Python 3 - Can pickle handle byte objects larger than 4GB?

Here is a simple workaround for issue 24658. Use pickle.loads or pickle.dumps and break the bytes object into chunks of size 2**31 - 1 to get it in or out of the file.

import pickle
import os.path

file_path = "pkl.pkl"
n_bytes = 2**31
max_bytes = 2**31 - 1
data = bytearray(n_bytes)

## write
bytes_out = pickle.dumps(data)
with open(file_path, 'wb') as f_out:
    for idx in range(0, len(bytes_out), max_bytes):
        f_out.write(bytes_out[idx:idx+max_bytes])

## read
bytes_in = bytearray(0)
input_size = os.path.getsize(file_path)
with open(file_path, 'rb') as f_in:
    for _ in range(0, input_size, max_bytes):
        bytes_in += f_in.read(max_bytes)
data2 = pickle.loads(bytes_in)

assert(data == data2)

To sum up what was answered in the comments:

Yes, Python can pickle byte objects bigger than 4GB. The observed error is caused by a bug in the implementation (see Issue24658).

Here is the full workaround, though it seems pickle.load no longer tries to dump a huge file anymore (I am on Python 3.5.2) so strictly speaking only the pickle.dumps needs this to work properly.

import pickle

class MacOSFile(object):

    def __init__(self, f):
        self.f = f

    def __getattr__(self, item):
        return getattr(self.f, item)

    def read(self, n):
        # print("reading total_bytes=%s" % n, flush=True)
        if n >= (1 << 31):
            buffer = bytearray(n)
            idx = 0
            while idx < n:
                batch_size = min(n - idx, 1 << 31 - 1)
                # print("reading bytes [%s,%s)..." % (idx, idx + batch_size), end="", flush=True)
                buffer[idx:idx + batch_size] = self.f.read(batch_size)
                # print("done.", flush=True)
                idx += batch_size
            return buffer
        return self.f.read(n)

    def write(self, buffer):
        n = len(buffer)
        print("writing total_bytes=%s..." % n, flush=True)
        idx = 0
        while idx < n:
            batch_size = min(n - idx, 1 << 31 - 1)
            print("writing bytes [%s, %s)... " % (idx, idx + batch_size), end="", flush=True)
            self.f.write(buffer[idx:idx + batch_size])
            print("done.", flush=True)
            idx += batch_size


def pickle_dump(obj, file_path):
    with open(file_path, "wb") as f:
        return pickle.dump(obj, MacOSFile(f), protocol=pickle.HIGHEST_PROTOCOL)


def pickle_load(file_path):
    with open(file_path, "rb") as f:
        return pickle.load(MacOSFile(f))