Everything in Python is mutable¶

Problem¶

Developers like Python because it’s possible to modify (almost) everything. This feature is heavily used in unit tests with unittest.mock which can override builtin function, override class methods, modify “constants, etc.

Most optimization rely on assumptions. For example, inlining rely on the fact that the inlined function is not modified. Implement optimization in respect of the Python semantics require to implement various assumptions.

Builtin functions¶

Python provides a lot of builtins functions. All Python applications rely on them, and usually don’t expect that these functions are overriden. In practice, it is very easy to override them.

Example overriden the builtin len() function:

import builtins

def func(obj):
    print("length: %s" % len(obj))

func("abc")
builtins.len = lambda obj: "mock!"
func("abc")

Output:

length: 3
length: mock!

Technically, the len() function is loaded in func() with the LOAD_GLOBAL instruction which first tries to lookup in frame globals namespace, and then lookup in the frame builtins namespace.

Example overriding the len() builtin function with a len() function injected in the global namespace:

def func(obj):
    print("length: %s" % len(obj))

func("abc")
len = lambda obj: "mock!"
func("abc")

Output:

length: 3
length: mock!

Builtins are references in multiple places:

the builtins module
frames have a f_builtins attribute (builtins dictionary)
the global PyInterpreterState structure has a builtins attribute (builtins dictionary)
frame globals have a __builtins__ variable (builtins dictionary, or builtins module when __name__ equals __main__)

Function code¶

It is possible to modify at runtime the bytecode of a function to modify completly its behaviour. Example:

def func(x, y):
    return x + y

print("1+2 = %s" % func(1, 2))

def mock(x, y):
    return 'mock'

func.__code__ = mock.__code__
print("1+2 = %s" % func(1, 2))

Output:

1+2 = 3
1+2 = mock

Local variables¶

Technically, it is possible to modify local variable of a function outside the function.

Example of a function hack() which modifies the x local variable of its caller:

import sys
import ctypes

def hack():
    # Get the frame object of the caller
    frame = sys._getframe(1)
    frame.f_locals['x'] = "hack!"
    # Force an update of locals array from locals dict
    ctypes.pythonapi.PyFrame_LocalsToFast(ctypes.py_object(frame),
                                          ctypes.c_int(0))

def func():
    x = 1
    hack()
    print(x)

func()

Output:

hack!

Modification made from other modules¶

A Python module A can be modified by a Python module B.

Multithreading¶

When two Python threads are running, the thread B can modify shared resources of thread A, or even resources which are supposed to only be access by the thread A like local variables.

The thread B can modify function code, override builtin functions, modify local variables, etc.

Python Imports and Python Modules¶

The Python import path sys.path is initialized by multiple environment variables (ex: PYTHONPATH and PYTHONHOME), modified by the site module and can be modified anytime at runtime (by modifying sys.path directly).

Moreover, it is possible to modify sys.modules which is the “cache” between a module fully qualified name and the module object. For example, sys.modules['sys'] should be sys. It is posible to remove modules from sys.modules to force to reload a module. It is possible to replace a module in sys.modules.

The eventlet modules injects monkey-patched modules in sys.modules to convert I/O blocking operations to asynchronous operations using an event loop.

Solutions¶

Make strong assumptions, ignore changes¶

If the optimizer is an opt-in options, users are aware that the optimizer can make some compromises on the Python semantics to implement more aggressive optimizations.

Static analysis¶

Analyze the code to ensure that functions don’t mutate everything, for example ensure that a function is pure.

Dummy example:

def func(x, y):
    return x + y

This function func() is pure if x and y are int: it has no side effect, the output only depends on the inputs. This function will not override builtins, not modify local variables of the caller, etc. It is safe to call this function from anywhere using guards on the type of x and y arguments.

It is possible to analyze the code to check that an optimization can be enabled.

Use guards checked at runtime¶

For some optimizations, a static analysis cannot ensure that all assumptions required by an optimization will respected. Adding guards allows to check assumptions during the execution to use the optimized code or fallback to the original code.