Return value of `Python::version` should be `&'static str`?

[bschoenmaeckers]

Since this value is not protected by the GIL on the free-threaded build, it does not make sense that it is linked to the GIL lifetime.

This makes me wonder if it could be prone to race conditions.

pyo3/src/marker.rs

Lines 695 to 701 in 68b719f

	pub fn version(self) -> &'py str {
	unsafe {
	CStr::from_ptr(ffi::Py_GetVersion())
	.to_str()
	.expect("Python version string not UTF-8")
	}
	}

[ngoldbaum]

The docs for Py_GetVersion say:

The returned string points into static storage; the caller should not modify its value.

So I think you're right - maybe Python::verson should call Box::leak before calling to_str?

But also in practice I don't think there's a safe interface to mutate the string, so it probably doesn't matter much?

[bschoenmaeckers]

I don’t think this even needs the thread to be attached right? So we can even remove the dependency on the py token entirely.

[ngoldbaum]

I think you're right, you don't need an attached thread state to call Py_GetVersion.