The buffer interface exports a model where an object can expose its internal data as a set of chunks of data, where each chunk is specified as a pointer/length pair. These chunks are called segments and are presumed to be non-contiguous in memory.
If an object does not export the buffer interface, then its tp_as_buffer member in the PyTypeObject structure should be NULL. Otherwise, the tp_as_buffer will point to a PyBufferProcs structure.
Note: It is very important that your
PyTypeObject structure uses Py_TPFLAGS_DEFAULT
for the
value of the tp_flags member rather than 0
. This
tells the Python runtime that your PyBufferProcs structure
contains the bf_getcharbuffer slot. Older versions of Python
did not have this member, so a new Python interpreter using an old
extension needs to be able to test for its presence before using it.
The first slot is bf_getreadbuffer, of type getreadbufferproc. If this slot is NULL, then the object does not support reading from the internal data. This is non-sensical, so implementors should fill this in, but callers should test that the slot contains a non-NULL value.
The next slot is bf_getwritebuffer having type getwritebufferproc. This slot may be NULL if the object does not allow writing into its returned buffers.
The third slot is bf_getsegcount, with type getsegcountproc. This slot must not be NULL and is used to inform the caller how many segments the object contains. Simple objects such as PyString_Type and PyBuffer_Type objects contain a single segment.
The last slot is bf_getcharbuffer, of type
getcharbufferproc. This slot will only be present if the
Py_TPFLAGS_HAVE_GETCHARBUFFER
flag is present in the
tp_flags field of the object's PyTypeObject. Before using
this slot, the caller should test whether it is present by using the
PyType_HasFeature() function.
If present, it may be NULL, indicating that the object's contents
cannot be used as 8-bit characters.
The slot function may also raise an error if the object's contents
cannot be interpreted as 8-bit characters. For example, if the object
is an array which is configured to hold floating point values, an
exception may be raised if a caller attempts to use
bf_getcharbuffer to fetch a sequence of 8-bit characters.
This notion of exporting the internal buffers as ``text'' is used to
distinguish between objects that are binary in nature, and those which
have character-based content.
Note: The current policy seems to state that these characters may be multi-byte characters. This implies that a buffer size of N does not mean there are N characters present.
-1
. The segment which is passed must be zero or
positive, and strictly less than the number of segments returned by
the bf_getsegcount slot function. On success, returns
0
and sets *ptrptr
to a pointer to the buffer
memory.
*ptrptr
;
the memory buffer must correspond to buffer segment segment.
Must return -1
and set an exception on error.
TypeError should be raised if the object only supports
read-only buffers, and SystemError should be raised when
segment specifies a segment that doesn't exist.
*lenp
.
The function cannot fail.