[New-bugs-announce] [issue18169] struct.pack() behaves strangely for 'L' on 64bit Linux

[Roman Zeyde]

New submission from Roman Zeyde:

Reproduction:

Python 2.7.4 (default, Apr 19 2013, 18:28:01) 
[GCC 4.7.3] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import struct
>>> struct.pack('!L', 0x01020304)
'\x01\x02\x03\x04'
>>> struct.pack('>L', 0x01020304)
'\x01\x02\x03\x04'
>>> struct.pack('<L', 0x01020304)
'\x04\x03\x02\x01'
>>> struct.pack('L', 0x01020304)
'\x04\x03\x02\x01\x00\x00\x00\x00' ### WAT??? ###
>>> 

As far as I see at the source code (http://hg.python.org/releasing/2.7.4/file/9290822f2280/Modules/_struct.c#l703), sizeof(long) is used as the size of 'L', which is equal to 8 at 64bit Linux...

The problem is that the results of packing with 'L' returns 8 bytes,
instead of 4 - as was expected from the documentation...

----------
components: Interpreter Core
messages: 190817
nosy: Roman.Zeyde
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: struct.pack() behaves strangely for 'L' on 64bit Linux
type: behavior
versions: Python 2.7

_______________________________________
Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue18169>
_______________________________________