Support keep_alive where nurse may be None

For example keep_alive<0,1>() should work where the return value may sometimes be None. At present a "Could not allocate weak reference!" exception is thrown.
Update documentation to clarify behaviour of keep_alive when nurse is None or does not support weak references.

docs/advanced.rst

@@ -663,10 +663,13 @@ In addition to the above return value policies, further `call policies` can be
 specified to indicate dependencies between parameters. There is currently just
 one policy named ``keep_alive<Nurse, Patient>``, which indicates that the
 argument with index ``Patient`` should be kept alive at least until the
-argument with index ``Nurse`` is freed by the garbage collector; argument
+argument with index ``Nurse`` is freed by the garbage collector, as long as the
-indices start at one, while zero refers to the return value. For methods, index
+nurse object supports weak references (pybind11 extension classes all support
-one refers to the implicit ``this`` pointer, while regular arguments begin at
+weak references). If the nurse object does not support weak references and is
-index two. Arbitrarily many call policies can be specified.
+not None an appropriate exception will be thrown. Argument indices start at
+one, while zero refers to the return value. For methods, index one refers to
+the implicit ``this`` pointer, while regular arguments begin at index two.
+Arbitrarily many call policies can be specified.
 
 Consider the following example: the binding code for a list append operation
 that ties the lifetime of the newly added element to the underlying container

example/example-keep-alive.cpp

@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ public:
     ~Parent() { std::cout << "Releasing parent." << std::endl; }
     void addChild(Child *) { }
     Child *returnChild() { return new Child(); }
+    Child *returnNullChild() { return nullptr; }
 };
 
 void init_ex_keep_alive(py::module &m) {
@@ -30,7 +31,9 @@ void init_ex_keep_alive(py::module &m) {
         .def("addChild", &Parent::addChild)
         .def("addChildKeepAlive", &Parent::addChild, py::keep_alive<1, 2>())
         .def("returnChild", &Parent::returnChild)
-        .def("returnChildKeepAlive", &Parent::returnChild, py::keep_alive<1, 0>());
+        .def("returnChildKeepAlive", &Parent::returnChild, py::keep_alive<1, 0>())
+        .def("returnNullChildKeepAliveChild", &Parent::returnNullChild, py::keep_alive<1, 0>())
+        .def("returnNullChildKeepAliveParent", &Parent::returnNullChild, py::keep_alive<0, 1>());
 
     py::class_<Child>(m, "Child")
         .def(py::init<>());

example/example-keep-alive.py

@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ if True:
     gc.collect()
     print(p)
     p = None
+
 gc.collect()
 print("")
 
@@ -41,6 +42,26 @@ if True:
     print(p)
     p = None
 
+gc.collect()
+print("")
+
+if True:
+    p = Parent()
+    p.returnNullChildKeepAliveChild()
+    gc.collect()
+    print(p)
+    p = None
+
+gc.collect()
+print("")
+
+if True:
+    p = Parent()
+    p.returnNullChildKeepAliveParent()
+    gc.collect()
+    print(p)
+    p = None
+
 gc.collect()
 print("")
 print("Terminating..")

example/example-keep-alive.ref

@@ -22,4 +22,12 @@ Allocating child.
 Releasing parent.
 Releasing child.
 
+Allocating parent.
+<example.Parent object at 0x10eb726c0>
+Releasing parent.
+
+Allocating parent.
+<example.Parent object at 0x10eb726c0>
+Releasing parent.
+
 Terminating..

include/pybind11/pybind11.h

@@ -1098,8 +1098,8 @@ inline void keep_alive_impl(handle nurse, handle patient) {
     if (!nurse || !patient)
         pybind11_fail("Could not activate keep_alive!");
 
-    if (patient.ptr() == Py_None)
+    if (patient.ptr() == Py_None || nurse.ptr() == Py_None)
-        return; /* Nothing to keep alive */
+        return; /* Nothing to keep alive or nothing to be kept alive by */
 
     cpp_function disable_lifesupport(
         [patient](handle weakref) { patient.dec_ref(); weakref.dec_ref(); });