[Freeipa-devel] [PATCH 536] ipapython: remove default_encoding_utf8

[Christian Heimes]

On 2016-01-05 11:30, Tomas Babej wrote:
> 
> 
> On 01/05/2016 08:54 AM, Jan Cholasta wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> the attached patch replaces the default_encoding_utf8 binary module with
>> 2 lines of equivalent Python code.
>>
>> Honza
>>
>>
>>
> 
> This looks fine to me, however, I wonder, why this approach was ever
> taken? The sys.setdefaultencoding is available in all versions of Python
> ever supported by FreeIPA.
> 
> Is it possible we're missing something here? Or was this option simply
> overlooked?

sys.setdefaultencoding() is not available unless you use a hack and
reload the sys module. The function is hidden for a very good reason. It
can and will break internal assumption as well as libraries in bad, hard
to detect ways. For example it wreaks havoc on hashing for dicts and sets.

The blog posting
https://anonbadger.wordpress.com/2015/06/16/why-sys-setdefaultencoding-will-break-code/
explains the problem in much greater detail.

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