os.statvfs() not working well with unicode paths

[giampaolo]

BPO	18695
Nosy	@vstinner, @giampaolo, @benjaminp, @ezio-melotti, @serhiy-storchaka
Files	statvfs.patch issue18695-2.patch issue18695-3.patch

^{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/giampaolo'
closed_at = <Date 2020-05-31.14:42:33.481>
created_at = <Date 2013-08-09.12:06:43.536>
labels = ['type-bug', 'expert-unicode']
title = 'os.statvfs() not working well with unicode paths'
updated_at = <Date 2020-05-31.14:42:33.480>
user = 'https://github.com/giampaolo'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2020-05-31.14:42:33.480>
actor = 'serhiy.storchaka'
assignee = 'giampaolo.rodola'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2020-05-31.14:42:33.481>
closer = 'serhiy.storchaka'
components = ['Unicode']
creation = <Date 2013-08-09.12:06:43.536>
creator = 'giampaolo.rodola'
dependencies = []
files = ['31207', '33633', '33634']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 18695
keywords = ['patch', 'needs review']
message_count = 16.0
messages = ['194726', '194764', '194774', '194783', '194788', '208114', '208844', '208847', '208849', '208853', '208857', '208959', '219038', '219048', '219054', '370467']
nosy_count = 6.0
nosy_names = ['vstinner', 'giampaolo.rodola', 'benjamin.peterson', 'ezio.melotti', 'Arfrever', 'serhiy.storchaka']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'out of date'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue18695'
versions = ['Python 2.7']

[giampaolo]

From: https://code.google.com/p/psutil/issues/detail?id=416

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
from __future__ import unicode_literals
import os, errno
name = "ƒőő"
try:
    os.mkdir(name)
except OSError as err:
    if err.errno != errno.EEXIST:
        raise
os.statvfs(name)

The script above works fine on Python 3.3 but on 2.7 you'll get:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "foo.py", line 10, in <module>
    os.statvfs(name)
UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode characters in position 0-2: ordinal not in range(128)

Patch in attachment fixes the issue.

[serhiy-storchaka]

Functions such as rename(), popen(), mkfifo(), mknod(), etc have the same issue.

[vstinner]

The script above works fine on Python 3.3 but on 2.7 you'll get: ...

Cool, you now have a good reason to upgrade to Python 3 ;-)

I'm not sure that it's a good idea to invest time on fixing Unicode issues in Python 2, especially in a minor version (Python 2.7.x).

[giampaolo]

I'm not sure that it's a good idea to invest time on fixing Unicode
issues in Python 2, especially in a minor version (Python 2.7.x).

I admit I sort of share the same doubts, but considering 2.7 a "minor python version", especially at this point, would be a mistake.

[serhiy-storchaka]

2.7.x is a minor version, not 2.7. We fixed Unicode issues in Python 2 bugfixes many times.

[serhiy-storchaka]

Giampaolo, do you want to provide a test?

[giampaolo]

Attached patch includes tests. I took test_sax.py as an example.

[giampaolo]

While I'm at it I'm going to fix also mkfifo(), mknod() and others. Hold on a bit more.

[giampaolo]

Ok, patch in attachment fixes mkfifo(), mknod() and statvfs() and also includes Unicode tests for all os module's path-related functions.

[serhiy-storchaka]

You have eaten "return NULL;" in posix_mkfifo.

"from test.test_support import TESTFN_UNICODE, TESTFN_ENCODING" can fail. The simplest solution is just initialize them to None by default in test_support.

If TESTFN_UNICODE.encode(TESTFN_ENCODING) fails (on POSIX locale), it will be better to run tests with unicode(TESTFN, 'ascii') than skip them.

Tests should check that results for unicode filename is same as for str filename.

As far as Victor have doubts, we should ask Benjamin.

[vstinner]

As far as Victor have doubts, we should ask Benjamin.

Well, if you begin to patch some os functions, we will find much functions which don't support Unicode path.

I prefer to consider that Python 2 doesn't support Unicode filenames to avoid bugs.

If you want to support Unicode filename, we will have to modify a lot of code. What's the point since Python 3 has a very good support of Unicode? Much better than Python 2?

[giampaolo]

Either way it's fine with me.

Regardless I think these tests have some value because all those os functions are not currently tested so it might makes sense to apply Serhiy's suggestions and port them to Python 3.4.