PyBuffer_FillInfo returns 'B' buffer, whose behavior has changed w.r.t. 3.1/3.2

[dvarrazzo]

BPO	16204
Nosy	@vstinner, @dvarrazzo, @skrah
Superseder	bpo-15944: memoryviews and ctypes

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2013-03-23.13:07:43.225>
created_at = <Date 2012-10-11.23:08:17.209>
labels = ['type-bug']
title = "PyBuffer_FillInfo returns 'B' buffer, whose behavior has changed w.r.t. 3.1/3.2"
updated_at = <Date 2013-03-23.13:07:43.224>
user = 'https://github.com/dvarrazzo'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2013-03-23.13:07:43.224>
actor = 'skrah'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2013-03-23.13:07:43.225>
closer = 'skrah'
components = []
creation = <Date 2012-10-11.23:08:17.209>
creator = 'piro'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 16204
keywords = ['3.3regression']
message_count = 3.0
messages = ['172710', '185044', '185046']
nosy_count = 3.0
nosy_names = ['vstinner', 'piro', 'skrah']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'duplicate'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = '15944'
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue16204'
versions = ['Python 3.3', 'Python 3.4']

[dvarrazzo]

Definitely related to this change in Python 3.3:

Accessing a memoryview element with format ‘B’ (unsigned bytes) now 
returns an integer (in accordance with the struct module syntax). 
For returning a bytes object the view must be cast to ‘c’ first.

The object returned by PyBuffer_FillInfo is 'B' format: this means that python code finds itself dealing in Py 3.3 with a different object respect to what returned in Py 3.1 and 3.2. Is this change in the behavior wanted? Wouldn't have been better having FillInfo return a 'c' buffer instead?

I'm adding support to Py 3.3 to psycopg2 and the B buffers make the test suite fail. I want psycopg to return consistent objects across 3.x. Is the change in this commit correct?

dvarrazzo/psycopg@469b6f8

Is this a good way to return a 'c' buffer?

[vstinner]

@skrah: ping!

@piro: can't you modify psycopg2 to add conditional code depending on the Python version? IMO the behaviour change is wanted.

http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-3118/

[skrah]

I've corresponded privately with Daniele Varrazzo about the psycopg2
issue already and then forgot about this (the psycopg2 fix is good).

Yes, the change was intentional. There's one open issue (bpo-15944)
where dabeaz isn't happy about the change, so let's make that a
superseder.