[issue16834] ioctl mutate_flag behavior in regard to the buffer size limit
New submission from Yuval Weinbaum:
In fcntl module, the documentation states the following regarding the mutate_flag in ioctl method:
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If it is false, the buffer’s mutability is ignored and behaviour is as for a read-only buffer, except that the 1024 byte limit mentioned above is avoided – so long as the buffer you pass is as least as long as what the operating system wants to put there, things should work.
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However, looking at the code (fcntlmodule.c) it seems that the 1024 bytes limitation is avoided when the mutate_flag is set to True (the opposite of what is stated in the doc).
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assignee: docs@python
components: Documentation
messages: 178732
nosy: Yuval.Weinbaum, docs@python
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: ioctl mutate_flag behavior in regard to the buffer size limit
versions: Python 2.6
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Python tracker
Mark Lawrence added the comment:
@Yuval sorry about the delay in replying. Can a *nix person comment on this please as I stick with Windows.
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nosy: +BreamoreBoy
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Python tracker
Martin Panter added the comment: Looking at the C code, if a writable buffer is passed, mutate_arg is false, and the buffer is longer than 1024 bytes, then a ValueError is raised:
ioctl(0, 0, bytearray(2048), False) Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> ValueError: ioctl string arg too long
So it seems the implementation does not match the documentation’s claim that “the 1024 byte limit . . . is avoided”. IMO this is an implementation bug.
But instead of (or in addition to) fixing it, maybe we could consider removing “mutate_flag” parameter altogether. It was originally added as a backwards compatibility helper for Issue 555817 in Python 2.3, and changed to True by default in Python 2.5.
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components: +Extension Modules
nosy: +vadmium
versions: +Python 3.4
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Python tracker
Change by Mark Lawrence
Change by Irit Katriel
participants (4)
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Irit Katriel -
Mark Lawrence
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Martin Panter
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Yuval Weinbaum