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Pickle (Python)

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Pi Delport (talk | contribs) at 18:54, 15 June 2012 (There are dozens of third-party alternatives to pickle: no need to single out one, unless it's part of a discussion of alternatives). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

In the computer programming language Python, pickle is the standard mechanism for object serialization; pickling is the common term among Python programmers for serialization (unpickling for deserializing). Pickle uses a simple stack-based virtual machine that records the instructions used to reconstruct the object. This makes pickle vulnerable to security risks by malformed or maliciously constructed data, that may cause the deserializer to import arbitrary modules and instantiate any object[1][2]. Also, not all objects can be pickled, especially ones that hold operating system resources like file handles.

Pickle was originally implemented as the pure Python pickle module, but the cPickle module (also a built-in) offers improved performance (up to 1000 times faster[1]).

References

  1. ^ a b 13.1.1 Relationship to other Python modules
  2. ^ Python library documentation
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