This is very unsafe. When you put QByteArray anywhere and then destroy the IndexedString it may (eventually) trigger a cleanup of the item repo data, which will make the QByteArray reference destroyed data.

Where is this actually required? If possible, I want to delete the bytearray getter completely, as it can lead to unicode issues.

In D327#6248, @mwolff wrote:

This is very unsafe. When you put QByteArray anywhere and then destroy the IndexedString it may (eventually) trigger a cleanup of the item repo data, which will make the QByteArray reference destroyed data.

Right, but "you have been warned" in the documentation.

Where is this actually required? If possible, I want to delete the bytearray getter completely, as it can lead to unicode issues.

Only used in kdevplatform/kdevelop afaics. Just removing seems possible; a few locations (around 10) in oldcpp need fixing (trivial). Will do.

Unfortunately code such as:

ret += KDevelop::IndexedString::fromIndex(contents[a]).byteArray();

would turn a bit unreadable.

Maybe renaming to asByteArray would give sufficient hint the returned value is just a reference, not a copy for now. Otherwise I'd just ditch the patch for now.