[issue21416] argparse should accept bytes arguments as originally passed

[Derek Wilson]

New submission from Derek Wilson:

If I create an argument parser like:

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('somebytes', type=bytes, help='i want some bytes')
parser.parse_args()

the parse_args() call will raise an exception printing usage info indicating that an "invalid bytes value" was passed if any of the bytes on the command line are >127.

if i'm specifying that i want bytes then i should expect that the argument should be interpreted as bytes and not text.

I get that #8776 was closed because it makes sense not to clutter up internals, but in this instance i am building a command line parser and telling it exactly what i expect. if the solution from #8776 of os.fsencode(sys.argv) will definitely always work then argparse should do this internally if i tell it i expect bytes on the command line.

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components: Library (Lib)
messages: 217761
nosy: underrun
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: argparse should accept bytes arguments as originally passed
type: behavior
versions: Python 3.4, Python 3.5

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue21416>
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