Support keep_alive where nurse may be None
For example keep_alive<0,1>() should work where the return value may sometimes be None. At present a "Could not allocate weak reference!" exception is thrown.
Update documentation to clarify behaviour of keep_alive when nurse is None or does not support weak references.
diff --git a/docs/advanced.rst b/docs/advanced.rst
index 0a84a45..a050dfb 100644
--- a/docs/advanced.rst
+++ b/docs/advanced.rst
@@ -663,10 +663,13 @@
specified to indicate dependencies between parameters. There is currently just
one policy named ``keep_alive<Nurse, Patient>``, which indicates that the
argument with index ``Patient`` should be kept alive at least until the
-argument with index ``Nurse`` is freed by the garbage collector; argument
-indices start at one, while zero refers to the return value. For methods, index
-one refers to the implicit ``this`` pointer, while regular arguments begin at
-index two. Arbitrarily many call policies can be specified.
+argument with index ``Nurse`` is freed by the garbage collector, as long as the
+nurse object supports weak references (pybind11 extension classes all support
+weak references). If the nurse object does not support weak references and is
+not None an appropriate exception will be thrown. Argument indices start at
+one, while zero refers to the return value. For methods, index one refers to
+the implicit ``this`` pointer, while regular arguments begin at index two.
+Arbitrarily many call policies can be specified.
Consider the following example: the binding code for a list append operation
that ties the lifetime of the newly added element to the underlying container
diff --git a/example/example-keep-alive.cpp b/example/example-keep-alive.cpp
index c099aa8..c2aeaee 100644
--- a/example/example-keep-alive.cpp
+++ b/example/example-keep-alive.cpp
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
~Parent() { std::cout << "Releasing parent." << std::endl; }
void addChild(Child *) { }
Child *returnChild() { return new Child(); }
+ Child *returnNullChild() { return nullptr; }
};
void init_ex_keep_alive(py::module &m) {
@@ -30,7 +31,9 @@
.def("addChild", &Parent::addChild)
.def("addChildKeepAlive", &Parent::addChild, py::keep_alive<1, 2>())
.def("returnChild", &Parent::returnChild)
- .def("returnChildKeepAlive", &Parent::returnChild, py::keep_alive<1, 0>());
+ .def("returnChildKeepAlive", &Parent::returnChild, py::keep_alive<1, 0>())
+ .def("returnNullChildKeepAliveChild", &Parent::returnNullChild, py::keep_alive<1, 0>())
+ .def("returnNullChildKeepAliveParent", &Parent::returnNullChild, py::keep_alive<0, 1>());
py::class_<Child>(m, "Child")
.def(py::init<>());
diff --git a/example/example-keep-alive.py b/example/example-keep-alive.py
index ad0176e..187ad53 100644
--- a/example/example-keep-alive.py
+++ b/example/example-keep-alive.py
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@
gc.collect()
print(p)
p = None
+
gc.collect()
print("")
@@ -43,4 +44,24 @@
gc.collect()
print("")
+
+if True:
+ p = Parent()
+ p.returnNullChildKeepAliveChild()
+ gc.collect()
+ print(p)
+ p = None
+
+gc.collect()
+print("")
+
+if True:
+ p = Parent()
+ p.returnNullChildKeepAliveParent()
+ gc.collect()
+ print(p)
+ p = None
+
+gc.collect()
+print("")
print("Terminating..")
diff --git a/example/example-keep-alive.ref b/example/example-keep-alive.ref
index 7eb02c5..775aff4 100644
--- a/example/example-keep-alive.ref
+++ b/example/example-keep-alive.ref
@@ -22,4 +22,12 @@
Releasing parent.
Releasing child.
+Allocating parent.
+<example.Parent object at 0x10eb726c0>
+Releasing parent.
+
+Allocating parent.
+<example.Parent object at 0x10eb726c0>
+Releasing parent.
+
Terminating..
diff --git a/include/pybind11/pybind11.h b/include/pybind11/pybind11.h
index 427b12c..d82ae92 100644
--- a/include/pybind11/pybind11.h
+++ b/include/pybind11/pybind11.h
@@ -1098,8 +1098,8 @@
if (!nurse || !patient)
pybind11_fail("Could not activate keep_alive!");
- if (patient.ptr() == Py_None)
- return; /* Nothing to keep alive */
+ if (patient.ptr() == Py_None || nurse.ptr() == Py_None)
+ return; /* Nothing to keep alive or nothing to be kept alive by */
cpp_function disable_lifesupport(
[patient](handle weakref) { patient.dec_ref(); weakref.dec_ref(); });