bpo-44674: Use unhashability as a proxy for mutability for default dataclass __init__ arguments.

Doc/library/dataclasses.rst

@@ -712,9 +712,9 @@ Mutable default values
    creation they also share this behavior.  There is no general way
    for Data Classes to detect this condition.  Instead, the
    :func:`dataclass` decorator will raise a :exc:`TypeError` if it
-   detects a default parameter of type ``list``, ``dict``, or ``set``.
-   This is a partial solution, but it does protect against many common
-   errors.
+   detects an unhashable default parameter.  The assumption is that if
+   a value is unhashable, it is mutable.  This is a partial solution,
+   but it does protect against many common errors.
 
    Using default factory functions is a way to create new instances of
    mutable types as default values for fields::
@@ -724,3 +724,9 @@ Mutable default values
          x: list = field(default_factory=list)
 
      assert D().x is not D().x
+
+   .. versionchanged:: 3.11
+      Instead of looking for and disallowing objects of type ``list``,
+      ``dict``, or ``set``, unhashable objects are now not allowed as
+      default values.  Unhashability is used to approximate
+      mutability.

Lib/dataclasses.py

@@ -808,8 +808,10 @@ def _get_field(cls, a_name, a_type, default_kw_only):
             raise TypeError(f'field {f.name} is a ClassVar but specifies '
                             'kw_only')
 
-    # For real fields, disallow mutable defaults for known types.
-    if f._field_type is _FIELD and isinstance(f.default, (list, dict, set)):
+    # For real fields, disallow mutable defaults.  Use unhashable as a proxy
+    # indicator for mutability.  Read the __hash__ attribute from the class,
+    # not the instance.
+    if f._field_type is _FIELD and f.default.__class__.__hash__ is None:
         raise ValueError(f'mutable default {type(f.default)} for field '
                          f'{f.name} is not allowed: use default_factory')
 

Lib/test/test_dataclasses.py

@@ -500,6 +500,32 @@ class C:
         self.assertNotEqual(C(3), C(4, 10))
         self.assertNotEqual(C(3, 10), C(4, 10))
 
+    def test_no_unhashable_default(self):
+        # See bpo-44674.
+        class Unhashable:
+            __hash__ = None
+
+        unhashable_re = 'mutable default .* for field a is not allowed'
+        with self.assertRaisesRegex(ValueError, unhashable_re):
+            @dataclass
+            class A:
+                a: dict = {}
+
+        with self.assertRaisesRegex(ValueError, unhashable_re):
+            @dataclass
+            class A:
+                a: Any = Unhashable()
+
+        # Make sure that the machinery looking for hashability is using the
+        # class's __hash__, not the instance's __hash__.
+        with self.assertRaisesRegex(ValueError, unhashable_re):
+            unhashable = Unhashable()
+            # This shouldn't make the variable hashable.
+            unhashable.__hash__ = lambda: 0
+            @dataclass
+            class A:
+                a: Any = unhashable
+
     def test_hash_field_rules(self):
         # Test all 6 cases of:
         #  hash=True/False/None

Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2021-11-29-19-37-20.bpo-44674.NijWLt.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+Change how dataclasses disallows mutable default values.  It used to
+use a list of known types (list, dict, set).  Now it disallows
+unhashable objects to be defaults.  It's using unhashability as a
+proxy for mutability.  Patch by Eric V. Smith, idea by Raymond
+Hettinger.
+