zopefoundation/zodbpickle(opens in a new tab)
Language: Python
Fork of Python's pickle module to work with ZODB
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- 10/15/2026
Language: Python
Fork of Python's pickle module to work with ZODB
This package presents a uniform pickling interface for ZODB:
pickle and
cPickle modules, adding support for the protocol 3 opcodes.
It also provides a new subclass of bytes, zodbpickle.binary,
which Python2 applications can use to pickle binary values such that
they will be unpickled as bytes under Py3k.pickle module (and the supporting
C extension) from both Python 3.2 and Python 3.3. The fork add support
for the noload operations used by ZODB.zodbpickle relies on Python's pickle module.
The pickle module is not intended to be secure against erroneous or
maliciously constructed data. Never unpickle data received from an
untrusted or unauthenticated source as arbitrary code might be executed.
Also see https://docs.python.org/3.6/library/pickle.html
To get compatibility between Python 2 and 3 pickling, replace:
import pickle
by:
from zodbpickle import pickle
This provides compatibility, but has the effect that you get the fast implementation in Python 3, while Python 2 uses the slow version.
To get a more deterministic choice of the implementation, use one of:
from zodbpickle import fastpickle # always C from zodbpickle import slowpickle # always Python
Both modules can co-exist which is helpful for comparison.
But there is a bit more to consider, so please read on!
In all their wisdom, the Python developers have decided that Python 2 str
instances should be loaded as Python 3 str objects (i.e. unicode
strings). Patches were proposed in Python issue 6784 but were never
applied. This code base contains those patches.
Example 1: Loading Python 2 pickles on Python 3
$ python2
>>> import pickle
>>> pickle.dumps('\xff', protocol=0)
"S'\\xff'\np0\n."
>>> pickle.dumps('\xff', protocol=1)
'U\x01\xffq\x00.'
>>> pickle.dumps('\xff', protocol=2)
'\x80\x02U\x01\xffq\x00.'
$ python3
>>> from zodbpickle import pickle
>>> pickle.loads(b"S'\\xff'\np0\n.", encoding='bytes')
b'\xff'
>>> pickle.loads(b'U\x01\xffq\x00.', encoding='bytes')
b'\xff'
>>> pickle.loads(b'\x80\x02U\x01\xffq\x00.', encoding='bytes')
b'\xff'
Example 2: Loading Python 3 pickles on Python 2
$ python3
>>> from zodbpickle import pickle
>>> pickle.dumps(b"\xff", protocol=0)
b'c_codecs\nencode\np0\n(V\xff\np1\nVlatin1\np2\ntp3\nRp4\n.'
>>> pickle.dumps(b"\xff", protocol=1)
b'c_codecs\nencode\nq\x00(X\x02\x00\x00\x00\xc3\xbfq\x01X\x06\x00\x00\x00latin1q\x02tq\x03Rq\x04.'
>>> pickle.dumps(b"\xff", protocol=2)
b'\x80\x02c_codecs\nencode\nq\x00X\x02\x00\x00\x00\xc3\xbfq\x01X\x06\x00\x00\x00latin1q\x02\x86q\x03Rq\x04.'
$ python2
>>> import pickle
>>> pickle.loads('c_codecs\nencode\np0\n(V\xff\np1\nVlatin1\np2\ntp3\nRp4\n.')
'\xff'
>>> pickle.loads('c_codecs\nencode\nq\x00(X\x02\x00\x00\x00\xc3\xbfq\x01X\x06\x00\x00\x00latin1q\x02tq\x03Rq\x04.')
'\xff'
>>> pickle.loads('\x80\x02c_codecs\nencode\nq\x00X\x02\x00\x00\x00\xc3\xbfq\x01X\x06\x00\x00\x00latin1q\x02\x86q\x03Rq\x04.')
'\xff'
Example 3: everything breaks down
$ python2
>>> class Foo(object):
... def __init__(self):
... self.x = 'hello'
...
>>> import pickle
>>> pickle.dumps(Foo(), protocol=0)
"ccopy_reg\n_reconstructor\np0\n(c__main__\nFoo\np1\nc__builtin__\nobject\np2\nNtp3\nRp4\n(dp5\nS'x'\np6\nS'hello'\np7\nsb."
>>> pickle.dumps(Foo(), protocol=1)
'ccopy_reg\n_reconstructor\nq\x00(c__main__\nFoo\nq\x01c__builtin__\nobject\nq\x02Ntq\x03Rq\x04}q\x05U\x01xq\x06U\x05helloq\x07sb.'
>>> pickle.dumps(Foo(), protocol=2)
'\x80\x02c__main__\nFoo\nq\x00)\x81q\x01}q\x02U\x01xq\x03U\x05helloq\x04sb.'
$ python3
>>> from zodbpickle import pickle
>>> class Foo(object): pass
...
>>> foo = pickle.loads("ccopy_reg\n_reconstructor\np0\n(c__main__\nFoo\np1\nc__builtin__\nobject\np2\nNtp3\nRp4\n(dp5\nS'x'\np6\nS'hello'\np7\nsb.", encoding='bytes')
>>> foo.x
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: 'Foo' object has no attribute 'x'
wait what?
>>> foo.__dict__
{b'x': b'hello'}
oooh. So we use encoding='ASCII' (the default) and errors='bytes' and
hope it works:
>>> foo = pickle.loads("ccopy_reg\n_reconstructor\np0\n(c__main__\nFoo\np1\nc__builtin__\nobject\np2\nNtp3\nRp4\n(dp5\nS'x'\np6\nS'hello'\np7\nsb.", errors='bytes')
>>> foo.x
'hello'
falling back to bytes if necessary
>>> pickle.loads(b'\x80\x02U\x01\xffq\x00.', errors='bytes') b'\xff'