zipfile stupidly broken

[Martin Maney]

To quote from zipfile.py (2.4 library):

    # Search the last END_BLOCK bytes of the file for the record signature.
    # The comment is appended to the ZIP file and has a 16 bit length.
    # So the comment may be up to 64K long.  We limit the search for the
    # signature to a few Kbytes at the end of the file for efficiency.
    # also, the signature must not appear in the comment.
    END_BLOCK = min(filesize, 1024 * 4)

So the author knows that there's a hard limit of 64K on the comment
size, but feels it's more important to fail a little more quickly when
fed something that's not a zipfile - or a perfectly legitimate zipfile
that doesn't observe his ad-hoc 4K limitation.  I don't have time to
find a gentler way to say it because I have to find a work around for
this arbitrary limit (1): this is stupid.


(1) the leading candidate is to copy and paste the whole frigging
zipfile module so I can patch it, but that's even uglier than it is
stupid.  "This battery is pining for the fjords!"


Normally I despise being CC'd on a reply to list or group traffic, but
in this case it's probably necessary, as I haven't had time to keep up
with this place for several years. :-/

-- 
To be alive, is that not to be
again and again surprised?  -- Nicholas van Rijn