python / python/cpython

`ntpath.splitroot` raises `UnicodeDecodeError` when given `bytes` on Windows

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3.13 3.14 extension-modules OS-windows stdlib type-bug
Dominant language
Python
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Description

Bug report

Bug description:

The ntpath.splitroot function appears to have changed in Python 3.13 such that it now raises a UnicodeDecodeError when the given pathname is a bytes containing invalid Unicode characters, but only when running on Windows:

Python 3.13.0b4 (tags/v3.13.0b4:567c38b, Jul 18 2024, 10:14:53) [MSC v.1940 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import ntpath
>>> ntpath.splitroot(b"foo\x88")
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<python-input-1>", line 1, in <module>
    ntpath.splitroot(b"foo\x88")
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^
UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0x88 in position 3: invalid start byte

The same code works without raising on Windows when using Python 3.12:

Python 3.12.4 (tags/v3.12.4:8e8a4ba, Jun  6 2024, 19:30:16) [MSC v.1940 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import ntpath
>>> ntpath.splitroot(b"foo\x88")
(b'', b'', b'foo\x88')

The same code also works without raising on Linux when using Python 3.13 or 3.12:

Python 3.13.0b4 (main, Jul 22 2024, 17:26:46) [GCC 13.2.0] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import ntpath
>>> ntpath.splitroot(b"foo\x88")
(b'', b'', b'foo\x88')
Python 3.12.4 (main, Jun 15 2024, 10:31:39) [GCC 13.2.0] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import ntpath
>>> ntpath.splitroot(b"foo\x88")
(b'', b'', b'foo\x88')
CPython versions tested on:

3.12, 3.13

Operating systems tested on:

Linux, Windows

Linked PRs
  • gh-154585

Contributor guide

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First steps

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  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start at the ntpath.splitroot entry point and reproduce the Windows-only failure with a bytes pathname containing an invalid UTF-8 byte, such as b"foo\x88". Done means the call returns the bytes components without raising UnicodeDecodeError, matching the behavior shown for Python 3.12 and Linux; linked PR gh-154585 indicates work is already underway.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
operating-systems
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
30/100

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