/__builtin__.html#module-__builtin__"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">__builtin__</span></tt></a>, <a title="The environment where the top-level script is run." class="reference external" href="../library/__main__.html#module-__main__"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">__main__</span></tt></a> and <a title="Access system-specific parameters and functions." class="reference external" href="../library/sys.html#module-sys"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys</span></tt></a>. The table of loaded modules (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.modules</span></tt>) and the module search path (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.path</span></tt>) are also separate. The new environment has no <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.argv</span></tt> variable. It has new standard I/O stream file objects <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.stdin</span></tt>, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.stdout</span></tt> and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.stderr</span></tt> (however these refer to the same underlying <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">FILE</span></tt> structures in the C library).</p> <p>The return value points to the first thread state created in the new sub-interpreter. This thread state is made in the current thread state. Note that no actual thread is created; see the discussion of thread states below. If creation of the new interpreter is unsuccessful, <em>NULL</em> is returned; no exception is set since the exception state is stored in the current thread state and there may not be a current thread state. (Like all other Python/C API functions, the global interpreter lock must be held before calling this function and is still held when it returns; however, unlike most other Python/C API functions, there needn’t be a current thread state on entry.)</p> <p id="index-41">Extension modules are shared between (sub-)interpreters as follows: the first time a particular extension is imported, it is initialized normally, and a (shallow) copy of its module’s dictionary is squirreled away. When the same extension is imported by another (sub-)interpreter, a new module is initialized and filled with the contents of this copy; the extension’s <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">init</span></tt> function is not called. Note that this is different from what happens when an extension is imported after the interpreter has been completely re-initialized by calling <a title="Py_Finalize" class="reference internal" href="#Py_Finalize"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_Finalize()</span></tt></a> and <a title="Py_Initialize" class="reference internal" href="#Py_Initialize"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_Initialize()</span></tt></a>; in that case, the extension’s <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">initmodule</span></tt> function <em>is</em> called again.</p> <p id="index-42"><strong>Bugs and caveats:</strong> Because sub-interpreters (and the main interpreter) are part of the same process, the insulation between them isn’t perfect — for example, using low-level file operations like <a title="os.close" class="reference external" href="../library/os.html#os.close"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.close()</span></tt></a> they can (accidentally or maliciously) affect each other’s open files. Because of the way extensions are shared between (sub-)interpreters, some extensions may not work properly; this is especially likely when the extension makes use of (static) global variables, or when the extension manipulates its module’s dictionary after its initialization. It is possible to insert objects created in one sub-interpreter into a namespace of another sub-interpreter; this should be done with great care to avoid sharing user-defined functions, methods, instances or classes between sub-interpreters, since import operations executed by such objects may affect the wrong (sub-)interpreter’s dictionary of loaded modules. (XXX This is a hard-to-fix bug that will be addressed in a future release.)</p> <p>Also note that the use of this functionality is incompatible with extension modules such as PyObjC and ctypes that use the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyGILState_*()</span></tt> APIs (and this is inherent in the way the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyGILState_*()</span></tt> functions work). Simple things may work, but confusing behavior will always be near.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="Py_EndInterpreter"> void <tt class="descname">Py_EndInterpreter</tt><big>(</big><a title="PyThreadState" class="reference internal" href="#PyThreadState">PyThreadState</a><em> *tstate</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#Py_EndInterpreter" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p id="index-43">Destroy the (sub-)interpreter represented by the given thread state. The given thread state must be the current thread state. See the discussion of thread states below. When the call returns, the current thread state is <em>NULL</em>. All thread states associated with this interpreter are destroyed. (The global interpreter lock must be held before calling this function and is still held when it returns.) <a title="Py_Finalize" class="reference internal" href="#Py_Finalize"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_Finalize()</span></tt></a> will destroy all sub-interpreters that haven’t been explicitly destroyed at that point.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="Py_SetProgramName"> void <tt class="descname">Py_SetProgramName</tt><big>(</big>char<em> *name</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#Py_SetProgramName" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p id="index-44">This function should be called before <a title="Py_Initialize" class="reference internal" href="#Py_Initialize"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_Initialize()</span></tt></a> is called for the first time, if it is called at all. It tells the interpreter the value of the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">argv[0]</span></tt> argument to the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">main()</span></tt> function of the program. This is used by <a title="Py_GetPath" class="reference internal" href="#Py_GetPath"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_GetPath()</span></tt></a> and some other functions below to find the Python run-time libraries relative to the interpreter executable. The default value is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'python'</span></tt>. The argument should point to a zero-terminated character string in static storage whose contents will not change for the duration of the program’s execution. No code in the Python interpreter will change the contents of this storage.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="Py_GetProgramName"> char* <tt class="descname">Py_GetProgramName</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#Py_GetProgramName" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p id="index-45">Return the program name set with <a title="Py_SetProgramName" class="reference internal" href="#Py_SetProgramName"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_SetProgramName()</span></tt></a>, or the default. The returned string points into static storage; the caller should not modify its value.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="Py_GetPrefix"> char* <tt class="descname">Py_GetPrefix</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#Py_GetPrefix" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Return the <em>prefix</em> for installed platform-independent files. This is derived through a number of complicated rules from the program name set with <a title="Py_SetProgramName" class="reference internal" href="#Py_SetProgramName"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_SetProgramName()</span></tt></a> and some environment variables; for example, if the program name is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'/usr/bin/python'</span></tt>, the prefix is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'/usr/local'</span></tt>. The returned string points into static storage; the caller should not modify its value. This corresponds to the <strong>prefix</strong> variable in the top-level <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Makefile</span></tt> and the <em class="xref">--prefix</em> argument to the <strong>configure</strong> script at build time. The value is available to Python code as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.prefix</span></tt>. It is only useful on Unix. See also the next function.</dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="Py_GetExecPrefix"> char* <tt class="descname">Py_GetExecPrefix</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#Py_GetExecPrefix" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return the <em>exec-prefix</em> for installed platform-<em>dependent</em> files. This is derived through a number of complicated rules from the program name set with <a title="Py_SetProgramName" class="reference internal" href="#Py_SetProgramName"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_SetProgramName()</span></tt></a> and some environment variables; for example, if the program name is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'/usr/bin/python'</span></tt>, the exec-prefix is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'/usr/local'</span></tt>. The returned string points into static storage; the caller should not modify its value. This corresponds to the <strong>exec_prefix</strong> variable in the top-level <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Makefile</span></tt> and the <em class="xref">--exec-prefix</em> argument to the <strong>configure</strong> script at build time. The value is available to Python code as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.exec_prefix</span></tt>. It is only useful on Unix.</p> <p>Background: The exec-prefix differs from the prefix when platform dependent files (such as executables and shared libraries) are installed in a different directory tree. In a typical installation, platform dependent files may be installed in the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">/usr/local/plat</span></tt> subtree while platform independent may be installed in <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">/usr/local</span></tt>.</p> <p>Generally speaking, a platform is a combination of hardware and software families, e.g. Sparc machines running the Solaris 2.x operating system are considered the same platform, but Intel machines running Solaris 2.x are another platform, and Intel machines running Linux are yet another platform. Different major revisions of the same operating system generally also form different platforms. Non-Unix operating systems are a different story; the installation strategies on those systems are so different that the prefix and exec-prefix are meaningless, and set to the empty string. Note that compiled Python bytecode files are platform independent (but not independent from the Python version by which they were compiled!).</p> <p>System administrators will know how to configure the <strong>mount</strong> or <strong>automount</strong> programs to share <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">/usr/local</span></tt> between platforms while having <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">/usr/local/plat</span></tt> be a different filesystem for each platform.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="Py_GetProgramFullPath"> char* <tt class="descname">Py_GetProgramFullPath</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#Py_GetProgramFullPath" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p id="index-46">Return the full program name of the Python executable; this is computed as a side-effect of deriving the default module search path from the program name (set by <a title="Py_SetProgramName" class="reference internal" href="#Py_SetProgramName"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_SetProgramName()</span></tt></a> above). The returned string points into static storage; the caller should not modify its value. The value is available to Python code as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.executable</span></tt>.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="Py_GetPath"> char* <tt class="descname">Py_GetPath</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#Py_GetPath" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p id="index-47">Return the default module search path; this is computed from the program name (set by <a title="Py_SetProgramName" class="reference internal" href="#Py_SetProgramName"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_SetProgramName()</span></tt></a> above) and some environment variables. The returned string consists of a series of directory names separated by a platform dependent delimiter character. The delimiter character is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">':'</span></tt> on Unix and Mac OS X, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">';'</span></tt> on Windows. The returned string points into static storage; the caller should not modify its value. The value is available to Python code as the list <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.path</span></tt>, which may be modified to change the future search path for loaded modules.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="Py_GetVersion"> const char* <tt class="descname">Py_GetVersion</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#Py_GetVersion" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return the version of this Python interpreter. This is a string that looks something like</p> <div class="highlight-c"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="s">"1.5 (#67, Dec 31 1997, 22:34:28) [GCC 2.7.2.2]"</span> </pre></div> </div> <p id="index-48">The first word (up to the first space character) is the current Python version; the first three characters are the major and minor version separated by a period. The returned string points into static storage; the caller should not modify its value. The value is available to Python code as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.version</span></tt>.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="Py_GetBuildNumber"> const char* <tt class="descname">Py_GetBuildNumber</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#Py_GetBuildNumber" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return a string representing the Subversion revision that this Python executable was built from. This number is a string because it may contain a trailing ‘M’ if Python was built from a mixed revision source tree.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.5.</span></p> </dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="Py_GetPlatform"> const char* <tt class="descname">Py_GetPlatform</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#Py_GetPlatform" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p id="index-49">Return the platform identifier for the current platform. On Unix, this is formed from the “official” name of the operating system, converted to lower case, followed by the major revision number; e.g., for Solaris 2.x, which is also known as SunOS 5.x, the value is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'sunos5'</span></tt>. On Mac OS X, it is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'darwin'</span></tt>. On Windows, it is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'win'</span></tt>. The returned string points into static storage; the caller should not modify its value. The value is available to Python code as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.platform</span></tt>.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="Py_GetCopyright"> const char* <tt class="descname">Py_GetCopyright</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#Py_GetCopyright" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return the official copyright string for the current Python version, for example</p> <p><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'Copyright</span> <span class="pre">1991-1995</span> <span class="pre">Stichting</span> <span class="pre">Mathematisch</span> <span class="pre">Centrum,</span> <span class="pre">Amsterdam'</span></tt></p> <p id="index-50">The returned string points into static storage; the caller should not modify its value. The value is available to Python code as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.copyright</span></tt>.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="Py_GetCompiler"> const char* <tt class="descname">Py_GetCompiler</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#Py_GetCompiler" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return an indication of the compiler used to build the current Python version, in square brackets, for example:</p> <div class="highlight-c"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="s">"[GCC 2.7.2.2]"</span> </pre></div> </div> <p id="index-51">The returned string points into static storage; the caller should not modify its value. The value is available to Python code as part of the variable <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.version</span></tt>.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="Py_GetBuildInfo"> const char* <tt class="descname">Py_GetBuildInfo</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#Py_GetBuildInfo" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return information about the sequence number and build date and time of the current Python interpreter instance, for example</p> <div class="highlight-c"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="s">"#67, Aug 1 1997, 22:34:28"</span> </pre></div> </div> <p id="index-52">The returned string points into static storage; the caller should not modify its value. The value is available to Python code as part of the variable <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.version</span></tt>.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PySys_SetArgv"> void <tt class="descname">PySys_SetArgv</tt><big>(</big>int<em> argc</em>, char<em> **argv</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PySys_SetArgv" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p id="index-53">Set <a title="sys.argv" class="reference external" href="../library/sys.html#sys.argv"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.argv</span></tt></a> based on <em>argc</em> and <em>argv</em>. These parameters are similar to those passed to the program’s <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">main()</span></tt> function with the difference that the first entry should refer to the script file to be executed rather than the executable hosting the Python interpreter. If there isn’t a script that will be run, the first entry in <em>argv</em> can be an empty string. If this function fails to initialize <a title="sys.argv" class="reference external" href="../library/sys.html#sys.argv"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.argv</span></tt></a>, a fatal condition is signalled using <a title="Py_FatalError" class="reference external" href="sys.html#Py_FatalError"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_FatalError()</span></tt></a>.</p> <p>This function also prepends the executed script’s path to <a title="sys.path" class="reference external" href="../library/sys.html#sys.path"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.path</span></tt></a>. If no script is executed (in the case of calling <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">python</span> <span class="pre">-c</span></tt> or just the interactive interpreter), the empty string is used instead.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="Py_SetPythonHome"> void <tt class="descname">Py_SetPythonHome</tt><big>(</big>char<em> *home</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#Py_SetPythonHome" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Set the default “home” directory, that is, the location of the standard Python libraries. The libraries are searched in <tt class="docutils literal"><em><span class="pre">home</span></em><span class="pre">/lib/python</span><em><span class="pre">version</span></em></tt> and <tt class="docutils literal"><em><span class="pre">home</span></em><span class="pre">/lib/python</span><em><span class="pre">version</span></em></tt>. The argument should point to a zero-terminated character string in static storage whose contents will not change for the duration of the program’s execution. No code in the Python interpreter will change the contents of this storage.</dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="Py_GetPythonHome"> char* <tt class="descname">Py_GetPythonHome</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#Py_GetPythonHome" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Return the default “home”, that is, the value set by a previous call to <a title="Py_SetPythonHome" class="reference internal" href="#Py_SetPythonHome"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_SetPythonHome()</span></tt></a>, or the value of the <span class="target" id="index-54"></span><a class="reference external" href="../using/cmdline.html#envvar-PYTHONHOME"><strong class="xref">PYTHONHOME</strong></a> environment variable if it is set.</dd></dl> <div class="section" id="thread-state-and-the-global-interpreter-lock"> <span id="threads"></span><h2>Thread State and the Global Interpreter Lock<a class="headerlink" href="#thread-state-and-the-global-interpreter-lock" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p id="index-55">The Python interpreter is not fully thread safe. In order to support multi-threaded Python programs, there’s a global lock, called the <em>global interpreter lock</em> or <em>GIL</em>, that must be held by the current thread before it can safely access Python objects. Without the lock, even the simplest operations could cause problems in a multi-threaded program: for example, when two threads simultaneously increment the reference count of the same object, the reference count could end up being incremented only once instead of twice.</p> <p id="index-56">Therefore, the rule exists that only the thread that has acquired the global interpreter lock may operate on Python objects or call Python/C API functions. In order to support multi-threaded Python programs, the interpreter regularly releases and reacquires the lock — by default, every 100 bytecode instructions (this can be changed with <a title="sys.setcheckinterval" class="reference external" href="../library/sys.html#sys.setcheckinterval"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.setcheckinterval()</span></tt></a>). The lock is also released and reacquired around potentially blocking I/O operations like reading or writing a file, so that other threads can run while the thread that requests the I/O is waiting for the I/O operation to complete.</p> <p id="index-57">The Python interpreter needs to keep some bookkeeping information separate per thread — for this it uses a data structure called <a title="PyThreadState" class="reference internal" href="#PyThreadState"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyThreadState</span></tt></a>. There’s one global variable, however: the pointer to the current <a title="PyThreadState" class="reference internal" href="#PyThreadState"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyThreadState</span></tt></a> structure. Before the addition of <em>thread-local storage</em> (<em>TLS</em>) the current thread state had to be manipulated explicitly.</p> <p>This is easy enough in most cases. Most code manipulating the global interpreter lock has the following simple structure:</p> <div class="highlight-c"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">Save</span> <span class="n">the</span> <span class="kr">thread</span> <span class="n">state</span> <span class="n">in</span> <span class="n">a</span> <span class="n">local</span> <span class="n">variable</span><span class="p">.</span> <span class="n">Release</span> <span class="n">the</span> <span class="n">global</span> <span class="n">interpreter</span> <span class="n">lock</span><span class="p">.</span> <span class="p">...</span><span class="n">Do</span> <span class="n">some</span> <span class="n">blocking</span> <span class="n">I</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">O</span> <span class="n">operation</span><span class="p">...</span> <span class="n">Reacquire</span> <span class="n">the</span> <span class="n">global</span> <span class="n">interpreter</span> <span class="n">lock</span><span class="p">.</span> <span class="n">Restore</span> <span class="n">the</span> <span class="kr">thread</span> <span class="n">state</span> <span class="n">from</span> <span class="n">the</span> <span class="n">local</span> <span class="n">variable</span><span class="p">.</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>This is so common that a pair of macros exists to simplify it:</p> <div class="highlight-c"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS</span> <span class="p">...</span><span class="n">Do</span> <span class="n">some</span> <span class="n">blocking</span> <span class="n">I</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">O</span> <span class="n">operation</span><span class="p">...</span> <span class="n">Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS</span> </pre></div> </div> <p id="index-58">The <a title="Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS" class="reference internal" href="#Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS</span></tt></a> macro opens a new block and declares a hidden local variable; the <a title="Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS" class="reference internal" href="#Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS</span></tt></a> macro closes the block. Another advantage of using these two macros is that when Python is compiled without thread support, they are defined empty, thus saving the thread state and GIL manipulations.</p> <p>When thread support is enabled, the block above expands to the following code:</p> <div class="highlight-c"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">PyThreadState</span> <span class="o">*</span><span class="n">_save</span><span class="p">;</span> <span class="n">_save</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">PyEval_SaveThread</span><span class="p">();</span> <span class="p">...</span><span class="n">Do</span> <span class="n">some</span> <span class="n">blocking</span> <span class="n">I</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">O</span> <span class="n">operation</span><span class="p">...</span> <span class="n">PyEval_RestoreThread</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">_save</span><span class="p">);</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>Using even lower level primitives, we can get roughly the same effect as follows:</p> <div class="highlight-c"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">PyThreadState</span> <span class="o">*</span><span class="n">_save</span><span class="p">;</span> <span class="n">_save</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">PyThreadState_Swap</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">NULL</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="n">PyEval_ReleaseLock</span><span class="p">();</span> <span class="p">...</span><span class="n">Do</span> <span class="n">some</span> <span class="n">blocking</span> <span class="n">I</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">O</span> <span class="n">operation</span><span class="p">...</span> <span class="n">PyEval_AcquireLock</span><span class="p">();</span> <span class="n">PyThreadState_Swap</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">_save</span><span class="p">);</span> </pre></div> </div> <p id="index-59">There are some subtle differences; in particular, <a title="PyEval_RestoreThread" class="reference internal" href="#PyEval_RestoreThread"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyEval_RestoreThread()</span></tt></a> saves and restores the value of the global variable <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">errno</span></tt>, since the lock manipulation does not guarantee that <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">errno</span></tt> is left alone. Also, when thread support is disabled, <a title="PyEval_SaveThread" class="reference internal" href="#PyEval_SaveThread"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyEval_SaveThread()</span></tt></a> and <a title="PyEval_RestoreThread" class="reference internal" href="#PyEval_RestoreThread"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyEval_RestoreThread()</span></tt></a> don’t manipulate the GIL; in this case, <a title="PyEval_ReleaseLock" class="reference internal" href="#PyEval_ReleaseLock"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyEval_ReleaseLock()</span></tt></a> and <a title="PyEval_AcquireLock" class="reference internal" href="#PyEval_AcquireLock"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyEval_AcquireLock()</span></tt></a> are not available. This is done so that dynamically loaded extensions compiled with thread support enabled can be loaded by an interpreter that was compiled with disabled thread support.</p> <p>The global interpreter lock is used to protect the pointer to the current thread state. When releasing the lock and saving the thread state, the current thread state pointer must be retrieved before the lock is released (since another thread could immediately acquire the lock and store its own thread state in the global variable). Conversely, when acquiring the lock and restoring the thread state, the lock must be acquired before storing the thread state pointer.</p> <p>It is important to note that when threads are created from C, they don’t have the global interpreter lock, nor is there a thread state data structure for them. Such threads must bootstrap themselves into existence, by first creating a thread state data structure, then acquiring the lock, and finally storing their thread state pointer, before they can start using the Python/C API. When they are done, they should reset the thread state pointer, release the lock, and finally free their thread state data structure.</p> <p>Beginning with version 2.3, threads can now take advantage of the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyGILState_*()</span></tt> functions to do all of the above automatically. The typical idiom for calling into Python from a C thread is now:</p> <div class="highlight-c"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">PyGILState_STATE</span> <span class="n">gstate</span><span class="p">;</span> <span class="n">gstate</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">PyGILState_Ensure</span><span class="p">();</span> <span class="cm">/* Perform Python actions here. */</span> <span class="n">result</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">CallSomeFunction</span><span class="p">();</span> <span class="cm">/* evaluate result */</span> <span class="cm">/* Release the thread. No Python API allowed beyond this point. */</span> <span class="n">PyGILState_Release</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">gstate</span><span class="p">);</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>Note that the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyGILState_*()</span></tt> functions assume there is only one global interpreter (created automatically by <a title="Py_Initialize" class="reference internal" href="#Py_Initialize"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_Initialize()</span></tt></a>). Python still supports the creation of additional interpreters (using <a title="Py_NewInterpreter" class="reference internal" href="#Py_NewInterpreter"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_NewInterpreter()</span></tt></a>), but mixing multiple interpreters and the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyGILState_*()</span></tt> API is unsupported.</p> <p>Another important thing to note about threads is their behaviour in the face of the C <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">fork()</span></tt> call. On most systems with <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">fork()</span></tt>, after a process forks only the thread that issued the fork will exist. That also means any locks held by other threads will never be released. Python solves this for <a title="os.fork" class="reference external" href="../library/os.html#os.fork"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.fork()</span></tt></a> by acquiring the locks it uses internally before the fork, and releasing them afterwards. In addition, it resets any <a class="reference external" href="../library/threading.html#lock-objects"><em>Lock Objects</em></a> in the child. When extending or embedding Python, there is no way to inform Python of additional (non-Python) locks that need to be acquired before or reset after a fork. OS facilities such as <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">posix_atfork()</span></tt> would need to be used to accomplish the same thing. Additionally, when extending or embedding Python, calling <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">fork()</span></tt> directly rather than through <a title="os.fork" class="reference external" href="../library/os.html#os.fork"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.fork()</span></tt></a> (and returning to or calling into Python) may result in a deadlock by one of Python’s internal locks being held by a thread that is defunct after the fork. <a title="PyOS_AfterFork" class="reference external" href="sys.html#PyOS_AfterFork"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyOS_AfterFork()</span></tt></a> tries to reset the necessary locks, but is not always able to.</p> <dl class="ctype"> <dt id="PyInterpreterState"> <tt class="descname">PyInterpreterState</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#PyInterpreterState" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>This data structure represents the state shared by a number of cooperating threads. Threads belonging to the same interpreter share their module administration and a few other internal items. There are no public members in this structure.</p> <p>Threads belonging to different interpreters initially share nothing, except process state like available memory, open file descriptors and such. The global interpreter lock is also shared by all threads, regardless of to which interpreter they belong.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="ctype"> <dt id="PyThreadState"> <tt class="descname">PyThreadState</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#PyThreadState" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>This data structure represents the state of a single thread. The only public data member is <a title="PyInterpreterState" class="reference internal" href="#PyInterpreterState"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyInterpreterState</span> <span class="pre">*</span></tt></a><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">interp</span></tt>, which points to this thread’s interpreter state.</dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyEval_InitThreads"> void <tt class="descname">PyEval_InitThreads</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyEval_InitThreads" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p id="index-60">Initialize and acquire the global interpreter lock. It should be called in the main thread before creating a second thread or engaging in any other thread operations such as <a title="PyEval_ReleaseLock" class="reference internal" href="#PyEval_ReleaseLock"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyEval_ReleaseLock()</span></tt></a> or <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyEval_ReleaseThread(tstate)</span></tt>. It is not needed before calling <a title="PyEval_SaveThread" class="reference internal" href="#PyEval_SaveThread"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyEval_SaveThread()</span></tt></a> or <a title="PyEval_RestoreThread" class="reference internal" href="#PyEval_RestoreThread"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyEval_RestoreThread()</span></tt></a>.</p> <p id="index-61">This is a no-op when called for a second time. It is safe to call this function before calling <a title="Py_Initialize" class="reference internal" href="#Py_Initialize"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_Initialize()</span></tt></a>.</p> <p id="index-62">When only the main thread exists, no GIL operations are needed. This is a common situation (most Python programs do not use threads), and the lock operations slow the interpreter down a bit. Therefore, the lock is not created initially. This situation is equivalent to having acquired the lock: when there is only a single thread, all object accesses are safe. Therefore, when this function initializes the global interpreter lock, it also acquires it. Before the Python <a title="Create multiple threads of control within one interpreter." class="reference external" href="../library/thread.html#module-thread"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">thread</span></tt></a> module creates a new thread, knowing that either it has the lock or the lock hasn’t been created yet, it calls <a title="PyEval_InitThreads" class="reference internal" href="#PyEval_InitThreads"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyEval_InitThreads()</span></tt></a>. When this call returns, it is guaranteed that the lock has been created and that the calling thread has acquired it.</p> <p>It is <strong>not</strong> safe to call this function when it is unknown which thread (if any) currently has the global interpreter lock.</p> <p>This function is not available when thread support is disabled at compile time.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyEval_ThreadsInitialized"> int <tt class="descname">PyEval_ThreadsInitialized</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyEval_ThreadsInitialized" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Returns a non-zero value if <a title="PyEval_InitThreads" class="reference internal" href="#PyEval_InitThreads"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyEval_InitThreads()</span></tt></a> has been called. This function can be called without holding the GIL, and therefore can be used to avoid calls to the locking API when running single-threaded. This function is not available when thread support is disabled at compile time.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.4.</span></p> </dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyEval_AcquireLock"> void <tt class="descname">PyEval_AcquireLock</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyEval_AcquireLock" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Acquire the global interpreter lock. The lock must have been created earlier. If this thread already has the lock, a deadlock ensues. This function is not available when thread support is disabled at compile time.</dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyEval_ReleaseLock"> void <tt class="descname">PyEval_ReleaseLock</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyEval_ReleaseLock" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Release the global interpreter lock. The lock must have been created earlier. This function is not available when thread support is disabled at compile time.</dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyEval_AcquireThread"> void <tt class="descname">PyEval_AcquireThread</tt><big>(</big><a title="PyThreadState" class="reference internal" href="#PyThreadState">PyThreadState</a><em> *tstate</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyEval_AcquireThread" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Acquire the global interpreter lock and set the current thread state to <em>tstate</em>, which should not be <em>NULL</em>. The lock must have been created earlier. If this thread already has the lock, deadlock ensues. This function is not available when thread support is disabled at compile time.</dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyEval_ReleaseThread"> void <tt class="descname">PyEval_ReleaseThread</tt><big>(</big><a title="PyThreadState" class="reference internal" href="#PyThreadState">PyThreadState</a><em> *tstate</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyEval_ReleaseThread" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Reset the current thread state to <em>NULL</em> and release the global interpreter lock. The lock must have been created earlier and must be held by the current thread. The <em>tstate</em> argument, which must not be <em>NULL</em>, is only used to check that it represents the current thread state — if it isn’t, a fatal error is reported. This function is not available when thread support is disabled at compile time.</dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyEval_SaveThread"> <a title="PyThreadState" class="reference internal" href="#PyThreadState">PyThreadState</a>* <tt class="descname">PyEval_SaveThread</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyEval_SaveThread" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Release the global interpreter lock (if it has been created and thread support is enabled) and reset the thread state to <em>NULL</em>, returning the previous thread state (which is not <em>NULL</em>). If the lock has been created, the current thread must have acquired it. (This function is available even when thread support is disabled at compile time.)</dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyEval_RestoreThread"> void <tt class="descname">PyEval_RestoreThread</tt><big>(</big><a title="PyThreadState" class="reference internal" href="#PyThreadState">PyThreadState</a><em> *tstate</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyEval_RestoreThread" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Acquire the global interpreter lock (if it has been created and thread support is enabled) and set the thread state to <em>tstate</em>, which must not be <em>NULL</em>. If the lock has been created, the current thread must not have acquired it, otherwise deadlock ensues. (This function is available even when thread support is disabled at compile time.)</dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyEval_ReInitThreads"> void <tt class="descname">PyEval_ReInitThreads</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyEval_ReInitThreads" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>This function is called from <a title="PyOS_AfterFork" class="reference external" href="sys.html#PyOS_AfterFork"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyOS_AfterFork()</span></tt></a> to ensure that newly created child processes don’t hold locks referring to threads which are not running in the child process.</dd></dl> <p>The following macros are normally used without a trailing semicolon; look for example usage in the Python source distribution.</p> <dl class="cmacro"> <dt id="Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS"> <tt class="descname">Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>This macro expands to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">{</span> <span class="pre">PyThreadState</span> <span class="pre">*_save;</span> <span class="pre">_save</span> <span class="pre">=</span> <span class="pre">PyEval_SaveThread();</span></tt>. Note that it contains an opening brace; it must be matched with a following <a title="Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS" class="reference internal" href="#Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS</span></tt></a> macro. See above for further discussion of this macro. It is a no-op when thread support is disabled at compile time.</dd></dl> <dl class="cmacro"> <dt id="Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS"> <tt class="descname">Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>This macro expands to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyEval_RestoreThread(_save);</span> <span class="pre">}</span></tt>. Note that it contains a closing brace; it must be matched with an earlier <a title="Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS" class="reference internal" href="#Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS</span></tt></a> macro. See above for further discussion of this macro. It is a no-op when thread support is disabled at compile time.</dd></dl> <dl class="cmacro"> <dt id="Py_BLOCK_THREADS"> <tt class="descname">Py_BLOCK_THREADS</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#Py_BLOCK_THREADS" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>This macro expands to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyEval_RestoreThread(_save);</span></tt>: it is equivalent to <a title="Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS" class="reference internal" href="#Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS</span></tt></a> without the closing brace. It is a no-op when thread support is disabled at compile time.</dd></dl> <dl class="cmacro"> <dt id="Py_UNBLOCK_THREADS"> <tt class="descname">Py_UNBLOCK_THREADS</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#Py_UNBLOCK_THREADS" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>This macro expands to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">_save</span> <span class="pre">=</span> <span class="pre">PyEval_SaveThread();</span></tt>: it is equivalent to <a title="Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS" class="reference internal" href="#Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS</span></tt></a> without the opening brace and variable declaration. It is a no-op when thread support is disabled at compile time.</dd></dl> <p>All of the following functions are only available when thread support is enabled at compile time, and must be called only when the global interpreter lock has been created.</p> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyInterpreterState_New"> <a title="PyInterpreterState" class="reference internal" href="#PyInterpreterState">PyInterpreterState</a>* <tt class="descname">PyInterpreterState_New</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyInterpreterState_New" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Create a new interpreter state object. The global interpreter lock need not be held, but may be held if it is necessary to serialize calls to this function.</dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyInterpreterState_Clear"> void <tt class="descname">PyInterpreterState_Clear</tt><big>(</big><a title="PyInterpreterState" class="reference internal" href="#PyInterpreterState">PyInterpreterState</a><em> *interp</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyInterpreterState_Clear" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Reset all information in an interpreter state object. The global interpreter lock must be held.</dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyInterpreterState_Delete"> void <tt class="descname">PyInterpreterState_Delete</tt><big>(</big><a title="PyInterpreterState" class="reference internal" href="#PyInterpreterState">PyInterpreterState</a><em> *interp</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyInterpreterState_Delete" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Destroy an interpreter state object. The global interpreter lock need not be held. The interpreter state must have been reset with a previous call to <a title="PyInterpreterState_Clear" class="reference internal" href="#PyInterpreterState_Clear"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyInterpreterState_Clear()</span></tt></a>.</dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyThreadState_New"> <a title="PyThreadState" class="reference internal" href="#PyThreadState">PyThreadState</a>* <tt class="descname">PyThreadState_New</tt><big>(</big><a title="PyInterpreterState" class="reference internal" href="#PyInterpreterState">PyInterpreterState</a><em> *interp</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyThreadState_New" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Create a new thread state object belonging to the given interpreter object. The global interpreter lock need not be held, but may be held if it is necessary to serialize calls to this function.</dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyThreadState_Clear"> void <tt class="descname">PyThreadState_Clear</tt><big>(</big><a title="PyThreadState" class="reference internal" href="#PyThreadState">PyThreadState</a><em> *tstate</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyThreadState_Clear" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Reset all information in a thread state object. The global interpreter lock must be held.</dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyThreadState_Delete"> void <tt class="descname">PyThreadState_Delete</tt><big>(</big><a title="PyThreadState" class="reference internal" href="#PyThreadState">PyThreadState</a><em> *tstate</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyThreadState_Delete" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Destroy a thread state object. The global interpreter lock need not be held. The thread state must have been reset with a previous call to <a title="PyThreadState_Clear" class="reference internal" href="#PyThreadState_Clear"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyThreadState_Clear()</span></tt></a>.</dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyThreadState_Get"> <a title="PyThreadState" class="reference internal" href="#PyThreadState">PyThreadState</a>* <tt class="descname">PyThreadState_Get</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyThreadState_Get" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Return the current thread state. The global interpreter lock must be held. When the current thread state is <em>NULL</em>, this issues a fatal error (so that the caller needn’t check for <em>NULL</em>).</dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyThreadState_Swap"> <a title="PyThreadState" class="reference internal" href="#PyThreadState">PyThreadState</a>* <tt class="descname">PyThreadState_Swap</tt><big>(</big><a title="PyThreadState" class="reference internal" href="#PyThreadState">PyThreadState</a><em> *tstate</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyThreadState_Swap" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Swap the current thread state with the thread state given by the argument <em>tstate</em>, which may be <em>NULL</em>. The global interpreter lock must be held.</dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyThreadState_GetDict"> <a title="PyObject" class="reference external" href="structures.html#PyObject">PyObject</a>* <tt class="descname">PyThreadState_GetDict</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyThreadState_GetDict" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><em class="refcount">Return value: Borrowed reference.</em><p>Return a dictionary in which extensions can store thread-specific state information. Each extension should use a unique key to use to store state in the dictionary. It is okay to call this function when no current thread state is available. If this function returns <em>NULL</em>, no exception has been raised and the caller should assume no current thread state is available.</p> <p class="versionchanged"> <span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 2.3: </span>Previously this could only be called when a current thread is active, and <em>NULL</em> meant that an exception was raised.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyThreadState_SetAsyncExc"> int <tt class="descname">PyThreadState_SetAsyncExc</tt><big>(</big>long<em> id</em>, <a title="PyObject" class="reference external" href="structures.html#PyObject">PyObject</a><em> *exc</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyThreadState_SetAsyncExc" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Asynchronously raise an exception in a thread. The <em>id</em> argument is the thread id of the target thread; <em>exc</em> is the exception object to be raised. This function does not steal any references to <em>exc</em>. To prevent naive misuse, you must write your own C extension to call this. Must be called with the GIL held. Returns the number of thread states modified; this is normally one, but will be zero if the thread id isn’t found. If <em>exc</em> is <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">NULL</span></tt>, the pending exception (if any) for the thread is cleared. This raises no exceptions.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.3.</span></p> </dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyGILState_Ensure"> PyGILState_STATE <tt class="descname">PyGILState_Ensure</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyGILState_Ensure" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Ensure that the current thread is ready to call the Python C API regardless of the current state of Python, or of the global interpreter lock. This may be called as many times as desired by a thread as long as each call is matched with a call to <a title="PyGILState_Release" class="reference internal" href="#PyGILState_Release"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyGILState_Release()</span></tt></a>. In general, other thread-related APIs may be used between <a title="PyGILState_Ensure" class="reference internal" href="#PyGILState_Ensure"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyGILState_Ensure()</span></tt></a> and <a title="PyGILState_Release" class="reference internal" href="#PyGILState_Release"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyGILState_Release()</span></tt></a> calls as long as the thread state is restored to its previous state before the Release(). For example, normal usage of the <a title="Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS" class="reference internal" href="#Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS</span></tt></a> and <a title="Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS" class="reference internal" href="#Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS</span></tt></a> macros is acceptable.</p> <p>The return value is an opaque “handle” to the thread state when <a title="PyGILState_Ensure" class="reference internal" href="#PyGILState_Ensure"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyGILState_Ensure()</span></tt></a> was called, and must be passed to <a title="PyGILState_Release" class="reference internal" href="#PyGILState_Release"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyGILState_Release()</span></tt></a> to ensure Python is left in the same state. Even though recursive calls are allowed, these handles <em>cannot</em> be shared - each unique call to <a title="PyGILState_Ensure" class="reference internal" href="#PyGILState_Ensure"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyGILState_Ensure()</span></tt></a> must save the handle for its call to <a title="PyGILState_Release" class="reference internal" href="#PyGILState_Release"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyGILState_Release()</span></tt></a>.</p> <p>When the function returns, the current thread will hold the GIL. Failure is a fatal error.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.3.</span></p> </dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyGILState_Release"> void <tt class="descname">PyGILState_Release</tt><big>(</big>PyGILState_STATE<big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyGILState_Release" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Release any resources previously acquired. After this call, Python’s state will be the same as it was prior to the corresponding <a title="PyGILState_Ensure" class="reference internal" href="#PyGILState_Ensure"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyGILState_Ensure()</span></tt></a> call (but generally this state will be unknown to the caller, hence the use of the GILState API.)</p> <p>Every call to <a title="PyGILState_Ensure" class="reference internal" href="#PyGILState_Ensure"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyGILState_Ensure()</span></tt></a> must be matched by a call to <a title="PyGILState_Release" class="reference internal" href="#PyGILState_Release"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyGILState_Release()</span></tt></a> on the same thread.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.3.</span></p> </dd></dl> </div> <div class="section" id="profiling-and-tracing"> <span id="profiling"></span><h2>Profiling and Tracing<a class="headerlink" href="#profiling-and-tracing" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>The Python interpreter provides some low-level support for attaching profiling and execution tracing facilities. These are used for profiling, debugging, and coverage analysis tools.</p> <p>Starting with Python 2.2, the implementation of this facility was substantially revised, and an interface from C was added. This C interface allows the profiling or tracing code to avoid the overhead of calling through Python-level callable objects, making a direct C function call instead. The essential attributes of the facility have not changed; the interface allows trace functions to be installed per-thread, and the basic events reported to the trace function are the same as had been reported to the Python-level trace functions in previous versions.</p> <dl class="ctype"> <dt id="Py_tracefunc"> int <tt class="descname">(*Py_tracefunc)</tt><big>(</big><a title="PyObject" class="reference external" href="structures.html#PyObject">PyObject</a><em> *obj</em>, PyFrameObject<em> *frame</em>, int<em> what</em>, <a title="PyObject" class="reference external" href="structures.html#PyObject">PyObject</a><em> *arg</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#Py_tracefunc" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>The type of the trace function registered using <a title="PyEval_SetProfile" class="reference internal" href="#PyEval_SetProfile"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyEval_SetProfile()</span></tt></a> and <a title="PyEval_SetTrace" class="reference internal" href="#PyEval_SetTrace"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyEval_SetTrace()</span></tt></a>. The first parameter is the object passed to the registration function as <em>obj</em>, <em>frame</em> is the frame object to which the event pertains, <em>what</em> is one of the constants <a title="PyTrace_CALL" class="reference internal" href="#PyTrace_CALL"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyTrace_CALL</span></tt></a>, <a title="PyTrace_EXCEPTION" class="reference internal" href="#PyTrace_EXCEPTION"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyTrace_EXCEPTION</span></tt></a>, <a title="PyTrace_LINE" class="reference internal" href="#PyTrace_LINE"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyTrace_LINE</span></tt></a>, <a title="PyTrace_RETURN" class="reference internal" href="#PyTrace_RETURN"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyTrace_RETURN</span></tt></a>, <a title="PyTrace_C_CALL" class="reference internal" href="#PyTrace_C_CALL"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyTrace_C_CALL</span></tt></a>, <a title="PyTrace_C_EXCEPTION" class="reference internal" href="#PyTrace_C_EXCEPTION"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyTrace_C_EXCEPTION</span></tt></a>, or <a title="PyTrace_C_RETURN" class="reference internal" href="#PyTrace_C_RETURN"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyTrace_C_RETURN</span></tt></a>, and <em>arg</em> depends on the value of <em>what</em>:</p> <table border="1" class="docutils"> <colgroup> <col width="44%" /> <col width="56%" /> </colgroup> <thead valign="bottom"> <tr><th class="head">Value of <em>what</em></th> <th class="head">Meaning of <em>arg</em></th> </tr> </thead> <tbody valign="top"> <tr><td><a title="PyTrace_CALL" class="reference internal" href="#PyTrace_CALL"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyTrace_CALL</span></tt></a></td> <td>Always <em>NULL</em>.</td> </tr> <tr><td><a title="PyTrace_EXCEPTION" class="reference internal" href="#PyTrace_EXCEPTION"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyTrace_EXCEPTION</span></tt></a></td> <td>Exception information as returned by <a title="sys.exc_info" class="reference external" href="../library/sys.html#sys.exc_info"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.exc_info()</span></tt></a>.</td> </tr> <tr><td><a title="PyTrace_LINE" class="reference internal" href="#PyTrace_LINE"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyTrace_LINE</span></tt></a></td> <td>Always <em>NULL</em>.</td> </tr> <tr><td><a title="PyTrace_RETURN" class="reference internal" href="#PyTrace_RETURN"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyTrace_RETURN</span></tt></a></td> <td>Value being returned to the caller.</td> </tr> <tr><td><a title="PyTrace_C_CALL" class="reference internal" href="#PyTrace_C_CALL"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyTrace_C_CALL</span></tt></a></td> <td>Name of function being called.</td> </tr> <tr><td><a title="PyTrace_C_EXCEPTION" class="reference internal" href="#PyTrace_C_EXCEPTION"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyTrace_C_EXCEPTION</span></tt></a></td> <td>Always <em>NULL</em>.</td> </tr> <tr><td><a title="PyTrace_C_RETURN" class="reference internal" href="#PyTrace_C_RETURN"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyTrace_C_RETURN</span></tt></a></td> <td>Always <em>NULL</em>.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </dd></dl> <dl class="cvar"> <dt id="PyTrace_CALL"> int <tt class="descname">PyTrace_CALL</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#PyTrace_CALL" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>The value of the <em>what</em> parameter to a <a title="Py_tracefunc" class="reference internal" href="#Py_tracefunc"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_tracefunc</span></tt></a> function when a new call to a function or method is being reported, or a new entry into a generator. Note that the creation of the iterator for a generator function is not reported as there is no control transfer to the Python bytecode in the corresponding frame.</dd></dl> <dl class="cvar"> <dt id="PyTrace_EXCEPTION"> int <tt class="descname">PyTrace_EXCEPTION</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#PyTrace_EXCEPTION" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>The value of the <em>what</em> parameter to a <a title="Py_tracefunc" class="reference internal" href="#Py_tracefunc"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_tracefunc</span></tt></a> function when an exception has been raised. The callback function is called with this value for <em>what</em> when after any bytecode is processed after which the exception becomes set within the frame being executed. The effect of this is that as exception propagation causes the Python stack to unwind, the callback is called upon return to each frame as the exception propagates. Only trace functions receives these events; they are not needed by the profiler.</dd></dl> <dl class="cvar"> <dt id="PyTrace_LINE"> int <tt class="descname">PyTrace_LINE</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#PyTrace_LINE" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>The value passed as the <em>what</em> parameter to a trace function (but not a profiling function) when a line-number event is being reported.</dd></dl> <dl class="cvar"> <dt id="PyTrace_RETURN"> int <tt class="descname">PyTrace_RETURN</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#PyTrace_RETURN" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>The value for the <em>what</em> parameter to <a title="Py_tracefunc" class="reference internal" href="#Py_tracefunc"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_tracefunc</span></tt></a> functions when a call is returning without propagating an exception.</dd></dl> <dl class="cvar"> <dt id="PyTrace_C_CALL"> int <tt class="descname">PyTrace_C_CALL</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#PyTrace_C_CALL" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>The value for the <em>what</em> parameter to <a title="Py_tracefunc" class="reference internal" href="#Py_tracefunc"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_tracefunc</span></tt></a> functions when a C function is about to be called.</dd></dl> <dl class="cvar"> <dt id="PyTrace_C_EXCEPTION"> int <tt class="descname">PyTrace_C_EXCEPTION</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#PyTrace_C_EXCEPTION" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>The value for the <em>what</em> parameter to <a title="Py_tracefunc" class="reference internal" href="#Py_tracefunc"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_tracefunc</span></tt></a> functions when a C function has thrown an exception.</dd></dl> <dl class="cvar"> <dt id="PyTrace_C_RETURN"> int <tt class="descname">PyTrace_C_RETURN</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#PyTrace_C_RETURN" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>The value for the <em>what</em> parameter to <a title="Py_tracefunc" class="reference internal" href="#Py_tracefunc"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_tracefunc</span></tt></a> functions when a C function has returned.</dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyEval_SetProfile"> void <tt class="descname">PyEval_SetProfile</tt><big>(</big><a title="Py_tracefunc" class="reference internal" href="#Py_tracefunc">Py_tracefunc</a><em> func</em>, <a title="PyObject" class="reference external" href="structures.html#PyObject">PyObject</a><em> *obj</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyEval_SetProfile" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Set the profiler function to <em>func</em>. The <em>obj</em> parameter is passed to the function as its first parameter, and may be any Python object, or <em>NULL</em>. If the profile function needs to maintain state, using a different value for <em>obj</em> for each thread provides a convenient and thread-safe place to store it. The profile function is called for all monitored events except the line-number events.</dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyEval_SetTrace"> void <tt class="descname">PyEval_SetTrace</tt><big>(</big><a title="Py_tracefunc" class="reference internal" href="#Py_tracefunc">Py_tracefunc</a><em> func</em>, <a title="PyObject" class="reference external" href="structures.html#PyObject">PyObject</a><em> *obj</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyEval_SetTrace" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Set the tracing function to <em>func</em>. This is similar to <a title="PyEval_SetProfile" class="reference internal" href="#PyEval_SetProfile"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyEval_SetProfile()</span></tt></a>, except the tracing function does receive line-number events.</dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyEval_GetCallStats"> <a title="PyObject" class="reference external" href="structures.html#PyObject">PyObject</a>* <tt class="descname">PyEval_GetCallStats</tt><big>(</big><a title="PyObject" class="reference external" href="structures.html#PyObject">PyObject</a><em> *self</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyEval_GetCallStats" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return a tuple of function call counts. There are constants defined for the positions within the tuple:</p> <table border="1" class="docutils"> <colgroup> <col width="82%" /> <col width="18%" /> </colgroup> <thead valign="bottom"> <tr><th class="head">Name</th> <th class="head">Value</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody valign="top"> <tr><td><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PCALL_ALL</span></tt></td> <td>0</td> </tr> <tr><td><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PCALL_FUNCTION</span></tt></td> <td>1</td> </tr> <tr><td><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PCALL_FAST_FUNCTION</span></tt></td> <td>2</td> </tr> <tr><td><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PCALL_FASTER_FUNCTION</span></tt></td> <td>3</td> </tr> <tr><td><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PCALL_METHOD</span></tt></td> <td>4</td> </tr> <tr><td><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PCALL_BOUND_METHOD</span></tt></td> <td>5</td> </tr> <tr><td><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PCALL_CFUNCTION</span></tt></td> <td>6</td> </tr> <tr><td><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PCALL_TYPE</span></tt></td> <td>7</td> </tr> <tr><td><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PCALL_GENERATOR</span></tt></td> <td>8</td> </tr> <tr><td><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PCALL_OTHER</span></tt></td> <td>9</td> </tr> <tr><td><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PCALL_POP</span></tt></td> <td>10</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PCALL_FAST_FUNCTION</span></tt> means no argument tuple needs to be created. <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PCALL_FASTER_FUNCTION</span></tt> means that the fast-path frame setup code is used.</p> <p>If there is a method call where the call can be optimized by changing the argument tuple and calling the function directly, it gets recorded twice.</p> <p>This function is only present if Python is compiled with <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">CALL_PROFILE</span></tt> defined.</p> </dd></dl> </div> <div class="section" id="advanced-debugger-support"> <span id="advanced-debugging"></span><h2>Advanced Debugger Support<a class="headerlink" href="#advanced-debugger-support" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2> <p>These functions are only intended to be used by advanced debugging tools.</p> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyInterpreterState_Head"> <a title="PyInterpreterState" class="reference internal" href="#PyInterpreterState">PyInterpreterState</a>* <tt class="descname">PyInterpreterState_Head</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyInterpreterState_Head" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return the interpreter state object at the head of the list of all such objects.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.2.</span></p> </dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyInterpreterState_Next"> <a title="PyInterpreterState" class="reference internal" href="#PyInterpreterState">PyInterpreterState</a>* <tt class="descname">PyInterpreterState_Next</tt><big>(</big><a title="PyInterpreterState" class="reference internal" href="#PyInterpreterState">PyInterpreterState</a><em> *interp</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyInterpreterState_Next" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return the next interpreter state object after <em>interp</em> from the list of all such objects.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.2.</span></p> </dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyInterpreterState_ThreadHead"> <a title="PyThreadState" class="reference internal" href="#PyThreadState">PyThreadState</a> * <tt class="descname">PyInterpreterState_ThreadHead</tt><big>(</big><a title="PyInterpreterState" class="reference internal" href="#PyInterpreterState">PyInterpreterState</a><em> *interp</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyInterpreterState_ThreadHead" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return the a pointer to the first <a title="PyThreadState" class="reference internal" href="#PyThreadState"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyThreadState</span></tt></a> object in the list of threads associated with the interpreter <em>interp</em>.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.2.</span></p> </dd></dl> <dl class="cfunction"> <dt id="PyThreadState_Next"> <a title="PyThreadState" class="reference internal" href="#PyThreadState">PyThreadState</a>* <tt class="descname">PyThreadState_Next</tt><big>(</big><a title="PyThreadState" class="reference internal" href="#PyThreadState">PyThreadState</a><em> *tstate</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#PyThreadState_Next" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Return the next thread state object after <em>tstate</em> from the list of all such objects belonging to the same <a title="PyInterpreterState" class="reference internal" href="#PyInterpreterState"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyInterpreterState</span></tt></a> object.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.2.</span></p> </dd></dl> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="sphinxsidebar"> <div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper"> <h3><a href="../contents.html">Table Of Contents</a></h3> <ul> <li><a class="reference external" href="#">Initialization, Finalization, and Threads</a><ul> <li><a class="reference external" href="#thread-state-and-the-global-interpreter-lock">Thread State and the Global Interpreter Lock</a></li> <li><a class="reference external" href="#profiling-and-tracing">Profiling and Tracing</a></li> <li><a class="reference external" href="#advanced-debugger-support">Advanced Debugger Support</a></li> </ul> </li> </ul> <h4>Previous topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="set.html" title="previous chapter">Set Objects</a></p> <h4>Next topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="memory.html" title="next chapter">Memory Management</a></p> <h3>This Page</h3> <ul class="this-page-menu"> <li><a href="../_sources/c-api/init.txt" rel="nofollow">Show Source</a></li> </ul> <div id="searchbox" style="display: none"> <h3>Quick search</h3> <form class="search" action="../search.html" method="get"> <input type="text" name="q" size="18" /> <input type="submit" value="Go" /> <input type="hidden" name="check_keywords" value="yes" /> <input type="hidden" name="area" value="default" /> </form> <p class="searchtip" style="font-size: 90%"> Enter search terms or a module, class or function name. </p> </div> <script type="text/javascript">$('#searchbox').show(0);</script> </div> </div> <div class="clearer"></div> </div> <div class="related"> <h3>Navigation</h3> <ul> <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px"> <a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index" >index</a></li> <li class="right" > <a href="../modindex.html" title="Global Module Index" >modules</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="memory.html" title="Memory Management" >next</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="set.html" title="Set Objects" >previous</a> |</li> <li><img src="../_static/py.png" alt="" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-top: -1px"/></li> <li><a href="../index.html">Python v2.6.5 documentation</a> »</li> <li><a href="index.html" >Python/C API Reference Manual</a> »</li> </ul> </div> <div class="footer"> © <a href="../copyright.html">Copyright</a> 1990-2010, Python Software Foundation. <br /> The Python Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation. <a href="http://www.python.org/psf/donations/">Please donate.</a> <br /> Last updated on Mar 19, 2010. Created using <a href="http://sphinx.pocoo.org/">Sphinx</a> 0.6.5. </div> </body> </html>