[BUG]: ProgramOptions(name=None) raises AttributeError despite the str | None annotation

[aryanputta]

Is this a duplicate?

• I confirmed there appear to be no duplicate issues for this bug and that I agree to the Code of Conduct.

Type of Bug

Runtime Error

Component

cuda.core

Describe the bug

ProgramOptions.name is annotated as accepting None:

name: str | None = "default_program"

but __post_init__ calls .encode() on it unconditionally:

def __post_init__(self) -> None:
    self._name = self.name.encode()

So ProgramOptions(name=None) raises AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'encode'. The annotation and the docstring (name : str, optional) both read as permission to pass None.

This is the only field in __post_init__ whose None case is not handled. arch normalizes two lines below:

if self.arch is None:
    self.arch = f"sm_{Device().arch}"

The failure happens at the .encode() call, before Device() is consulted, so it reproduces without a CUDA context.

How to Reproduce

from cuda.core import ProgramOptions

ProgramOptions(name=None)

Expected behavior

Either None is accepted and normalized to the documented default "default_program", matching how arch is handled in the same method, or the annotation is narrowed to str so the type no longer advertises a value that cannot be passed.

I have a patch for the first option and will open a PR shortly.

Additional context

The None path has no test coverage today: every ProgramOptions(name=...) in cuda_core/tests/test_program.py passes a string.