[Python-ideas] tweaking the file system path protocol

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Tue, May 23, 2017 at 12:12:11PM +0200, Wolfgang Maier wrote:

> Here's how the proposal could be implemented in the pure Python version 
> (os._fspath):
> 
> def _fspath(path):
>     path_type = type(path)
>     if path_type is str or path_type is bytes:
>         return path

How about simplifying the implementation of fspath by giving str and 
bytes a __fspath__ method that returns str(self) or bytes(self)?

class str:
     def __fspath__(self):
         return str(self)  # Must be str, not type(self).


(1) We can avoid most of the expensive type checks.

(2) Subclasses of str and bytes don't have to do anything to get a 
useful default behaviour.


def fspath(path):
    try:
        dunder = type(path).__fspath__
    except AttributeError:
        raise TypeError(...) from None
    else:
        if dunder is not None:
            result = dunder(path)
            if type(result) in (str, byte):
                return result
        raise TypeError('expected a str or bytes, got ...')


The reason for the not None check is to allow subclasses to explicitly 
deny that they can be used for paths by setting __fspath__ to None in 
the subclass.



-- 
Steve