How to get reference count of a PyObject?

Question

How to get reference count of a PyObject from C++?

There are functions Py_INCREF and Py_DECREF which increase/decrease it, but I haven't found any function which return object's reference count.

I need it for debugging purposes.

Answer 1

The reference count of each and every object is stored in the PyObject itself, in a variable called ob_refcnt. You can directly access that.

typedef struct _object {
    _PyObject_HEAD_EXTRA
    Py_ssize_t ob_refcnt;          # Reference count
    struct _typeobject *ob_type;
} PyObject;

Alternatively, you can use the Py_REFCNT Macro.