[Python-Dev] datetime's strftime implementation: by design or bug

[Eric V. Smith]

[I hope this belongs on python-dev, since it's about the design of 
something.  But if not, let me know and I'll post to c.l.py.]

I'm willing to file a bug report and patch on this, but I'd like to know 
if it's by design or not.

In datetimemodule.c, the function wrap_strftime() insists that the 
length of a format string be <= 127 chars, by forcing the length into a 
char.  This seems like a bug to me.  wrap_strftime() calls time's 
strftime(), which doesn't have this limitation because it uses size_t.

 >>> import datetime
 >>> datetime.datetime.now().strftime('x'*128)
Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
MemoryError


 >>> import datetime
 >>> datetime.datetime.now().strftime('x'*256)
in wrap_strftime
totalnew=1
Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
SystemError: Objects/stringobject.c:4077: bad argument to internal function


 >>> import time
 >>> time.strftime('x'*128)
'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'


But before I write this up, I'd like to know if anyone knows if this is 
by design or not.

This is reproducible on Windows 2.4.3, and Linux 2.3.3 and 2.5c1.

Thanks.

Eric.