227 lines
9.0 KiB
TeX
227 lines
9.0 KiB
TeX
\section{Standard Module \sectcode{pickle}}
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\stmodindex{pickle}
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\index{persistency}
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\indexii{persistent}{objects}
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\indexii{serializing}{objects}
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\indexii{marshalling}{objects}
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\indexii{flattening}{objects}
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\indexii{pickling}{objects}
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\renewcommand{\indexsubitem}{(in module pickle)}
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The \code{pickle} module implements a basic but powerful algorithm for
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``pickling'' (a.k.a.\ serializing, marshalling or flattening) nearly
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arbitrary Python objects. This is a more primitive notion than
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persistency --- although \code{pickle} reads and writes file objects,
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it does not handle the issue of naming persistent objects, nor the
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(even more complicated) area of concurrent access to persistent
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objects. The \code{pickle} module can transform a complex object into
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a byte stream and it can transform the byte stream into an object with
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the same internal structure. The most obvious thing to do with these
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byte streams is to write them onto a file, but it is also conceivable
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to send them across a network or store them in a database. The module
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\code{shelve} provides a simple interface to pickle and unpickle
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objects on ``dbm''-style database files.
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\stmodindex{shelve}
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Unlike the built-in module \code{marshal}, \code{pickle} handles the
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following correctly:
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\stmodindex{marshal}
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\begin{itemize}
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\item recursive objects (objects containing references to themselves)
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\item object sharing (references to the same object in different places)
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\item user-defined classes and their instances
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\end{itemize}
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The data format used by \code{pickle} is Python-specific. This has
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the advantage that there are no restrictions imposed by external
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standards such as CORBA (which probably can't represent pointer
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sharing or recursive objects); however it means that non-Python
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programs may not be able to reconstruct pickled Python objects.
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The \code{pickle} data format uses a printable \ASCII{} representation.
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This is slightly more voluminous than a binary representation.
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However, small integers actually take {\em less} space when
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represented as minimal-size decimal strings than when represented as
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32-bit binary numbers, and strings are only much longer if they
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contain many control characters or 8-bit characters. The big
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advantage of using printable \ASCII{} (and of some other characteristics
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of \code{pickle}'s representation) is that for debugging or recovery
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purposes it is possible for a human to read the pickled file with a
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standard text editor. (I could have gone a step further and used a
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notation like S-expressions, but the parser would have been
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considerably more complicated and slower, and the files would probably
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have become much larger.)
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The \code{pickle} module doesn't handle code objects, which the
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\code{marshal} module does. I suppose \code{pickle} could, and maybe
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it should, but there's probably no great need for it right now (as
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long as \code{marshal} continues to be used for reading and writing
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code objects), and at least this avoids the possibility of smuggling
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Trojan horses into a program.
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\stmodindex{marshal}
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For the benefit of persistency modules written using \code{pickle}, it
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supports the notion of a reference to an object outside the pickled
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data stream. Such objects are referenced by a name, which is an
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arbitrary string of printable \ASCII{} characters. The resolution of
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such names is not defined by the \code{pickle} module --- the
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persistent object module will have to implement a method
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\code{persistent_load}. To write references to persistent objects,
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the persistent module must define a method \code{persistent_id} which
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returns either \code{None} or the persistent ID of the object.
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There are some restrictions on the pickling of class instances.
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First of all, the class must be defined at the top level in a module.
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\renewcommand{\indexsubitem}{(pickle protocol)}
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Next, it must normally be possible to create class instances by
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calling the class without arguments. If this is undesirable, the
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class can define a method \code{__getinitargs__()}, which should
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return a {\em tuple} containing the arguments to be passed to the
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class constructor (\code{__init__()}).
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\ttindex{__getinitargs__}
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\ttindex{__init__}
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Classes can further influence how their instances are pickled --- if the class
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defines the method \code{__getstate__()}, it is called and the return
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state is pickled as the contents for the instance, and if the class
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defines the method \code{__setstate__()}, it is called with the
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unpickled state. (Note that these methods can also be used to
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implement copying class instances.) If there is no
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\code{__getstate__()} method, the instance's \code{__dict__} is
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pickled. If there is no \code{__setstate__()} method, the pickled
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object must be a dictionary and its items are assigned to the new
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instance's dictionary. (If a class defines both \code{__getstate__()}
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and \code{__setstate__()}, the state object needn't be a dictionary
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--- these methods can do what they want.) This protocol is also used
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by the shallow and deep copying operations defined in the \code{copy}
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module.
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\ttindex{__getstate__}
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\ttindex{__setstate__}
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\ttindex{__dict__}
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Note that when class instances are pickled, their class's code and
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data are not pickled along with them. Only the instance data are
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pickled. This is done on purpose, so you can fix bugs in a class or
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add methods and still load objects that were created with an earlier
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version of the class. If you plan to have long-lived objects that
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will see many versions of a class, it may be worthwhile to put a version
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number in the objects so that suitable conversions can be made by the
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class's \code{__setstate__()} method.
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When a class itself is pickled, only its name is pickled --- the class
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definition is not pickled, but re-imported by the unpickling process.
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Therefore, the restriction that the class must be defined at the top
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level in a module applies to pickled classes as well.
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\renewcommand{\indexsubitem}{(in module pickle)}
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The interface can be summarized as follows.
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To pickle an object \code{x} onto a file \code{f}, open for writing:
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\begin{verbatim}
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p = pickle.Pickler(f)
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p.dump(x)
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\end{verbatim}
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A shorthand for this is:
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\begin{verbatim}
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pickle.dump(x, f)
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\end{verbatim}
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To unpickle an object \code{x} from a file \code{f}, open for reading:
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\begin{verbatim}
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u = pickle.Unpickler(f)
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x = u.load(x)
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\end{verbatim}
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A shorthand is:
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\begin{verbatim}
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x = pickle.load(f)
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\end{verbatim}
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The \code{Pickler} class only calls the method \code{f.write} with a
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string argument. The \code{Unpickler} calls the methods \code{f.read}
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(with an integer argument) and \code{f.readline} (without argument),
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both returning a string. It is explicitly allowed to pass non-file
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objects here, as long as they have the right methods.
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\ttindex{Unpickler}
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\ttindex{Pickler}
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The following types can be pickled:
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\begin{itemize}
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\item \code{None}
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\item integers, long integers, floating point numbers
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\item strings
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\item tuples, lists and dictionaries containing only picklable objects
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\item classes that are defined at the top level in a module
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\item instances of such classes whose \code{__dict__} or
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\code{__setstate__()} is picklable
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\end{itemize}
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Attempts to pickle unpicklable objects will raise the
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\code{PicklingError} exception; when this happens, an unspecified
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number of bytes may have been written to the file.
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It is possible to make multiple calls to the \code{dump()} method of
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the same \code{Pickler} instance. These must then be matched to the
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same number of calls to the \code{load()} instance of the
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corresponding \code{Unpickler} instance. If the same object is
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pickled by multiple \code{dump()} calls, the \code{load()} will all
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yield references to the same object. {\em Warning}: this is intended
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for pickling multiple objects without intervening modifications to the
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objects or their parts. If you modify an object and then pickle it
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again using the same \code{Pickler} instance, the object is not
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pickled again --- a reference to it is pickled and the
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\code{Unpickler} will return the old value, not the modified one.
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(There are two problems here: (a) detecting changes, and (b)
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marshalling a minimal set of changes. I have no answers. Garbage
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Collection may also become a problem here.)
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Apart from the \code{Pickler} and \code{Unpickler} classes, the
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module defines the following functions, and an exception:
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\begin{funcdesc}{dump}{object\, file}
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Write a pickled representation of \var{obect} to the open file object
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\var{file}. This is equivalent to \code{Pickler(file).dump(object)}.
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\end{funcdesc}
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\begin{funcdesc}{load}{file}
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Read a pickled object from the open file object \var{file}. This is
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equivalent to \code{Unpickler(file).load()}.
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\end{funcdesc}
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\begin{funcdesc}{dumps}{object}
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Return the pickled representation of the object as a string, instead
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of writing it to a file.
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\end{funcdesc}
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\begin{funcdesc}{loads}{string}
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Read a pickled object from a string instead of a file. Characters in
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the string past the pickled object's representation are ignored.
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\end{funcdesc}
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\begin{excdesc}{PicklingError}
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This exception is raised when an unpicklable object is passed to
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\code{Pickler.dump()}.
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\end{excdesc}
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