Isue #5084: unpickling now interns the attribute names of pickled objects,
saving memory and avoiding growth in size of subsequent pickles. Proposal
and original patch by Jake McGuire.
diff --git a/Lib/pickle.py b/Lib/pickle.py
index abed1ca..8c5d51f 100644
--- a/Lib/pickle.py
+++ b/Lib/pickle.py
@@ -1221,7 +1221,15 @@
             state, slotstate = state
         if state:
             try:
-                inst.__dict__.update(state)
+                d = inst.__dict__
+                try:
+                    for k, v in state.iteritems():
+                        d[intern(k)] = v
+                # keys in state don't have to be strings
+                # don't blow up, but don't go out of our way
+                except TypeError:
+                    d.update(state)
+
             except RuntimeError:
                 # XXX In restricted execution, the instance's __dict__
                 # is not accessible.  Use the old way of unpickling
diff --git a/Lib/test/pickletester.py b/Lib/test/pickletester.py
index 4ffa702..bc0be1f 100644
--- a/Lib/test/pickletester.py
+++ b/Lib/test/pickletester.py
@@ -938,6 +938,20 @@
                              "Failed protocol %d: %r != %r"
                              % (proto, obj, loaded))
 
+    def test_attribute_name_interning(self):
+        # Test that attribute names of pickled objects are interned when
+        # unpickling.
+        for proto in protocols:
+            x = C()
+            x.foo = 42
+            x.bar = "hello"
+            s = self.dumps(x, proto)
+            y = self.loads(s)
+            x_keys = sorted(x.__dict__)
+            y_keys = sorted(y.__dict__)
+            for x_key, y_key in zip(x_keys, y_keys):
+                self.assertIs(x_key, y_key)
+
 
 # Test classes for reduce_ex