Emulating callable objects

Classes can be callable if they have a #[pymethod] named __call__. This allows instances of a class to behave similar to functions.

This method's signature must look like __call__(<self>, ...) -> object - here, any argument list can be defined as for normal pymethods

Example: Implementing a call counter

The following pyclass is a basic decorator - its constructor takes a Python object as argument and calls that object when called. An equivalent Python implementation is linked at the end.

An example crate containing this pyclass can be found here

use pyo3::prelude::*;
use pyo3::types::{PyDict, PyTuple};
use std::cell::Cell;

/// A function decorator that keeps track how often it is called.
///
/// It otherwise doesn't do anything special.
#[pyclass(name = "Counter")]
pub struct PyCounter {
    // Keeps track of how many calls have gone through.
    //
    // See the discussion at the end for why `Cell` is used.
    count: Cell<u64>,

    // This is the actual function being wrapped.
    wraps: Py<PyAny>,
}

#[pymethods]
impl PyCounter {
    // Note that we don't validate whether `wraps` is actually callable.
    //
    // While we could use `PyAny::is_callable` for that, it has some flaws:
    //    1. It doesn't guarantee the object can actually be called successfully
    //    2. We still need to handle any exceptions that the function might raise
    #[new]
    fn __new__(wraps: Py<PyAny>) -> Self {
        PyCounter {
            count: Cell::new(0),
            wraps,
        }
    }

    #[getter]
    fn count(&self) -> u64 {
        self.count.get()
    }

    #[pyo3(signature = (*args, **kwargs))]
    fn __call__(
        &self,
        py: Python<'_>,
        args: &PyTuple,
        kwargs: Option<&PyDict>,
    ) -> PyResult<Py<PyAny>> {
        let old_count = self.count.get();
        let new_count = old_count + 1;
        self.count.set(new_count);
        let name = self.wraps.getattr(py, "__name__")?;

        println!("{} has been called {} time(s).", name, new_count);

        // After doing something, we finally forward the call to the wrapped function
        let ret = self.wraps.call(py, args, kwargs)?;

        // We could do something with the return value of
        // the function before returning it
        Ok(ret)
    }
}

#[pymodule]
pub fn decorator(_py: Python<'_>, module: &PyModule) -> PyResult<()> {
    module.add_class::<PyCounter>()?;
    Ok(())
}

Python code:

@Counter
def say_hello():
    print("hello")


say_hello()
say_hello()
say_hello()
say_hello()

assert say_hello.count == 4

Output:

say_hello has been called 1 time(s).
hello
say_hello has been called 2 time(s).
hello
say_hello has been called 3 time(s).
hello
say_hello has been called 4 time(s).
hello

Pure Python implementation

A Python implementation of this looks similar to the Rust version:

class Counter:
    def __init__(self, wraps):
        self.count = 0
        self.wraps = wraps

    def __call__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        self.count += 1
        print(f"{self.wraps.__name__} has been called {self.count} time(s)")
        self.wraps(*args, **kwargs)

Note that it can also be implemented as a higher order function:

def Counter(wraps):
    count = 0
    def call(*args, **kwargs):
        nonlocal count
        count += 1
        print(f"{wraps.__name__} has been called {count} time(s)")
        return wraps(*args, **kwargs)
    return call

What is the `Cell` for?

A previous implementation used a normal u64, which meant it required a &mut self receiver to update the count:

#[pyo3(signature = (*args, **kwargs))]
fn __call__(
    &mut self,
    py: Python<'_>,
    args: &PyTuple,
    kwargs: Option<&PyDict>,
) -> PyResult<Py<PyAny>> {
    self.count += 1;
    let name = self.wraps.getattr(py, "__name__")?;

    println!("{} has been called {} time(s).", name, self.count);

    // After doing something, we finally forward the call to the wrapped function
    let ret = self.wraps.call(py, args, kwargs)?;

    // We could do something with the return value of
    // the function before returning it
    Ok(ret)
}

The problem with this is that the &mut self receiver means PyO3 has to borrow it exclusively, and hold this borrow across theself.wraps.call(py, args, kwargs) call. This call returns control to the user's Python code which is free to call arbitrary things, including the decorated function. If that happens PyO3 is unable to create a second unique borrow and will be forced to raise an exception.

As a result, something innocent like this will raise an exception:

@Counter
def say_hello():
    if say_hello.count < 2:
        print(f"hello from decorator")

say_hello()
# RuntimeError: Already borrowed

The implementation in this chapter fixes that by never borrowing exclusively; all the methods take &self as receivers, of which multiple may exist simultaneously. This requires a shared counter and the easiest way to do that is to use Cell, so that's what is used here.

This shows the dangers of running arbitrary Python code - note that "running arbitrary Python code" can be far more subtle than the example above:

Python's asynchronous executor may park the current thread in the middle of Python code, even in Python code that you control, and let other Python code run.
Dropping arbitrary Python objects may invoke destructors defined in Python (__del__ methods).
Calling Python's C-api (most PyO3 apis call C-api functions internally) may raise exceptions, which may allow Python code in signal handlers to run.

This is especially important if you are writing unsafe code; Python code must never be able to cause undefined behavior. You must ensure that your Rust code is in a consistent state before doing any of the above things.

PyO3 user guide

Emulating callable objects

Example: Implementing a call counter

Pure Python implementation

What is the Cell for?

What is the `Cell` for?