Python in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

The mmap Module

The mmap module supplies memory-mapped file objects. An mmap object behaves similarly to a plain (not Unicode) string, so you can often pass an mmap object where a plain string is expected. However, there are differences:

• An mmap object does not supply the methods of a string object.

• An mmap object is mutable, while string objects are immutable.

• An mmap object also corresponds to an open file and behaves polymorphically to a Python file object (as covered in File-Like Objects and Polymorphism).

An mmap object m can be indexed or sliced, yielding plain strings. Since m is mutable, you can also assign to an indexing or slicing of m. However, when you assign to a slice of m, the righthand side of the assignment statement must be a string of exactly the same length as the slice you’re assigning to. Therefore, many of the useful tricks available with list slice assignment (covered in Modifying a list) do not apply to mmap slice assignment.

Module mmap supplies a factory function that is slightly different on Unix-like systems and Windows.

mmap

mmap(filedesc,length,tagname='') # Windows mmap(filedesc,length,flags=MAP_SHARED, prot=PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE) # Unix Creates and returns an mmap object m that maps into memory the first length bytes of the file indicated by file descriptor filedesc. filedesc must normally be a file descriptor opened for both reading and writing (except, on Unix-like platforms, when argument prot requests only reading or only writing). (File descriptors ...