`shutil.copytree` fails on bcachefs case insensitive directories
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stdlib
type-bug
- Dominant language
- Python
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Description
Bug report
Bug description:
On bcachefs create case insensitive directory with some file inside:
mkdir ncs
chattr +F ncs
touch ncs/something.txt
then do this
import shutil
shutil.copytree("ncs/", "target/")
fails with
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
import shutil; shutil.copytree("ncs/", "target/")
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/lib/python3.14/shutil.py", line 654, in copytree
return _copytree(entries=entries, src=src, dst=dst, symlinks=symlinks,
ignore=ignore, copy_function=copy_function,
ignore_dangling_symlinks=ignore_dangling_symlinks,
dirs_exist_ok=dirs_exist_ok)
File "/usr/lib/python3.14/shutil.py", line 608, in _copytree
raise Error(errors)
shutil.Error: [('ncs/', 'target/', "[Errno 39] Directory not empty: 'target/'")]
This is because of
listxattr("ncs/", "bcachefs.casefold\0bcachefs_effec"..., 256) = 46
getxattr("ncs/", "bcachefs.casefold", "1", 128) = 1
setxattr("target/", "bcachefs.casefold", "1", 1, 0) = -1 ENOTEMPTY (Directory not empty)
getcwd("/home/user/_x", 1024) = 14
happening after contents were copied and case insensitivity can't be enabled afterwards.
Note: On ext4 copytree results in a directory without casefolding flag.
CPython versions tested on:
3.14
Operating systems tested on:
Linux
Linked PRs
- gh-145869
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Review linked PR gh-145869 first, then start at shutil.copytree and _copytree in shutil.py. Reproduce the case-insensitive bcachefs failure using the commands and Python example in the report; done means the reported copy operation handles the filesystem attribute correctly without raising the shown Directory not empty error.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- python
- Domain
- operating-systems
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 25/100