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+.. highlightlang:: c
+
+
+.. _countingrefs:
+
+******************
+Reference Counting
+******************
+
+The macros in this section are used for managing reference counts of Python
+objects.
+
+
+.. cfunction:: void Py_INCREF(PyObject *o)
+
+   Increment the reference count for object *o*.  The object must not be *NULL*; if
+   you aren't sure that it isn't *NULL*, use :cfunc:`Py_XINCREF`.
+
+
+.. cfunction:: void Py_XINCREF(PyObject *o)
+
+   Increment the reference count for object *o*.  The object may be *NULL*, in
+   which case the macro has no effect.
+
+
+.. cfunction:: void Py_DECREF(PyObject *o)
+
+   Decrement the reference count for object *o*.  The object must not be *NULL*; if
+   you aren't sure that it isn't *NULL*, use :cfunc:`Py_XDECREF`.  If the reference
+   count reaches zero, the object's type's deallocation function (which must not be
+   *NULL*) is invoked.
+
+   .. warning::
+
+      The deallocation function can cause arbitrary Python code to be invoked (e.g.
+      when a class instance with a :meth:`__del__` method is deallocated).  While
+      exceptions in such code are not propagated, the executed code has free access to
+      all Python global variables.  This means that any object that is reachable from
+      a global variable should be in a consistent state before :cfunc:`Py_DECREF` is
+      invoked.  For example, code to delete an object from a list should copy a
+      reference to the deleted object in a temporary variable, update the list data
+      structure, and then call :cfunc:`Py_DECREF` for the temporary variable.
+
+
+.. cfunction:: void Py_XDECREF(PyObject *o)
+
+   Decrement the reference count for object *o*.  The object may be *NULL*, in
+   which case the macro has no effect; otherwise the effect is the same as for
+   :cfunc:`Py_DECREF`, and the same warning applies.
+
+
+.. cfunction:: void Py_CLEAR(PyObject *o)
+
+   Decrement the reference count for object *o*.  The object may be *NULL*, in
+   which case the macro has no effect; otherwise the effect is the same as for
+   :cfunc:`Py_DECREF`, except that the argument is also set to *NULL*.  The warning
+   for :cfunc:`Py_DECREF` does not apply with respect to the object passed because
+   the macro carefully uses a temporary variable and sets the argument to *NULL*
+   before decrementing its reference count.
+
+   It is a good idea to use this macro whenever decrementing the value of a
+   variable that might be traversed during garbage collection.
+
+   .. versionadded:: 2.4
+
+The following functions are for runtime dynamic embedding of Python:
+``Py_IncRef(PyObject \*o)``, `Py_DecRef(PyObject \*o)``. They are
+simply exported function versions of :cfunc:`Py_XINCREF` and
+:cfunc:`Py_XDECREF`, respectively.
+
+The following functions or macros are only for use within the interpreter core:
+:cfunc:`_Py_Dealloc`, :cfunc:`_Py_ForgetReference`, :cfunc:`_Py_NewReference`,
+as well as the global variable :cdata:`_Py_RefTotal`.
+