[Python-Dev] PEP 383: Non-decodable Bytes in System Character Interfaces (original) (raw)

Terry Reedy tjreedy at udel.edu
Wed Apr 29 22:59:57 CEST 2009

Glenn Linderman wrote:

On approximately 4/29/2009 4:36 AM, came the following characters from the keyboard of Cameron Simpson:

On 29Apr2009 02:56, Glenn Linderman <v+python at g.nevcal.com> wrote:

os.listdir(b"")

I find that on my Windows system, with all ASCII path file names, that I get quite different results when I pass os.listdir an empty str vs an empty bytes. Rather than keep you guessing, I get the root directory contents from the empty str, and the current directory contents from an empty bytes. That is rather unexpected. So I guess I'd better suggest that a specific, equivalent directory name be passed in either bytes or str form.

I think you may have uncovered an implementation bug rather than an encoding issue (because I'd expect "" and b"" to be equivalent). Me too.

Sounds like an issue for the tracker.

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