We're no longer using _Py_IDENTIFIER() (or _Py_static_string()) in any core CPython code. It is still used in a number of non-builtin stdlib modules.
The replacement is: PyUnicodeObject (not pointer) fields under _PyRuntimeState, statically initialized as part of _PyRuntime. A new _Py_GET_GLOBAL_IDENTIFIER() macro facilitates lookup of the fields (along with _Py_GET_GLOBAL_STRING() for non-identifier strings).
https://bugs.python.org/issue46541#msg411799 explains the rationale for this change.
The core of the change is in:
* (new) Include/internal/pycore_global_strings.h - the declarations for the global strings, along with the macros
* Include/internal/pycore_runtime_init.h - added the static initializers for the global strings
* Include/internal/pycore_global_objects.h - where the struct in pycore_global_strings.h is hooked into _PyRuntimeState
* Tools/scripts/generate_global_objects.py - added generation of the global string declarations and static initializers
I've also added a --check flag to generate_global_objects.py (along with make check-global-objects) to check for unused global strings. That check is added to the PR CI config.
The remainder of this change updates the core code to use _Py_GET_GLOBAL_IDENTIFIER() instead of _Py_IDENTIFIER() and the related _Py*Id functions (likewise for _Py_GET_GLOBAL_STRING() instead of _Py_static_string()). This includes adding a few functions where there wasn't already an alternative to _Py*Id(), replacing the _Py_Identifier * parameter with PyObject *.
The following are not changed (yet):
* stop using _Py_IDENTIFIER() in the stdlib modules
* (maybe) get rid of _Py_IDENTIFIER(), etc. entirely -- this may not be doable as at least one package on PyPI using this (private) API
* (maybe) intern the strings during runtime init
https://bugs.python.org/issue46541
* Make functools types immutable
* Multibyte codec types are now immutable
* pyexpat.xmlparser is now immutable
* array.arrayiterator is now immutable
* _thread types are now immutable
* _csv types are now immutable
* _queue.SimpleQueue is now immutable
* mmap.mmap is now immutable
* unicodedata.UCD is now immutable
* sqlite3 types are now immutable
* _lsprof.Profiler is now immutable
* _overlapped.Overlapped is now immutable
* _operator types are now immutable
* winapi__overlapped.Overlapped is now immutable
* _lzma types are now immutable
* _bz2 types are now immutable
* _dbm.dbm and _gdbm.gdbm are now immutable
Report the filename to the exception when raising {gdbm,dbm.ndbm}.error in
dbm.gnu.open() and dbm.ndbm.open() functions, so it gets printed when the
exception is raised, and can also be obtained by the filename attribute of the
exception object.
The new syntax is highly human readable while still preventing false
positives. The syntax also extends Python syntax to denote "self" and
positional-only parameters, allowing inspect.Signature objects to be
totally accurate for all supported builtins in Python 3.4.
annotate text signatures in docstrings, resulting in fewer false
positives. "self" parameters are also explicitly marked, allowing
inspect.Signature() to authoritatively detect (and skip) said parameters.
Issue #20326: Argument Clinic now generates separate checksums for the
input and output sections of the block, allowing external tools to verify
that the input has not changed (and thus the output is not out-of-date).
PyMethodDescr_Type, _PyMethodWrapper_Type, and PyWrapperDescr_Type)
have been modified to provide introspection information for builtins.
Also: many additional Lib, test suite, and Argument Clinic fixes.
* You may now specify an expression as the default value for a
parameter! Example: "sys.maxsize - 1". This support is
intentionally quite limited; you may only use values that
can be represented as static C values.
* Removed "doc_default", simplified support for "c_default"
and "py_default". (I'm not sure we still even need
"py_default", but I'm leaving it in for now in case a
use presents itself.)
* Parameter lines support a trailing '\\' as a line
continuation character, allowing you to break up long lines.
* The argument parsing code generated when supporting optional
groups now uses PyTuple_GET_SIZE instead of PyTuple_GetSize,
leading to a 850% speedup in parsing. (Just kidding, this
is an unmeasurable difference.)
* A bugfix for the recent regression where the generated
prototype from pydoc for builtins would be littered with
unreadable "=<object ...>"" default values for parameters
that had no default value.
* Converted some asserts into proper failure messages.
* Many doc improvements and fixes.