cgi: parse_qs and parse_qsl misbehave on empty strings

[dljessup]

BPO	1014
Nosy	@gvanrossum, @nirs, @orsenthil

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = 'https://github.com/gvanrossum'
closed_at = <Date 2007-09-17.21:15:48.854>
created_at = <Date 2007-08-24.20:54:35.094>
labels = ['extension-modules', 'type-bug']
title = 'cgi:  parse_qs and parse_qsl misbehave on empty strings'
updated_at = <Date 2007-09-17.21:15:48.852>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/dljessup'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2007-09-17.21:15:48.852>
actor = 'gvanrossum'
assignee = 'gvanrossum'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2007-09-17.21:15:48.854>
closer = 'gvanrossum'
components = ['Extension Modules']
creation = <Date 2007-08-24.20:54:35.094>
creator = 'dljessup'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 1014
keywords = []
message_count = 6.0
messages = ['55274', '55309', '55727', '55728', '55977', '55983']
nosy_count = 4.0
nosy_names = ['gvanrossum', 'nirs', 'orsenthil', 'dljessup']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'wont fix'
stage = None
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue1014'
versions = ['Python 2.4']

[dljessup]

In Python 2.4.4, cgi.parse_qs(qs='', strict_parsing=True) errors out:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/cgi.py", line 183, in parse_qs
    for name, value in parse_qsl(qs, keep_blank_values, strict_parsing):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/cgi.py", line 217, in parse_qsl
    raise ValueError, "bad query field: %r" % (name_value,)
ValueError: bad query field: ''

To the best of my knowledge, this is bad behavior, since a large
percentage of URLs actually used have empty query strings.

[orsenthil]

Can query strings be empty? I am unable to find an instance.

[nirs]

Here is one: http://example.com/foo?

[nirs]

Addionally, if the default value is empty string, you expect it work with
empty string. If a non empty value is needed, it would use None as the
default.

[orsenthil]

Hi Sean,
This is a very minor issue (IMO) with Python 2.4. Why did you assign it
to gvanrossum?

Makes me wonder at your assignments.

Thanks,
Senthil

[gvanrossum]

I don't see what the problem is. You requested strict_parsing=True, and
this is what strict parsing does.