[New-bugs-announce] [issue27805] In Python 3, open('/dev/stdout', 'a') raises OSError with errno=ESPIPE

[Shane Hathaway]

New submission from Shane Hathaway:

With Python 2, the following call worked:

open('/dev/stdout', 'a')

Users of Supervisor have been depending on that for a long time. 

With Python 3.5, this is what happens:

>>> open('/dev/stdout', 'a')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
OSError: [Errno 29] Illegal seek

Presumably, this happens because Python 3 opens the file in 'w' mode and seeks to the end, while Python 2 passed the 'a' flag directly to the underlying C library; the underlying library is apparently smart enough to treat 'a' and 'w' identically when opening character device files and FIFOs.

It's a nasty little surprise for those upgrading from Python 2.

----------
components: IO
messages: 273158
nosy: hathawsh
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: In Python 3, open('/dev/stdout', 'a') raises OSError with errno=ESPIPE
versions: Python 3.5

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue27805>
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