Feature or enhancement

The free-threaded builds need a variant of PyList_GetItem that returns a strong reference instead of a borrowed reference for thread-safety reasons. PEP 703 proposed PyList_FetchItem, but since then PyDict_GetItemRef and functions with similar signatures have been added.

This proposes PyList_GetItemRef with the following signature:

PyObject *PyList_GetItemRef(PyObject *list, Py_ssize_t index)

Return a strong reference to the object at position index in the list pointed to by list. If index is out of bounds (<0 or >=len(list)), return NULL and set an IndexError. If list is not a list instance, return NULL and set a TypeError.

Linked PRs

• gh-114329: Add PyList_GetItemRef function #114504
• gh-114329: Fix PyList_GetItemRef() limited C API definition #117520