Issue #22098: ctypes' BigEndianStructure and LittleEndianStructure now define an empty __slots__ so that subclasses don't always get an instance dict.

Patch by Claudiu Popa.

Lib/ctypes/_endian.py

@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ if sys.byteorder == "little":
 
     class BigEndianStructure(Structure, metaclass=_swapped_meta):
         """Structure with big endian byte order"""
+        __slots__ = ()
         _swappedbytes_ = None
 
 elif sys.byteorder == "big":
@@ -53,6 +54,7 @@ elif sys.byteorder == "big":
     BigEndianStructure = Structure
     class LittleEndianStructure(Structure, metaclass=_swapped_meta):
         """Structure with little endian byte order"""
+        __slots__ = ()
         _swappedbytes_ = None
 
 else:

Lib/ctypes/test/test_byteswap.py

@@ -22,6 +22,26 @@ class Test(unittest.TestCase):
             setattr(bits, "i%s" % i, 1)
             dump(bits)
 
+    def test_slots(self):
+        class BigPoint(BigEndianStructure):
+            __slots__ = ()
+            _fields_ = [("x", c_int), ("y", c_int)]
+
+        class LowPoint(LittleEndianStructure):
+            __slots__ = ()
+            _fields_ = [("x", c_int), ("y", c_int)]
+
+        big = BigPoint()
+        little = LowPoint()
+        big.x = 4
+        big.y = 2
+        little.x = 2
+        little.y = 4
+        with self.assertRaises(AttributeError):
+            big.z = 42
+        with self.assertRaises(AttributeError):
+            little.z = 24
+
     def test_endian_short(self):
         if sys.byteorder == "little":
             self.assertIs(c_short.__ctype_le__, c_short)

Misc/NEWS

@@ -124,6 +124,10 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #22098: ctypes' BigEndianStructure and LittleEndianStructure now
+  define an empty __slots__ so that subclasses don't always get an instance
+  dict.  Patch by Claudiu Popa.
+
 - Issue #22185: Fix an occasional RuntimeError in threading.Condition.wait()
   caused by mutation of the waiters queue without holding the lock.  Patch
   by Doug Zongker.