fix: better args passthrough for `_batch_setitems()`
State: closed

In Python 3.14, there's a change in the signature of `_Pickler._batch_setitems`.

It's changed to:

```python
# pickle.py

def _batch_setitems(self, items, obj):
    # Helper to batch up SETITEMS sequences; proto >= 1 only
    save = self.save
    write = self.write
```

To accomodate this, in `dill`, we have this compatibility code:

```python
if sys.hexversion < 0x30E00A1:
    pickler._batch_setitems(iter(source.items()))
else:
    pickler._batch_setitems(iter(source.items()), obj=obj)
```

Thus, the datasets package will emit this error

```
│ /Users/sghuang/mamba/envs/ds/lib/python3.14/site-packages/dill/_dill.py:1262 in save_module_dict │
│                                                                                                  │
│   1259 │   │   if is_dill(pickler, child=False) and pickler._session:                            │
│   1260 │   │   │   # we only care about session the first pass thru                              │
│   1261 │   │   │   pickler._first_pass = False                                                   │
│ ❱ 1262 │   │   StockPickler.save_dict(pickler, obj)                                              │
│   1263 │   │   logger.trace(pickler, "# D2")                                                     │
│   1264 │   return                                                                                │
│   1265                                                                                           │
│                                                                                                  │
│ /Users/sghuang/mamba/envs/ds/lib/python3.14/pickle.py:1133 in save_dict                          │
│                                                                                                  │
│   1130 │   │   print(f"Line number: {inspect.getsourcelines(method)[1]}")                        │
│   1131 │   │   print(f"Full path: {inspect.getmodule(method)}")                                  │
│   1132 │   │   print(f"Class: {method.__qualname__}")                                            │
│ ❱ 1133 │   │   self._batch_setitems(obj.items(), obj)                                            │
│   1134 │                                                                                         │
│   1135 │   dispatch[dict] = save_dict                                                            │
│   1136                                                                                           │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
TypeError: Pickler._batch_setitems() takes 2 positional arguments but 3 were given
[NOTE] when serializing datasets.table.InMemoryTable state
[NOTE] when serializing datasets.table.InMemoryTable object
```

To fix it, we update the signature of the `_batch_setitems` method defined in `utils/_dill.py`.

This fix should be backward compatible, since the compatibility is handled by `dill`.

This should close #7813.

Similar to https://github.com/joblib/joblib/issues/1658.

Related to https://github.com/uqfoundation/dill/pull/724.

Comments:
@sghng  There is a regression with python 3.13.8 when lm-eval is calling datasets load

```python
self = <test_llama3_2.TestLlama3_2 testMethod=test_llama3_2>

    def test_llama3_2(self):
>       self.quant_lm_eval()

tests/models/test_llama3_2.py:35: 
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 
tests/models/model_test.py:773: in quant_lm_eval
    self.model, _ = self.quantModel(self.NATIVE_MODEL_ID, batch_size=self.QUANT_BATCH_SIZE, trust_remote_code=self.TRUST_REMOTE_CODE, dtype=self.TORCH_DTYPE)
                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
tests/models/model_test.py:588: in quantModel
    reuse_candidates = self.perform_post_quant_validation(path, trust_remote_code=trust_remote_code)
                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
tests/models/model_test.py:250: in perform_post_quant_validation
    arc_records[backend] = self.run_arc_challenge_eval(model, backend, trust_remote_code=trust_remote_code)
                           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
tests/models/model_test.py:217: in run_arc_challenge_eval
    task_results = self.lm_eval(
tests/models/model_test.py:753: in lm_eval
    raise e
tests/models/model_test.py:699: in lm_eval
    results = GPTQModel.eval(
gptqmodel/models/auto.py:474: in eval
    results = simple_evaluate(
../lm-evaluation-harness/lm_eval/utils.py:456: in _wrapper
    return fn(*args, **kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
../lm-evaluation-harness/lm_eval/evaluator.py:283: in simple_evaluate
    task_dict = get_task_dict(
../lm-evaluation-harness/lm_eval/tasks/__init__.py:635: in get_task_dict
    task_name_from_string_dict = task_manager.load_task_or_group(
../lm-evaluation-harness/lm_eval/tasks/__init__.py:426: in load_task_or_group
    collections.ChainMap(
../lm-evaluation-harness/lm_eval/tasks/__init__.py:428: in <lambda>
    lambda task: self._load_individual_task_or_group(task),
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
../lm-evaluation-harness/lm_eval/tasks/__init__.py:326: in _load_individual_task_or_group
    return _load_task(task_config, task=name_or_config)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
../lm-evaluation-harness/lm_eval/tasks/__init__.py:286: in _load_task
    task_object = ConfigurableTask(config=config)
                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
../lm-evaluation-harness/lm_eval/api/task.py:865: in __init__
    self.download(self.config.dataset_kwargs)
../lm-evaluation-harness/lm_eval/api/task.py:997: in download
    self.dataset = datasets.load_dataset(
../datasets/src/datasets/load.py:1397: in load_dataset
    builder_instance = load_dataset_builder(
../datasets/src/datasets/load.py:1185: in load_dataset_builder
    builder_instance._use_legacy_cache_dir_if_possible(dataset_module)
../datasets/src/datasets/builder.py:612: in _use_legacy_cache_dir_if_possible
    self._check_legacy_cache2(dataset_module) or self._check_legacy_cache() or None
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
../datasets/src/datasets/builder.py:485: in _check_legacy_cache2
    config_id = self.config.name + "-" + Hasher.hash({"data_files": self.config.data_files})
                                         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
../datasets/src/datasets/fingerprint.py:188: in hash
    return cls.hash_bytes(dumps(value))
                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^
../datasets/src/datasets/utils/_dill.py:120: in dumps
    dump(obj, file)
../datasets/src/datasets/utils/_dill.py:114: in dump
    Pickler(file, recurse=True).dump(obj)
../vm313t/lib/python3.13t/site-packages/dill/_dill.py:428: in dump
    StockPickler.dump(self, obj)
/usr/lib/python3.13/pickle.py:484: in dump
    self.save(obj)
../datasets/src/datasets/utils/_dill.py:70: in save
    dill.Pickler.save(self, obj, save_persistent_id=save_persistent_id)
../vm313t/lib/python3.13t/site-packages/dill/_dill.py:422: in save
    StockPickler.save(self, obj, save_persistent_id)
/usr/lib/python3.13/pickle.py:558: in save
    f(self, obj)  # Call unbound method with explicit self
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^
../vm313t/lib/python3.13t/site-packages/dill/_dill.py:1262: in save_module_dict
    StockPickler.save_dict(pickler, obj)
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _`` _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

self = <datasets.utils._dill.Pickler object at 0x4eaf175e390>
obj = {'data_files': {'train': ['hf://datasets/allenai/ai2_arc@210d026faf9955653af8916fad021475a3f00453/ARC-Challenge/train-...//datasets/allenai/ai2_arc@210d026faf9955653af8916fad021475a3f00453/ARC-Challenge/validation-00000-of-00001.parquet']}}

    def save_dict(self, obj):
        if self.bin:
            self.write(EMPTY_DICT)
        else:   # proto 0 -- can't use EMPTY_DICT
            self.write(MARK + DICT)
    
        self.memoize(obj)
>       self._batch_setitems(obj.items())
E       TypeError: Pickler._batch_setitems() missing 1 required positional argument: 'obj'

/usr/lib/python3.13/pickle.py:990: TypeError
```

Python 3.13.8
```python
(vm313t) root@gpu-base:~/datasets# pip show dill datasets transformers lm-eval
Name: dill
Version: 0.4.0
Summary: serialize all of Python
Home-page: https://github.com/uqfoundation/dill
Author: Mike McKerns
Author-email: mmckerns@uqfoundation.org
License: BSD-3-Clause
Location: /root/vm313t/lib/python3.13t/site-packages
Requires: 
Required-by: datasets, evaluate, GPTQModel, lm_eval, multiprocess
---
Name: datasets
Version: 4.2.1.dev0 <-- this PR
Summary: HuggingFace community-driven open-source library of datasets
Home-page: https://github.com/huggingface/datasets
Author: HuggingFace Inc.
Author-email: thomas@huggingface.co
License: Apache 2.0
Location: /root/vm313t/lib/python3.13t/site-packages
Editable project location: /root/datasets
Requires: dill, filelock, fsspec, httpx, huggingface-hub, multiprocess, numpy, packaging, pandas, pyarrow, pyyaml, requests, tqdm, xxhash
Required-by: evaluate, GPTQModel, lm_eval
---
Name: transformers
Version: 4.57.1
Summary: State-of-the-art Machine Learning for JAX, PyTorch and TensorFlow
Home-page: https://github.com/huggingface/transformers
Author: The Hugging Face team (past and future) with the help of all our contributors (https://github.com/huggingface/transformers/graphs/contributors)
Author-email: transformers@huggingface.co
License: Apache 2.0 License
Location: /root/vm313t/lib/python3.13t/site-packages
Requires: filelock, huggingface-hub, numpy, packaging, pyyaml, regex, requests, safetensors, tokenizers, tqdm
Required-by: GPTQModel, lm_eval, peft, tokenicer
---
Name: lm_eval
Version: 0.4.9.1
Summary: A framework for evaluating language models
Home-page: https://github.com/EleutherAI/lm-evaluation-harness
Author: 
Author-email: EleutherAI <contact@eleuther.ai>
License: MIT
Location: /root/vm313t/lib/python3.13t/site-packages
Editable project location: /root/lm-evaluation-harness
Requires: accelerate, datasets, dill, evaluate, jsonlines, more_itertools, numexpr, peft, pybind11, pytablewriter, rouge-score, sacrebleu, scikit-learn, sqlitedict, torch, tqdm-multiprocess, transformers, word2number, zstandard
Required-by: 
```

The docs for this PR live [here](https://moon-ci-docs.huggingface.co/docs/datasets/pr_7817). All of your documentation changes will be reflected on that endpoint. The docs are available until 30 days after the last update.

@lhoestq Using `*args` works well. In fact we might as well pass through `**kwargs` as well to make the intent clearer.

It also appears to me that there could some other changes.

```python
def _batch_setitems(self, items, obj):
    if self._legacy_no_dict_keys_sorting:
        return super()._batch_setitems(items)
```

Python dictionaries are insertion ordered official since Python 3.7, which came to end-of-life in mid 2023 already. I tried installing `datasets` for Python 3.8 and it resolves to version `3.1`, so I think it's safe to drop this in latest version.

```python
    dill.Pickler._batch_setitems(self, items)
```

This line should simply be `return super()._batch_setitems(items)`, since we're already extending from `dill.Pickler`. (not having `return` in the original version is probably a bug)