New submission from Ben Hoyt: Per Guido's comment about DirEntry documentation on Issue 26032, especially http://bugs.python.org/issue26032#msg257665, it'd be good to improve the docs of the scandir DirEntry methods with regard to symlinks and caching.
Attaching my stab at a documentation fix. Changes here are: 1) Clarify that the return values of is_dir()/is_file()/etc are cached separately for follow_symlinks True and False. 2) Be more specific about when the functions require a system call, and how it relates to caching and follow_symlinks. 3) DRY up common stuff between is_dir and is_file by saying "Caching, system calls made, and exceptions raised are as per is_dir" in is_file. 4) Tweak to the first paragraph of docs for is_dir/is_file to simplify: assume the follow_symlinks=True default, then note the follow_symlinks=False non-default case after. I think they're all improvements, though I'm not sure about #3. Is it better to just repeat those couple of paragraphs verbatim? I'm also not 100% sure about mentioning the DT_UNKNOWN thing. But you really can't get more specific about when system calls are required on Unix without mentioning it. ---------- assignee: docs@python components: Documentation files: direntry_doc_improvements.patch keywords: patch messages: 259282 nosy: benhoyt, docs@python, gvanrossum, haypo, serhiy.storchaka priority: normal severity: normal status: open title: Improve scandir DirEntry docs, especially re symlinks and caching versions: Python 3.5, Python 3.6 Added file: http://bugs.python.org/file41765/direntry_doc_improvements.patch _______________________________________ Python tracker <rep...@bugs.python.org> <http://bugs.python.org/issue26248> _______________________________________ _______________________________________________ Python-bugs-list mailing list Unsubscribe: https://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-bugs-list/archive%40mail-archive.com
