reference count checking for the Python/C API

[Quuxplusone]

Bugzilla Link	PR16800
Status	NEW
Importance	P enhancement
Reported by	Todd Nowacki (nowacki724@gmail.com)
Reported on	2013-08-05 16:17:10 -0700
Last modified on	2014-02-26 17:04:10 -0800
Version	unspecified
Hardware	PC All
CC	duvall@comfychair.org, llvm-bugs@lists.llvm.org
Fixed by commit(s)
Attachments
Blocks
Blocked by
See also

Progress patch for checker.

Tbe idea behind the checker is to verify the reference count increments and
decrements on Python Objects.
The checker will check normal objects as well as Py_None.

There is a lot of work that needs to be done here; many of the functions create
or rework dependencies between objects. These actions break any simple symbol
reference tracking.

See http://docs.python.org/3.1/c-api/intro.html#objects-types-and-reference-
counts
for details.

[Quuxplusone]

Note that some of the heavy lifting has already been done:

    http://hg.python.org/cpython/file/default/Doc/data/refcounts.dat

though it's entirely possible this could be generated by an llvm module, too.