gh-97016: Convert PyBytes_AS_STRING() to function

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Convert the following static inline functions to regular functions:

• PyByteArray_AS_STRING()
• PyByteArray_GET_SIZE()
• PyBytes_AS_STRING()
• PyBytes_GET_SIZE()

Remove the _PyByteArray_empty_string variable. It was excluded from the limited C API.

In bytesobject.c and bytearrayobject.c, add static inline functions and use them for best performance:

• _PyByteArray_AS_STRING()
• _PyByteArray_GET_SIZE()
• _PyBytes_AS_STRING()
• _PyBytes_GET_SIZE()

• Issue: PEP 670: Convert static inline functions to functions #97016

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@erlend-aasland: Would you mind to review this PR?

With this change, _Py_CAST() is still used by Include/cpython/bytesobject.h because of macros casting PyBytes_AS_STRING() and PyBytes_GET_SIZE() arguments to PyObject* using _PyObject_CAST(). But at least, at the ABI level, there are now regular function calls, the implementation details is no longer leaked.

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Micro-benchmark on PyBytes_AS_STRING() and PyBytes_GET_SIZE() function calls to measure the worst case: when the hot code is just these two function calls.

Mean +- std dev: [ref] 21.6 ns +- 2.3 ns -> [regular_func] 27.0 ns +- 0.5 ns: 1.25x slower

In average, converting PyBytes_AS_STRING() and PyBytes_GET_SIZE() static inline functions to regular functions makes them 1.25x slower, it adds +2.7 ns per function call (+5.4 ns for the two function calls). Well, currently PyBytes_AS_STRING() just reads a structure member, whereas now it's a function call. Obviously, a function call is slower than reading directly memory.

This worst case is when PyBytes_AS_STRING() and PyBytes_GET_SIZE() cannot be inlined by LTO: I added the benchmark to _testcapi which is built as a shared library, so they are regular function calls (cannot be inlined by LTO).

Benchmark run on Python built with LTO (without PGO) with CPU pinning.

In short, my micro-benchmark loops on this code:

        PyObject *bytes = PyBytes_FromString("abc");
        char *s = PyBytes_AS_STRING(bytes);
        Py_ssize_t len = PyBytes_GET_SIZE(bytes);
        Py_DECREF(bytes);

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• patch: testcapi.patch.txt
• bench script: bench.py.txt

I compared this PR to its parent commit.

Commands:

./configure --with-lto && make
# at PR commit
rm -rf env; make clean; make && ./python -m venv env && env/bin/python -m pip install pyperf && env/bin/python bench.py -v -o regular_func.json

# get the parent commit
git checkout HEAD^

# at parent commit
rm -rf env; make clean; make && ./python -m venv env && env/bin/python -m pip install pyperf && env/bin/python bench.py -v -o ref.json

# compare
python -m pyperf compare_to ref.json regular_func.json

Linux booted with isolcpus=5,11 rcu_nocbs=5,11 command line options and I ran sudo python3 -m pyperf system tune.

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In average, converting PyBytes_AS_STRING() and PyBytes_GET_SIZE() static inline functions to regular functions makes them 1.25x slower, it adds +2.7 ns per function call (+5.4 ns for the two function calls).

I don't expect these functions to be called in hot code. Usually, you get the pointer, and then work on the pointer in a loop. I expect the overhead to not be significant in practice.

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An alternative is to get rid of the static inline implementation and creates aliases to existing functions:

 #define PyByteArray_AS_STRING PyByteArray_AsString
 #define PyByteArray_GET_SIZE PyByteArray_GetSize
 #define PyBytes_AS_STRING PyBytes_AsString
 #define PyBytes_GET_SIZE PyBytes_GetSize

These functions check the type of their argument, whereas the current static inline functions don't. Example:

char *
PyBytes_AsString(PyObject *op)
{
    if (!PyBytes_Check(op)) {
        PyErr_Format(PyExc_TypeError,
             "expected bytes, %.200s found", Py_TYPE(op)->tp_name);
        return NULL;
    }
    return ((PyBytesObject *)op)->ob_sval;
}

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This change is somehow controversial, so I prefer to mark is as a draft for now :-)

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The benefits of this change are not obvious since Python ABI is still unstable, whereas this change introduces a performance overflow. Moreover, there are already these functions:

• PyByteArray_AsString()
• PyByteArray_Size()
• PyBytes_AsString()
• PyBytes_Size()