[v3,3/4] Add wrappers for Python implementation functions and methods

Message ID 20260521-python-safety-initial-v3-3-d0679c36e499@tromey.com
State New
Headers
Series Python safety initial work |

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Commit Message

Tom Tromey May 21, 2026, 11:27 p.m. UTC
  This adds some wrappers for Python implementation functions and
methods, and a couple of new constexpr functions to create PyMethodDef
entries.  This provides a few safety benefits:

* The new-style API approach (see previous patch) is implemented by
  the wrapper.  That is, exceptions are caught here and transformed.

* The implementation functions can now return any reasonable type,
  with automatic conversion by the wrapper.

* The function API and the appropriate METH_* flags are handled
  together, avoiding any possible discrepancy.

This approach also means that we can modify the old rule that gdb
calls must be wrapped in a try/catch -- the try/catch is now provided
by the wrapper function, so the implementation can be written in a
more natural way.

Note that while this patch is usable as-is, it is not 100% complete,
in sense that there is still future work to do when converting other
parts of the gdb Python code.  For instance, there should be one more
wrapper for case where a method takes a single argument (though we
probably cannot use METH_O unfortunately).
---
 gdb/python/py-safety.h       | 346 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 gdb/python/python-internal.h |   1 +
 2 files changed, 347 insertions(+)
  

Patch

diff --git a/gdb/python/py-safety.h b/gdb/python/py-safety.h
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..3294f38c8b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gdb/python/py-safety.h
@@ -0,0 +1,346 @@ 
+/* Wrappers for some Python safety.
+
+   Copyright (C) 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+
+   This file is part of GDB.
+
+   This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+   it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+   the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or
+   (at your option) any later version.
+
+   This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+   but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+   GNU General Public License for more details.
+
+   You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+   along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.  */
+
+#ifndef GDB_PYTHON_PY_SAFETY_H
+#define GDB_PYTHON_PY_SAFETY_H
+
+#include "gdbsupport/traits.h"
+#include "py-ref.h"
+#include "py-wrappers.h"
+#include "charset.h"
+
+/* This file holds wrapper templates for the various ways that gdb
+   code might be exposed to Python.  These wrappers are part of gdb's
+   "Python safety" approach -- utilities designed to try to prevent
+   refcount problems, missing error checks, and that also remove the
+   need to wrap calls into gdb in an explicit try/catch.
+
+   See py-wrappers.h for some more discussion of this.
+
+   Implementation functions and methods -- the stuff you write to
+   expose some part of gdb to Python -- are written in a certain
+   style.
+
+   An implementation function is a module-level function.  For example
+   something like 'gdb.register_window_type' is implemented as a
+   function.  An implementation method is a method of the gdb class
+   implementing a certain Python type; for example
+   'gdb.TuiWindow.width' is implemented via a method of
+   gdbpy_tui_window.
+
+   Each of these will accept gdbpy_borrowed_ref arguments (or in some
+   more limited situations, a gdbpy_opt_borrowed_ref) and return any
+   relevant type, which will be automatically converted (see the
+   'to_python' overloads below) to the correct Python type.  Note that
+   if the 'to_python' functions aren't appropriate in your case, you
+   can always use the escape hatch of returning a gdbpy_ref<> and
+   handling type conversion manually.
+
+   There are some constexpr functions below that wrap the
+   implementation methods, and create PyMethodDef objects and the
+   like.
+
+   Implementation methods are expected to use the wrappers in
+   py-wrappers.h and not generally call into Python directly.
+
+   Implementation details of the method-wrapping safety code are put
+   into this namespace, just to emphasize that these shouldn't be used
+   elsewhere.  Skip past the namespace to find the public APIs.  */
+namespace safety_details
+{
+/* Overloads of "to_python" are used by the safety wrappers to convert
+   a function's real return value to a Python object.  A new reference
+   will always be returned.  These are a detail of the method-wrapping
+   code.  Note that unlike the "safe" wrapper APIs that are commonly
+   used in gdb, these are all Python-facing and will return NULL on
+   error.  */
+
+static inline PyObject *
+to_python (bool value)
+{
+  return PyBool_FromLong (value);
+}
+
+template<typename T, typename = gdb::Requires<std::is_integral<T>>>
+static inline PyObject *
+to_python (T value)
+{
+  if constexpr (std::is_signed<T>::value)
+    return gdb_py_object_from_longest (value).release ();
+  else
+    return gdb_py_object_from_ulongest (value).release ();
+}
+
+static inline PyObject *
+to_python (const char *value)
+{
+  if (value == nullptr)
+    return py_none ().release ();
+  return PyUnicode_Decode (value, strlen (value), host_charset (), nullptr);
+}
+
+static inline PyObject *
+to_python (std::string &&value)
+{
+  return PyUnicode_Decode (value.c_str (), value.size (),
+			   host_charset (), nullptr);
+}
+
+static inline PyObject *
+to_python (const std::string &value)
+{
+  return PyUnicode_Decode (value.c_str (), value.size (),
+			   host_charset (), nullptr);
+}
+
+static inline PyObject *
+to_python (gdb::unique_xmalloc_ptr<char> &&value)
+{
+  if (value == nullptr)
+    return py_none ().release ();
+  return PyUnicode_Decode (value.get (), strlen (value.get ()),
+			   host_charset (), nullptr);
+}
+
+static inline PyObject *
+to_python (gdbpy_ref<> &&value)
+{
+  return value.release ();
+}
+
+/* An instantiation of this function is used when calling a gdb method
+   from Python.  It accepts some number of arguments (normally
+   gdbpy_borrowed_ref or gdbpy_opt_borrowed_ref), and then calls the
+   underlying function F.  Any exceptions are caught and converted,
+   and the return value of F is converted to a Python object as
+   appropriate.  */
+template<auto F, typename... Args>
+PyObject *
+wrapped_function (Args... args)
+{
+  try
+    {
+      using result_type = typename std::invoke_result_t<decltype (F), Args...>;
+
+      if constexpr (std::is_void_v<result_type>)
+	{
+	  F (args...);
+	  return py_none ().release ();
+	}
+      else
+	return to_python (F (args...));
+    }
+  catch (const gdb_python_exception &pye)
+    {
+      gdb_assert (PyErr_Occurred () != nullptr);
+      return nullptr;
+    }
+  catch (const gdb_exception &exc)
+    {
+      return gdbpy_handle_gdb_exception (nullptr, exc);
+    }
+}
+
+/* An instantiation of this function is used when calling a gdb method
+   from Python.  It accepts some number of arguments (normally
+   gdbpy_borrowed_ref or gdbpy_opt_borrowed_ref), and then calls the
+   method METH.  Any exceptions are caught and converted, and the
+   return value of METH is converted to a Python object as
+   appropriate.  */
+template<typename Class, typename Ret, typename... Args>
+PyObject *
+wrapped_method (Ret (Class::*meth) (Args...), Class *self, Args... args)
+{
+  try
+    {
+      if constexpr (std::is_void_v<Ret>)
+	{
+	  (self->*meth) (args...);
+	  return py_none ().release ();
+	}
+      else
+	return to_python ((self->*meth) (args...));
+    }
+  catch (const gdb_python_exception &pye)
+    {
+      gdb_assert (PyErr_Occurred () != nullptr);
+      return nullptr;
+    }
+  catch (const gdb_exception &exc)
+    {
+      return gdbpy_handle_gdb_exception (nullptr, exc);
+    }
+}
+
+/* A variant of wrapped_method that accepts a const method.  */
+template<typename Class, typename Ret, typename... Args>
+PyObject *
+wrapped_method (Ret (Class::*meth) (Args...) const, Class *self, Args... args)
+{
+  try
+    {
+      if constexpr (std::is_void_v<Ret>)
+	{
+	  (self->*meth) (args...);
+	  return py_none ().release ();
+	}
+      else
+	return to_python ((self->*meth) (args...));
+    }
+  catch (const gdb_python_exception &pye)
+    {
+      gdb_assert (PyErr_Occurred () != nullptr);
+      return nullptr;
+    }
+  catch (const gdb_exception &exc)
+    {
+      return gdbpy_handle_gdb_exception (nullptr, exc);
+    }
+}
+
+template<auto F>
+PyObject *
+fn_wrapper (PyObject *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kw)
+{
+  return wrapped_function<F> (gdbpy_borrowed_ref<> (args),
+			      gdbpy_opt_borrowed_ref<> (kw));
+}
+
+template<typename C, auto M>
+PyObject *
+varargs_wrapper (PyObject *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kw)
+{
+  return wrapped_method (M, static_cast<C *> (self),
+			 gdbpy_borrowed_ref<> (args),
+			 gdbpy_opt_borrowed_ref<> (kw));
+}
+
+} /* namespace safety_details */
+
+/* Create a PyMethodDef for a no-argument method.  It takes the
+   underlying class C and a pointer-to-method M as template
+   parameters, and the name and documentation as arguments.  The
+   method M is wrapped to call to_python and to catch exceptions per
+   the safety protocol.  */
+template<typename C, auto M>
+constexpr PyMethodDef
+noargs_method (const char *name, const char *doc)
+{
+  using namespace safety_details;
+  return {
+    name,
+    [] (PyObject *self, PyObject *args) -> PyObject *
+    {
+      return wrapped_method (M, static_cast<C *> (self));
+    },
+    METH_NOARGS,
+    doc,
+  };
+}
+
+/* This is used to create the PyMethodDef for a varargs function.  It
+   takes the underlying implementation function as a template
+   argument, and also arguments for the method name and documentation
+   string.
+
+   The underlying function should accept a gdbpy_borrowed_ref argument
+   (the arguments to the Python function), and then a
+   gdbpy_opt_borrowed_ref for the keywords.  The function can return
+   any type (see the to_python overloads); and should throw an
+   exception on error.  If gdb_python_exception is thrown, the Python
+   exception must already have been set.
+
+   The gdb policy is that varargs methods must also accept keywords,
+   and this is enforced here.  */
+template<auto F>
+constexpr PyMethodDef
+varargs_function (const char *name, const char *doc)
+{
+  using namespace safety_details;
+  return {
+    name,
+    (PyCFunction) fn_wrapper<F>,
+    /* gdb's rule is that varargs should also use keywords.  */
+    METH_VARARGS | METH_KEYWORDS,
+    doc,
+  };
+}
+
+/* Like a varargs function, but this implements a method on some
+   Python type that gdb provides.  The implementation class and a
+   pointer-to-method must be specified.  */
+template<typename C, auto M>
+constexpr PyMethodDef
+varargs_method (const char *name, const char *doc)
+{
+  using namespace safety_details;
+  return {
+    name,
+    (PyCFunction) varargs_wrapper<C, M>,
+    /* gdb's rule is that varargs should also use keywords.  */
+    METH_VARARGS | METH_KEYWORDS,
+    doc,
+  };
+}
+
+/* A function that wraps a "repr" or "str" method.  */
+template<typename C, auto M>
+PyObject *
+wrap_tp_callback (PyObject *arg)
+{
+  using namespace safety_details;
+  return wrapped_method (M, static_cast<C *> (arg));
+}
+
+/* A function that wraps a "get" method.  */
+template<typename C, auto M>
+PyObject *
+wrap_getter (PyObject *arg, void *closure)
+{
+  using namespace safety_details;
+  /* In gdb the closure argument is never used.  */
+  return wrapped_method (M, static_cast<C *> (arg));
+}
+
+/* A function that wraps a "set" method.  */
+template<typename C, void (C::*M) (gdbpy_opt_borrowed_ref<>)>
+int
+wrap_setter (PyObject *arg, PyObject *value, void *closure)
+{
+  using namespace safety_details;
+  try
+    {
+      C *self = static_cast<C *> (arg);
+      /* In gdb the closure argument is never used.  */
+      (self->*M) (gdbpy_opt_borrowed_ref<> (value));
+    }
+  catch (const gdb_python_exception &pye)
+    {
+      gdb_assert (PyErr_Occurred () != nullptr);
+      return -1;
+    }
+  catch (const gdb_exception &exc)
+    {
+      return gdbpy_handle_gdb_exception (-1, exc);
+    }
+
+  return 0;
+}
+
+#endif /* GDB_PYTHON_PY_SAFETY_H */
diff --git a/gdb/python/python-internal.h b/gdb/python/python-internal.h
index 3ec75ca08d5..c7a496899e0 100644
--- a/gdb/python/python-internal.h
+++ b/gdb/python/python-internal.h
@@ -1385,5 +1385,6 @@  py_notimplemented ()
 #undef Py_RETURN_NOTIMPLEMENTED
 
 #include "py-wrappers.h"
+#include "py-safety.h"
 
 #endif /* GDB_PYTHON_PYTHON_INTERNAL_H */