python / python/cpython

mimetypes raises UnicodeDecodeError when map files are not unicode encoded

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stdlib type-bug
Dominant language
Python
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Description

Bug report

Bug description:

Hi, when I use the mimetypes module and one of the known mime.types files include a non utf-8 encoded comment, the operation fails with UnicodeDecodeError:

......
  File "/usr/lib/python3.9/urllib/request.py", line 1506, in open_local_file
    mtype = mimetypes.guess_type(filename)[0]
  File "/usr/lib/python3.9/mimetypes.py", line 289, in guess_type
    init()
  File "/usr/lib/python3.9/mimetypes.py", line 362, in init
    db.read(file)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.9/mimetypes.py", line 204, in read
    self.readfp(fp, strict)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.9/mimetypes.py", line 215, in readfp
    line = fp.readline()
  File "/usr/lib/python3.9/codecs.py", line 322, in decode
    (result, consumed) = self._buffer_decode(data, self.errors, final)
UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0x83 in position 168: invalid start byte

The same can be forced with:

import mimetypes
mimetypes.init(files=["mimefile"]) 

and occurs because the file is opened in text mode expecting unicode encoding: https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/2e098abf95fc50f0d9a747140f8e17c5d8b65bce/Lib/mimetypes.py#L215

I am not sure whether there is a convention for which encoding the mime.types file will use, but I feel that at least comments should be allowed in any encoding?

CPython versions tested on:

3.9, 3.11

Operating systems tested on:

Linux, Other

Linked PRs
  • gh-151216
  • gh-155183
  • gh-155184
  • gh-155185

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  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start in Lib/mimetypes.py at the readfp() path referenced by the traceback and the file-opening behavior used by mimetypes.init(files=["mimefile"]). Reproduce the failure with a mime.types file containing a non-UTF-8 comment, then verify that such comments no longer cause UnicodeDecodeError while the MIME mappings remain readable.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
tooling
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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