python / python/cpython

'_Stream' object has no attribute 'seekable'

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3.12 3.13 3.14 stdlib type-bug
Dominant language
Python
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Description

Bug report

Bug description:

From a recent application, I have found tarfile._Stream doesn't have a seekable() method. A quick reproduction of the problem is as follows:

import tarfile
import io

data = b"Test data."
buf = io.BytesIO()
with tarfile.open(fileobj=buf, mode="w") as tf:
    ti = tarfile.TarInfo(name="test.txt")
    ti.size = len(data)
    tf.addfile(tarinfo=ti, fileobj=io.BytesIO(data))

buf.seek(0)
tf = tarfile.open(fileobj=buf, mode="r|")
for entry in tf:
    f = tf.extractfile(entry)  # `f` is in type of `class ExFileObject(io.BufferedReader)`
    f.seekable()  # AttributeError
    f.seek(0)  # AttributeError

Output:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "a.py", line 17, in <module>
    print(f.seekable())
  File "AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python310\lib\tarfile.py", line 641, in seekable
    return self.fileobj.seekable()
AttributeError: '_Stream' object has no attribute 'seekable'

When opening tarfile with r| mode, ExFileObject.fileobj would be a _Stream object. So when calling ExFileObject.seekable(), as _Stream object dun have seekable() method, it will raise AttributeError.

Also, as BufferedReader.seek() will also check its raw.seekable() (i.e. in Modules/_io/bufferedio.c, func _io__Buffered_seek_impl(), there is a call to _PyIOBase_check_seekable(state, self->raw, Py_True)), f.seek() in the above example will also raise AttributeError.

I have thought of if we can simply define seekable() in _Stream object, but as it is only "forward-seekable", I am not sure if directly returning a true/false in _Stream.seekable() is appropriate or not. However, this issue does break the IOBase interface and there should be a solution.

Thanks for everyone's time and effort for looking into this.

CPython versions tested on:

3.10, 3.11, 3.12, 3.13, CPython main branch

Operating systems tested on:

Linux, Windows

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by running the provided tarfile reproduction in r| mode, then inspect tarfile._Stream and ExFileObject in tarfile.py alongside _io__Buffered_seek_impl() in Modules/_io/bufferedio.c. Determine the appropriate seekability behavior for forward-only streams and verify that the reported seekable() and seek() AttributeErrors are resolved without breaking streaming semantics.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
backend
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
38/100

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