[issue37609] support "UNC" device paths in ntpath.splitdrive

[Eryk Sun]

New submission from Eryk Sun <eryksun at gmail.com>:

Windows Python includes UNC shares such as "//server/spam" in its definition of a drive. This is natural because Windows supports setting a UNC path as the working directory and handles the share component as the working drive when resolving rooted paths such as "/eggs". For the sake of generality when working with \\?\ extended paths, Python should expand its definition of a UNC drive to include "UNC" device paths.

A practical example is calling glob.glob with a "//?/UNC" device path.

    >>> import os, sys, glob
    >>> sys.addaudithook(lambda s,a: print('#', a[0]) if s == 'glob.glob' else None)

regular UNC path:

    >>> glob.glob('//localhost/C$/Sys*')
    # //localhost/C$/Sys*
    ['//localhost/C$/System Volume Information']

"UNC" device path:

    >>> glob.glob('//?/UNC/localhost/C$/Sys*')
    # //?/UNC/localhost/C$/Sys*
    # //?/UNC/localhost/C$
    # //?/UNC/localhost
    # //?/UNC/
    []

Since the magic character "?" is in the path (IMO, the drive should be excluded from this check, but that's a separate issue), the internal function glob._iglob calls itself recursively until it reaches the base case of dirname == pathname, where dirname is from os.path.split(pathname). The problem here is that ntpath.split doesn't stop at the proper base case of "//?/UNC/localhost/C$". This is due to ntpath.splitdrive. For example:

    >>> os.path.splitdrive('//?/UNC/localhost/C$/Sys*')
    ('//?/UNC', '/localhost/C$/Sys*')

    >>> os.path.splitdrive('//./UNC/localhost/C$/Sys*')
    ('//./UNC', '/localhost/C$/Sys*')

The results should be "//?/UNC/localhost/C$" and "//./UNC/localhost/C$". 

In other cases, returning a device as the drive is fine, if not exactly meaningful (e.g. "//./NUL"). I don't think this needs to change.

----------
components: Library (Lib), Windows
messages: 348055
nosy: eryksun, paul.moore, steve.dower, tim.golden, zach.ware
priority: normal
severity: normal
stage: needs patch
status: open
title: support "UNC" device paths in ntpath.splitdrive
type: behavior
versions: Python 3.8, Python 3.9

_______________________________________
Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<https://bugs.python.org/issue37609>
_______________________________________