This commits adds base class pointers of offset base classes (i.e. due
to multiple inheritance) to `registered_instances` so that if such a
pointer is returned we properly recognize it as an existing instance.
Without this, returning a base class pointer will cast to the existing
instance if the pointer happens to coincide with the instance pointer,
but constructs a new instance (quite possibly with a segfault, if
ownership is applied) for unequal base class pointers due to multiple
inheritance.
When we are returned a base class pointer (either directly or via
shared_from_this()) we detect its runtime type (using `typeid`), then
end up essentially reinterpret_casting the pointer to the derived type.
This is invalid when the base class pointer was a non-first base, and we
end up with an invalid pointer. We could dynamic_cast to the
most-derived type, but if *that* type isn't pybind11-registered, the
resulting pointer given to the base `cast` implementation isn't necessarily valid
to be reinterpret_cast'ed back to the backup type.
This commit removes the "backup" type argument from the many-argument
`cast(...)` and instead does the derived-or-pointer type decision and
type lookup in type_caster_base, where the dynamic_cast has to be to
correctly get the derived pointer, but also has to do the type lookup to
ensure that we don't pass the wrong (derived) pointer when the backup
type (i.e. the type caster intrinsic type) pointer is needed.
Since the lookup is needed before calling the base cast(), this also
changes the input type to a detail::type_info rather than doing a
(second) lookup in cast().
We can't support this for classes from imported modules (which is the
primary purpose of a ctor argument base class) because we *have* to
have both parent and derived to properly extract a multiple-inheritance
base class pointer from a derived class pointer.
We could support this for actual `class_<Base, ...> instances, but since
in that case the `Base` is already present in the code, it seems more
consistent to simply always require MI to go via template options.
Now that only one shared metaclass is ever allocated, it's extremely
cheap to enable it for all pybind11 types.
* Deprecate the default py::metaclass() since it's not needed anymore.
* Allow users to specify a custom metaclass via py::metaclass(handle).
In order to fully satisfy Python's inheritance type layout requirements,
all types should have a common 'solid' base. A solid base is one which
has the same instance size as the derived type (not counting the space
required for the optional `dict_ptr` and `weakrefs_ptr`). Thus, `object`
does not qualify as a solid base for pybind11 types and this can lead to
issues with multiple inheritance.
To get around this, new base types are created: one per unique instance
size. There is going to be very few of these bases. They ensure Python's
MRO checks will pass when multiple bases are involved.
This commit includes modifications that are needed to get pybind11 to work with PyPy. The full test suite compiles and runs except for a last few functions that are commented out (due to problems in PyPy that were reported on the PyPy bugtracker).
Two somewhat intrusive changes were needed to make it possible: two new tags ``py::buffer_protocol()`` and ``py::metaclass()`` must now be specified to the ``class_`` constructor if the class uses the buffer protocol and/or requires a metaclass (e.g. for static properties).
Note that this is only for the PyPy version based on Python 2.7 for now. When the PyPy 3.x has caught up in terms of cpyext compliance, a PyPy 3.x patch will follow.
With this there is no more need for manual user declarations like
`PYBIND11_DECLARE_HOLDER_TYPE(T, std::shared_ptr<T>)`. Existing ones
will still compile without error -- they will just be ignored silently.
Resolves#446.
