Victor Stinner wrote: > Hi, > > A PYTHONFSENCODING environment variable was added to Python 3.2: issue #8622. > This variable introduces an inconstency because the filesystem and the locale > encodings can now be different. > > There are (at least) four issues related to this problem. We have 2 choices > to > fix these issues: > > (a) use the same encoding to encode and decode values (it can be different > for each issue) > > (b) remove PYTHONFSENCODING variable and raise an error if locale and > filesystem encodings are different (ensure that both encodings are the same) > > Even if choice (a) is not easy to implement, it is feasible and I already > wrote some patches. > > I don't understand how Python interact with other programs who ignore the > PYTHONFSENCODING environment variable. It's like Python uses its own "locale". > > Choice (b) looks easy to implement, but... there is the problem of Mac OS X. > Mac OS X uses utf-8 encoding for the filesystem (and not the locale > encoding), > whereas it looks like the locale encoding is used for the command line > arguments. See issue #4388 for more information. > > There is also maybe an useful usecase of the PYTHONFSENCODING, but I don't > remember which one :-)
You have to differentiate between the meaning of a file system encoding and the locale: A file system encoding defines how the applications interact with the file system. A locale defines how the user expects to interact with the application. It is well possible that the two are different. Mac OS X is just one example. Another common example is having a Unix account using the C locale (=ASCII) while working on a UTF-8 file system. BTW: We added that because just like I/O encoding, you need to be able to override the setting determined by Python via locale introspection, which may be wrong. The env var is only meant as a way to solve encoding problems in special situations where the local cannot be used to determine the file system or input/output encoding. -- Marc-Andre Lemburg eGenix.com Professional Python Services directly from the Source (#1, Oct 07 2010) >>> Python/Zope Consulting and Support ... http://www.egenix.com/ >>> mxODBC.Zope.Database.Adapter ... http://zope.egenix.com/ >>> mxODBC, mxDateTime, mxTextTools ... http://python.egenix.com/ ________________________________________________________________________ ::: Try our new mxODBC.Connect Python Database Interface for free ! :::: eGenix.com Software, Skills and Services GmbH Pastor-Loeh-Str.48 D-40764 Langenfeld, Germany. CEO Dipl.-Math. Marc-Andre Lemburg Registered at Amtsgericht Duesseldorf: HRB 46611 http://www.egenix.com/company/contact/ _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com
