gh-94673: Always Finalize Static Builtin Types (#95153)

Static builtin types are finalized by calling _PyStaticType_Dealloc().  Before this change, we were skipping finalizing such a type if it still had subtypes (i.e. its tp_subclasses hadn't been cleared yet).  The problem is that types hold several heap objects, which leak if we skip the type's finalization.  This change addresses that.

For context, there's an old comment (from e9e3eab) that says the following:

   // If a type still has subtypes, it cannot be deallocated.
   // A subtype can inherit attributes and methods of its parent type,
   // and a type must no longer be used once it's deallocated.

However, it isn't clear that is actually still true.  Clearing tp_dict should mean it isn't a problem.

Furthermore, the only subtypes that might still be around come from extension modules that didn't clean them up when unloaded (i.e. extensions that do not implement multi-phase initialization, AKA PEP 489).  Those objects are already leaking, so this change doesn't change anything in that regard.  Instead, this change means more objects gets cleaned up that before.

Author: ericsnowcurrently

Objects/typeobject.c

@@ -65,6 +65,8 @@ lookup_maybe_method(PyObject *self, PyObject *attr, int *unbound);
 static int
 slot_tp_setattro(PyObject *self, PyObject *name, PyObject *value);
 
+static inline PyTypeObject * subclass_from_ref(PyObject *ref);
+
 /*
  * finds the beginning of the docstring's introspection signature.
  * if present, returns a pointer pointing to the first '('.
@@ -309,12 +311,11 @@ PyType_Modified(PyTypeObject *type)
         Py_ssize_t i = 0;
         PyObject *ref;
         while (PyDict_Next(subclasses, &i, NULL, &ref)) {
-            assert(PyWeakref_CheckRef(ref));
-            PyObject *obj = PyWeakref_GET_OBJECT(ref);
-            if (obj == Py_None) {
+            PyTypeObject *subclass = subclass_from_ref(ref);  // borrowed
+            if (subclass == NULL) {
                 continue;
             }
-            PyType_Modified(_PyType_CAST(obj));
+            PyType_Modified(subclass);
         }
     }
 
@@ -4211,23 +4212,48 @@ type_dealloc_common(PyTypeObject *type)
 }
 
 
-void
-_PyStaticType_Dealloc(PyTypeObject *type)
+static void
+clear_static_tp_subclasses(PyTypeObject *type)
 {
-    // If a type still has subtypes, it cannot be deallocated.
-    // A subtype can inherit attributes and methods of its parent type,
-    // and a type must no longer be used once it's deallocated.
-    if (type->tp_subclasses != NULL) {
+    if (type->tp_subclasses == NULL) {
         return;
     }
 
+    /* Normally it would be a problem to finalize the type if its
+       tp_subclasses wasn't cleared first.  However, this is only
+       ever called at the end of runtime finalization, so we can be
+       more liberal in cleaning up.  If the given type still has
+       subtypes at this point then some extension module did not
+       correctly finalize its objects.
+
+       We can safely obliterate such subtypes since the extension
+       module and its objects won't be used again, except maybe if
+       the runtime were re-initialized.  In that case the sticky
+       situation would only happen if the module were re-imported
+       then and only if the subtype were stored in a global and only
+       if that global were not overwritten during import.  We'd be
+       fine since the extension is otherwise unsafe and unsupported
+       in that situation, and likely problematic already.
+
+       In any case, this situation means at least some memory is
+       going to leak.  This mostly only affects embedding scenarios.
+     */
+
+    // For now we just clear tp_subclasses.
+
+    Py_CLEAR(type->tp_subclasses);
+}
+
+void
+_PyStaticType_Dealloc(PyTypeObject *type)
+{
     type_dealloc_common(type);
 
     Py_CLEAR(type->tp_dict);
     Py_CLEAR(type->tp_bases);
     Py_CLEAR(type->tp_mro);
     Py_CLEAR(type->tp_cache);
-    // type->tp_subclasses is NULL
+    clear_static_tp_subclasses(type);
 
     // PyObject_ClearWeakRefs() raises an exception if Py_REFCNT() != 0
     if (Py_REFCNT(type) == 0) {
@@ -4296,14 +4322,12 @@ _PyType_GetSubclasses(PyTypeObject *self)
     Py_ssize_t i = 0;
     PyObject *ref;  // borrowed ref
     while (PyDict_Next(subclasses, &i, NULL, &ref)) {
-        assert(PyWeakref_CheckRef(ref));
-        PyObject *obj = PyWeakref_GET_OBJECT(ref);  // borrowed ref
-        if (obj == Py_None) {
+        PyTypeObject *subclass = subclass_from_ref(ref);  // borrowed
+        if (subclass == NULL) {
             continue;
         }
-        assert(PyType_Check(obj));
 
-        if (PyList_Append(list, obj) < 0) {
+        if (PyList_Append(list, _PyObject_CAST(subclass)) < 0) {
             Py_DECREF(list);
             return NULL;
         }
@@ -6708,6 +6732,42 @@ add_all_subclasses(PyTypeObject *type, PyObject *bases)
     return res;
 }
 
+static inline PyTypeObject *
+subclass_from_ref(PyObject *ref)
+{
+    assert(PyWeakref_CheckRef(ref));
+    PyObject *obj = PyWeakref_GET_OBJECT(ref);  // borrowed ref
+    assert(obj != NULL);
+    if (obj == Py_None) {
+        return NULL;
+    }
+    assert(PyType_Check(obj));
+    return _PyType_CAST(obj);
+}
+
+static PyObject *
+get_subclasses_key(PyTypeObject *type, PyTypeObject *base)
+{
+    PyObject *key = PyLong_FromVoidPtr((void *) type);
+    if (key != NULL) {
+        return key;
+    }
+    PyErr_Clear();
+
+    /* This basically means we're out of memory.
+       We fall back to manually traversing the values. */
+    Py_ssize_t i = 0;
+    PyObject *ref;  // borrowed ref
+    while (PyDict_Next((PyObject *)base->tp_subclasses, &i, &key, &ref)) {
+        PyTypeObject *subclass = subclass_from_ref(ref);  // borrowed
+        if (subclass == type) {
+            return Py_NewRef(key);
+        }
+    }
+    /* It wasn't found. */
+    return NULL;
+}
+
 static void
 remove_subclass(PyTypeObject *base, PyTypeObject *type)
 {
@@ -6717,8 +6777,8 @@ remove_subclass(PyTypeObject *base, PyTypeObject *type)
     }
     assert(PyDict_CheckExact(subclasses));
 
-    PyObject *key = PyLong_FromVoidPtr((void *) type);
-    if (key == NULL || PyDict_DelItem(subclasses, key)) {
+    PyObject *key = get_subclasses_key(type, base);
+    if (key != NULL && PyDict_DelItem(subclasses, key)) {
         /* This can happen if the type initialization errored out before
            the base subclasses were updated (e.g. a non-str __qualname__
            was passed in the type dict). */
@@ -8811,13 +8871,10 @@ recurse_down_subclasses(PyTypeObject *type, PyObject *attr_name,
     Py_ssize_t i = 0;
     PyObject *ref;
     while (PyDict_Next(subclasses, &i, NULL, &ref)) {
-        assert(PyWeakref_CheckRef(ref));
-        PyObject *obj = PyWeakref_GET_OBJECT(ref);
-        assert(obj != NULL);
-        if (obj == Py_None) {
+        PyTypeObject *subclass = subclass_from_ref(ref);  // borrowed
+        if (subclass == NULL) {
             continue;
         }
-        PyTypeObject *subclass = _PyType_CAST(obj);
 
         /* Avoid recursing down into unaffected classes */
         PyObject *dict = subclass->tp_dict;

Python/pylifecycle.c

@@ -1672,9 +1672,10 @@ finalize_interp_types(PyInterpreterState *interp)
     _PyLong_FiniTypes(interp);
     _PyThread_FiniType(interp);
     _PyErr_FiniTypes(interp);
-    _PyTypes_Fini(interp);
     _PyTypes_FiniTypes(interp);
 
+    _PyTypes_Fini(interp);
+
     // Call _PyUnicode_ClearInterned() before _PyDict_Fini() since it uses
     // a dict internally.
     _PyUnicode_ClearInterned(interp);