RFC: Provide a special purpose FromPyObject impl for byte slices

guide/src/conversions/tables.md

@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ The table below contains the Python type and the corresponding function argument
 | ------------- |:-------------------------------:|:--------------------:|
 | `object`      | -                               | `&PyAny`             |
 | `str`         | `String`, `Cow<str>`, `&str`, `OsString`, `PathBuf` | `&PyUnicode` |
-| `bytes`       | `Vec<u8>`, `&[u8]`              | `&PyBytes`           |
+| `bytes`       | `Vec<u8>`, `&[u8]`, `Cow<[u8]>` | `&PyBytes`           |
 | `bool`        | `bool`                          | `&PyBool`            |
 | `int`         | Any integer type (`i32`, `u32`, `usize`, etc) | `&PyLong` |
 | `float`       | `f32`, `f64`                    | `&PyFloat`           |
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ The table below contains the Python type and the corresponding function argument
 | `tuple[T, U]` | `(T, U)`, `Vec<T>`              | `&PyTuple`           |
 | `set[T]`      | `HashSet<T>`, `BTreeSet<T>`, `hashbrown::HashSet<T>`[^2] | `&PySet` |
 | `frozenset[T]` | `HashSet<T>`, `BTreeSet<T>`, `hashbrown::HashSet<T>`[^2] | `&PyFrozenSet` |
-| `bytearray`   | `Vec<u8>`                       | `&PyByteArray`       |
+| `bytearray`   | `Vec<u8>`, `Cow<[u8]>`          | `&PyByteArray`       |
 | `slice`       | -                               | `&PySlice`           |
 | `type`        | -                               | `&PyType`            |
 | `module`      | -                               | `&PyModule`          |
@@ -84,6 +84,7 @@ Finally, the following Rust types are also able to convert to Python as return v
 | `Option<T>`   | `Optional[T]`                   |
 | `(T, U)`      | `Tuple[T, U]`                   |
 | `Vec<T>`      | `List[T]`                       |
+| `Cow<[u8]>`   | `bytes`                         |
 | `HashMap<K, V>` | `Dict[K, V]`                  |
 | `BTreeMap<K, V>` | `Dict[K, V]`                 |
 | `HashSet<T>`  | `Set[T]`                        |

newsfragments/2899.added.md

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Add special-purpose impl of `FromPyObject` for `Cow<[u8]>` to efficiently handle both `bytes` and `bytearray` objects

src/types/bytes.rs

@@ -1,9 +1,12 @@
-use crate::{ffi, AsPyPointer, Py, PyAny, PyResult, Python};
+use crate::{ffi, AsPyPointer, FromPyObject, IntoPy, Py, PyAny, PyResult, Python, ToPyObject};
+use std::borrow::Cow;
 use std::ops::Index;
 use std::os::raw::c_char;
 use std::slice::SliceIndex;
 use std::str;
 
+use super::bytearray::PyByteArray;
+
 /// Represents a Python `bytes` object.
 ///
 /// This type is immutable.
@@ -121,11 +124,37 @@ impl<I: SliceIndex<[u8]>> Index<I> for PyBytes {
     }
 }
 
+/// Special-purpose trait impl to efficiently handle both `bytes` and `bytearray`
+///
+/// If the source object is a `bytes` object, the `Cow` will be borrowed and
+/// pointing into the source object, and no copying or heap allocations will happen.
+/// If it is a `bytearray`, its contents will be copied to an owned `Cow`.
+impl<'source> FromPyObject<'source> for Cow<'source, [u8]> {
+    fn extract(ob: &'source PyAny) -> PyResult<Self> {
+        if let Ok(bytes) = ob.downcast::<PyBytes>() {
+            return Ok(Cow::Borrowed(bytes.as_bytes()));
+        }
+
+        let byte_array = ob.downcast::<PyByteArray>()?;
+        Ok(Cow::Owned(byte_array.to_vec()))
+    }
+}
+
+impl ToPyObject for Cow<'_, [u8]> {
+    fn to_object(&self, py: Python<'_>) -> Py<PyAny> {
+        PyBytes::new(py, self.as_ref()).into()
+    }
+}
+
+impl IntoPy<Py<PyAny>> for Cow<'_, [u8]> {
+    fn into_py(self, py: Python<'_>) -> Py<PyAny> {
+        self.to_object(py)
+    }
+}
+
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod tests {
-    use super::PyBytes;
-    use crate::FromPyObject;
-    use crate::Python;
+    use super::*;
 
     #[test]
     fn test_bytes_index() {
@@ -172,4 +201,28 @@ mod tests {
                 .is_instance_of::<PyValueError>(py));
         });
     }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn test_cow_impl() {
+        Python::with_gil(|py| {
+            let bytes = py.eval(r#"b"foobar""#, None, None).unwrap();
+            let cow = bytes.extract::<Cow<'_, [u8]>>().unwrap();
+            assert_eq!(cow, Cow::<[u8]>::Borrowed(b"foobar"));
+
+            let byte_array = py.eval(r#"bytearray(b"foobar")"#, None, None).unwrap();
+            let cow = byte_array.extract::<Cow<'_, [u8]>>().unwrap();
+            assert_eq!(cow, Cow::<[u8]>::Owned(b"foobar".to_vec()));
+
+            let something_else_entirely = py.eval("42", None, None).unwrap();
+            something_else_entirely
+                .extract::<Cow<'_, [u8]>>()
+                .unwrap_err();
+
+            let cow = Cow::<[u8]>::Borrowed(b"foobar").to_object(py);
+            assert!(cow.as_ref(py).is_instance_of::<PyBytes>().unwrap());
+
+            let cow = Cow::<[u8]>::Owned(b"foobar".to_vec()).to_object(py);
+            assert!(cow.as_ref(py).is_instance_of::<PyBytes>().unwrap());
+        });
+    }
 }