[Python-Dev] Bytes path support

[Chris Barker]

>
>  but disallowing them in higher level
>> > explicitly cross platform abstractions like pathlib.
>>
>
I think the trick here is that posix-using folks claim that filenames are
just bytes, and indeed they can be passed around with a char*, so they seem
to be.

but you can't possible do anything other than pass them around if you
REALLY think they are just bytes.

So really, people treat them as
"bytes-in-some-arbitrary-encoding-where-at-least the-slash-character-(and
maybe a couple others)-is-ascii-compatible"

If you assume that, then you could write a pathlib that would work. And in
practice, I expect a lot of designed only for posix code works that way.
But of course, this gets ugly if you go to a platform where filenames are
not "bytes-in-some-arbitrary-encoding-where-at-least
the-slash-character-(and maybe a couple others)-is-ascii-compatible", like
windows.

I'm not sure if it's worth having a pathlib, etc. that uses this assumption
-- but it could help us all write code that actually works with this screwy
lack of specification.

 Antoine Pitrou wrote:

> To elaborate specifically about pathlib, it doesn't handle bytes paths
> but allows you to generate them if desired:
> https://docs.python.org/3/library/pathlib.html#operators


but that uses

os.fsencode:  Encode filename to the filesystem encoding

As I understand it, the whole problem with some posix systems is that there
is NO filesystem encoding -- i.e. you can't know for sure what encoding a
filename is in. So you need to be able to pass the bytes through as they
are.

(At least as I read Armin Ronacher's blog)

-Chris


-- 

Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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