From 3479a719b8647c2615ca16326185859eeb022797 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "Miss Islington (bot)" <31488909+miss-islington@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2024 13:57:42 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] [3.13] gh-127253: Note that Stable ABI is about ABI stability (GH-127254) (GH-127557) (cherry picked from commit 35d37d6592d1be71ea76042165f6cbfa6c4c3a17) Co-authored-by: Petr Viktorin --- Doc/c-api/stable.rst | 14 +++++++++++--- 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/Doc/c-api/stable.rst b/Doc/c-api/stable.rst index 5b9e43874c7f2b..124e58cf950b7a 100644 --- a/Doc/c-api/stable.rst +++ b/Doc/c-api/stable.rst @@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ Limited C API Python 3.2 introduced the *Limited API*, a subset of Python's C API. Extensions that only use the Limited API can be -compiled once and work with multiple versions of Python. +compiled once and be loaded on multiple versions of Python. Contents of the Limited API are :ref:`listed below `. .. c:macro:: Py_LIMITED_API @@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ Contents of the Limited API are :ref:`listed below `. Define ``Py_LIMITED_API`` to the value of :c:macro:`PY_VERSION_HEX` corresponding to the lowest Python version your extension supports. - The extension will work without recompilation with all Python 3 releases + The extension will be ABI-compatible with all Python 3 releases from the specified one onward, and can use Limited API introduced up to that version. @@ -94,7 +94,15 @@ Stable ABI ---------- To enable this, Python provides a *Stable ABI*: a set of symbols that will -remain compatible across Python 3.x versions. +remain ABI-compatible across Python 3.x versions. + +.. note:: + + The Stable ABI prevents ABI issues, like linker errors due to missing + symbols or data corruption due to changes in structure layouts or function + signatures. + However, other changes in Python can change the *behavior* of extensions. + See Python's Backwards Compatibility Policy (:pep:`387`) for details. The Stable ABI contains symbols exposed in the :ref:`Limited API `, but also other ones – for example, functions necessary to