file.read Method Documentation (Python 2.7.10)

[Stephen Tucker]

Chris -

In the Python 2.7.10 documentation, I am referring to section 5. Built-in
Types, subsection 5.9 File Objects.

In that subsection, I have the following paragraph:

file.read([*size*])

Read at most *size* bytes from the file (less if the read hits EOF before
obtaining *size* bytes). If the *size* argument is negative or omitted,
read all data until EOF is reached. The bytes are returned as a string
object. An empty string is returned when EOF is encountered immediately.
(For certain files, like ttys, it makes sense to continue reading after an
EOF is hit.) Note that this method may call the underlying C function
fread() more than once in an effort to acquire as close to *size* bytes as
possible. Also note that when in non-blocking mode, less data than was
requested may be returned, even if no *size* parameter was given.

Note

This function is simply a wrapper for the underlying fread() C function,
and will behave the same in corner cases, such as whether the EOF value is
cached.
Stephen.

On Mon, Jan 9, 2023 at 6:25 PM Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, 10 Jan 2023 at 01:36, Stephen Tucker <stephen_tucker at sil.org>
> wrote:
> >
> > Dear Python-list,
> >
> > Yes, I know that Python 2.x is no longer supported.
> >
> > I have found that the documentation for this method is misleading when
> the
> > file being read is UTF-8-encoded:
> >
> >    Instead of reading *size* bytes, the method reads *size *UTF-8 byte
> > *sequences*.
> >
> > Has this error been corrected in the Python 3.x documentation?
> >
>
> What documentation is this? The builtin 'file' type doesn't know
> anything about encodings, and only ever returns bytes.
>
> ChrisA
> --
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>