python3; ftplib: TypeError: Can't convert 'bytes' object to str implicitly

[Antoon Pardon]

op 14-05-14 18:24, Akira Li schreef:
> Antoon Pardon <antoon.pardon at rece.vub.ac.be> writes:
> 
>> This is the code I run (python 3.3)
>>
>> host = ...
>> user = ...
>> passwd = ...
>>
>> from ftplib import FTP
>>
>> ftp = FTP(host, user, passwd)
>> ftp.mkd(b'NewDir')
>> ftp.rmd(b'NewDir')
>>
>> This is the traceback
>>
>> Traceback (most recent call last):
>>   File "ftp-problem", line 9, in <module>
>>     ftp.mkd(b'NewDir')
>>   File "/usr/lib/python3.3/ftplib.py", line 612, in mkd
>>     resp = self.voidcmd('MKD ' + dirname)
>> TypeError: Can't convert 'bytes' object to str implicitly
>>
>> The problem is that I do something like this in a backup program.
>> I don't know the locales that other people use. So I manipulate
>> all file and directory names as bytes.
>>
>> Am I doing something wrong?
> 
> The error message shows that ftplib expects a string here, not bytes.
> You could use `ftp.mkd(some_bytes.decode(ftp.encoding))` as a
> workaround.

Sure but what I like to know: Can this be considered a failing of
ftplib. Since python3 generally allows paths to be strings as
well as bytes can't we expect the same of ftplib?

Especially as I assume that path will be converted to bytes anyway
in order to send it over the network.

-- 
Antoon Pardon.