Old Buffer Protocol

These functions were part of the “old buffer protocol” API in Python 2. In Python 3, this protocol doesn’t exist anymore but the functions are still exposed to ease porting 2.x code. They act as a compatibility wrapper around the new buffer protocol, but they don’t give you control over the lifetime of the resources acquired when a buffer is exported.

Therefore, it is recommended that you call PyObject_GetBuffer() (or the y* or w* format codes with the PyArg_ParseTuple() family of functions) to get a buffer view over an object, and PyBuffer_Release() when the buffer view can be released.

int PyObject_AsCharBuffer(PyObject *obj, const char **buffer, Py_ssize_t *buffer_len)

Returns a pointer to a read-only memory location usable as character-based input. The obj argument must support the single-segment character buffer interface. On success, returns 0, sets buffer to the memory location and buffer_len to the buffer length. Returns -1 and sets a TypeError on error.

int PyObject_AsReadBuffer(PyObject *obj, const void **buffer, Py_ssize_t *buffer_len)

Returns a pointer to a read-only memory location containing arbitrary data. The obj argument must support the single-segment readable buffer interface. On success, returns 0, sets buffer to the memory location and buffer_len to the buffer length. Returns -1 and sets a TypeError on error.

int PyObject_CheckReadBuffer(PyObject *o)

Returns 1 if o supports the single-segment readable buffer interface. Otherwise returns 0.

int PyObject_AsWriteBuffer(PyObject *obj, void **buffer, Py_ssize_t *buffer_len)

Returns a pointer to a writable memory location. The obj argument must support the single-segment, character buffer interface. On success, returns 0, sets buffer to the memory location and buffer_len to the buffer length. Returns -1 and sets a TypeError on error.