Documentation is misleading about when get_notBefore and get_notAfter return None
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Description
The docs for get_notBefore and get_notAfter say:
A timestamp string, or None if there is none.
https://pyopenssl.org/en/stable/api/crypto.html#OpenSSL.crypto.X509.get_notAfter
But there is no such thing as a certificate without a notBefore or notAfter. They're not optional fields. What can happen is that the string is invalid, if the underlying OpenSSL's parser defers rejecting bad time values. So perhaps it should say "or None if the timestamp could not be parsed" or something like that.
Contributor guide
First steps
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- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start with the linked API documentation for X509.get_notBefore and X509.get_notAfter, then locate the source documentation for those methods. Update the description of None to explain that it indicates an unparseable timestamp, and verify that both rendered API entries use the corrected wording.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- python
- Domain
- documentation
- Issue type
- Documentation
- Difficulty
- 2/5
- Estimated time
- 1-3 hours
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Clearly specified
- Newbie friendliness
- 75/100