Message 371813 - Python tracker

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Content
PR 20960 (_bz2 module) triggers an interesting question. The effect of converting a static type to a heap type on pickle, especially for protocols 0 and 1.

pickle.dumps(o, 0) calls object.__reduce__(o) which calls copyreg._reduce_ex(o, 0).

copyreg._reduce_ex() behaves differently on heap types:

    ...
    for base in cls.__mro__:
        if hasattr(base, '__flags__') and not base.__flags__ & _HEAPTYPE:
            break
    else:
        base = object # not really reachable
    ...

There are 3 things which impacts serialization/deserialization:

- Py_TPFLAGS_HEAPTYPE flag in the type flags
- Is __new__() overriden in the type?
- Py_TPFLAGS_BASETYPE flag in the type flags

Examples:

* In Python 3.7, _random.Random() cannot be serialized because it's a static type (it doesn't have (Py_TPFLAGS_HEAPTYPE)
* In master, _random.Random() cannot be deserialized because _random.Random() has __new__() method (it's not object.__new__())