[Python-Dev] Bytes path support

[Ben Hoyt]

>> > The official policy is that we want them [support for bytes paths in stdlib functions] to go away, but reality so far has not budged. We will continue to hold our breath though. :-)
>>
>> Does that mean that new APIs should explicitly not support bytes? I'm
>> thinking of os.scandir() (PEP 471), which I'm implementing at the
>> moment. I was originally going to make it support bytes so it was
>> compatible with listdir, but maybe that's a bad idea. Bytes paths are
>> essentially broken on Windows.
>
> Bytes paths are "essential" on Unix, though, so I don't think we should
> create new low-level APIs that don't support bytes.

Fair enough. I don't quite understand, though -- why is the "official
policy" to kill something that's "essential" on *nix?

-Ben