cpython/Doc/lib/libbastion.tex
1999-04-13 21:39:31 +00:00

53 lines
2.4 KiB
TeX

\section{\module{Bastion} ---
Restricting access to objects}
\declaremodule{standard}{Bastion}
\modulesynopsis{Providing restricted access to objects.}
\moduleauthor{Barry Warsaw}{bwarsaw@python.org}
% I'm concerned that the word 'bastion' won't be understood by people
% for whom English is a second language, making the module name
% somewhat mysterious. Thus, the brief definition... --amk
According to the dictionary, a bastion is ``a fortified area or
position'', or ``something that is considered a stronghold.'' It's a
suitable name for this module, which provides a way to forbid access
to certain attributes of an object. It must always be used with the
\refmodule{rexec} module, in order to allow restricted-mode programs
access to certain safe attributes of an object, while denying access
to other, unsafe attributes.
% I've punted on the issue of documenting keyword arguments for now.
\begin{funcdesc}{Bastion}{object\optional{, filter\optional{,
name\optional{, class}}}}
Protect the object \var{object}, returning a bastion for the
object. Any attempt to access one of the object's attributes will
have to be approved by the \var{filter} function; if the access is
denied an \exception{AttributeError} exception will be raised.
If present, \var{filter} must be a function that accepts a string
containing an attribute name, and returns true if access to that
attribute will be permitted; if \var{filter} returns false, the access
is denied. The default filter denies access to any function beginning
with an underscore (\character{_}). The bastion's string representation
will be \samp{<Bastion for \var{name}>} if a value for
\var{name} is provided; otherwise, \samp{repr(\var{object})} will be
used.
\var{class}, if present, should be a subclass of \class{BastionClass};
see the code in \file{bastion.py} for the details. Overriding the
default \class{BastionClass} will rarely be required.
\end{funcdesc}
\begin{classdesc}{BastionClass}{getfunc, name}
Class which actually implements bastion objects. This is the default
class used by \function{Bastion()}. The \var{getfunc} parameter is a
function which returns the value of an attribute which should be
exposed to the restricted execution environment when called with the
name of the attribute as the only parameter. \var{name} is used to
construct the \function{repr()} of the \class{BastionClass} instance.
\end{classdesc}