New submission from Larry Hastings <la...@hastings.org>: There are some functions in the os module that do much the same thing but differ only in minor ways, like
* whether or not they follow symbolic links (stat vs lstat) * taking an extra "dir_fd" parameter (chmod vs fchmodat(3.3)) It would be better if we consolidated these variations into one function which took keyword-only parameters that allow access to the alternate functionality. Here is a sample of the new possible function signatures, as originally proposed by Serhiy Storchaka: access(path, mode, *, followlinks=True, dirfd=None, eaccess=False) chmod(path, mode, *, followlinks=True, dirfd=None) chown(path, uid, gid, *, followlinks=True, dirfd=None) link(srcpath, dstpath, *, followlinks=True, srcdirfd=None, dstdirfd=None) mkdir(path, mode=0o777, *, dirfd=None) mknod(path, mode=0o600, device=0, *, dirfd=None) open(path, flag, mode=0o777, *, dirfd=None) readlink(path, *, dirfd=None) rename(oldpath, newpath, *, olddirfd=None, newdirfd=None) stat(path, *, followlinks=True, dirfd=None) symlink(src, dst, *, dirfd=None) unlink(path, *, removedir=False, dirfd=None) utimes(path[, (atime, mtime)], *, ns=False, dirfd=None) mkfifoat(path, mode=0o666, *, followlinks=True, dirfd=None) My opinion about naming: PEP 8 suggests underscores to separate words in non-class identifiers. So I'd spell those "dir_fd", "src_dir_fd" (etc), "remove_dir", and "follow_symlinks". (While thinking about this, I remembered the infrequently-cited maxim "no boolean parameters". But that's more a guideline than a rule, and it tends to be a complaint about how the meaning of the parameter is unclear at a call site. As these will be keyword-only parameters I think their meanings will be perfectly clear, so I shan't worry about it.) ---------- messages: 158777 nosy: larry priority: normal severity: normal status: open title: os module: use keyword-only arguments for dir_fd and nofollow to reduce function count _______________________________________ Python tracker <rep...@bugs.python.org> <http://bugs.python.org/issue14626> _______________________________________ _______________________________________________ Python-bugs-list mailing list Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-bugs-list/archive%40mail-archive.com
