On Mon, Aug 20, 2018, at 2:52 PM, Paul Moore wrote:
The various hooks take directory paths as arguments, and typically return a filename (e.g., build_wheel). The returned filename is always explicitly noted as being *a unicode string*. However, argumnents (metadata_directory in build_wheel/prepare_metadata_for_build_wheel) are *not* explicitly mandated to be Unicode.
My assumption is that the intent is that *all* strings, whether arguments or return values, must be Unicode.
I'd say we should handle all paths the same way, i.e. unicode. If it's a serious obstacle, we could alter the specification. But I would be surprised if the required changes to the setuptools backend are so tricky that they warrant a workaround in the specification. Thomas