tarfile fails on MacOS9

[jackjansen]

BPO	690341
Nosy	@akuchling, @jackjansen

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields: ```python assignee = None closed_at = created_at = labels = ['library'] title = 'tarfile fails on MacOS9' updated_at = user = 'https://github.com/jackjansen' ``` bugs.python.org fields: ```python activity = actor = 'akuchling' assignee = 'none' closed = True closed_date = None closer = None components = ['Library (Lib)'] creation = creator = 'jackjansen' dependencies = [] files = [] hgrepos = [] issue_num = 690341 keywords = [] message_count = 4.0 messages = ['14741', '14742', '14743', '14744'] nosy_count = 3.0 nosy_names = ['akuchling', 'nnorwitz', 'jackjansen'] pr_nums = [] priority = 'low' resolution = 'out of date' stage = None status = 'closed' superseder = None type = None url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue690341' versions = [] ```

[jackjansen]

test_tarfile fails in MacPython-OS9. The problem seems to be pathname-related, and I'm not sure whether the problem is with the test or with the tarfile module itself.

Various of the tests (test_seek, test_readlines) expect to find a file called, for example, "0-REGTYPE-TEXT", while the archive holds a file "/0-REGTYPE-TEXT". Apparently the tarfile module has some support for os.sep being different than "/", but not enough.

An added problem (or maybe the only problem?) may be that on the mac there are no files at the "root", only directories (disks, actually). So while "/tmp" is representable as "tmp:" this doesn't really work for files as they would be interpreted as directories.

[d21744ff-f396-4c71-955e-7dbd2e886779]

Logged In: YES user_id=33168

Jack, I don't really know how to fix these. My guess is that doing something like os.path.normpath or abspath on the names would help. The code in test_seek and test_readlines does this:

file(os.path.join(dirname(), filename), "r")

Could that be changed to:

file(os.path.normpath(os.path.join(dirname(), filename)), "r")

Perhaps, there should be a utility function to get the normalized name? I can try to make the changes, but can't build or test on MacOS 9. If you can suggest some changes, I can make a patch for you to try.

[jackjansen]

Logged In: YES user_id=45365

The problem turns out to be deeper: the way tarfile handles pathnames needs work (and probably a lot of it). There is an assumption all over the code that you can convert unix pathnames to native pathnames by simply substitution / with os.path.sep. This will not fly for the Mac: /unix/path/name -> unix:path:name and relative/unix/path -> :relative:unix:path.

I've rigger tarfile.py to raise ImportError on the mac, changed the summary of this bug and left it open/unassigned with a lower priority. Maybe someone finds the time to fix it, some time.

[akuchling]

Logged In: YES user_id=11375

Given that MacOS 9 support is gone, I'll close this bug.