StringIO.StringIO.readline(-1) returns the wrong result compared to other file-like objects

[exarkun]

BPO	7348
Nosy	@terryjreedy, @benjaminp

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2009-12-13.17:30:12.653>
created_at = <Date 2009-11-18.18:58:35.581>
labels = ['library']
title = 'StringIO.StringIO.readline(-1)  returns the wrong result compared to other file-like objects'
updated_at = <Date 2009-12-13.17:30:12.614>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/exarkun'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2009-12-13.17:30:12.614>
actor = 'benjamin.peterson'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2009-12-13.17:30:12.653>
closer = 'benjamin.peterson'
components = ['Library (Lib)']
creation = <Date 2009-11-18.18:58:35.581>
creator = 'exarkun'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 7348
keywords = []
message_count = 4.0
messages = ['95438', '95568', '95570', '96339']
nosy_count = 3.0
nosy_names = ['terry.reedy', 'exarkun', 'benjamin.peterson']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = None
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = None
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue7348'
versions = []

[exarkun]

cStringIO and file both accept -1 to readline to mean the same thing as
not passing any argument at all. StringIO, on the other hand, gets
totally confused:

  >>> from StringIO import StringIO
  >>> StringIO('a\nb\nfoo').readline(-1)
  'a\nb\nfo'
  >>>

[terryjreedy]

You specified neither version nor system.
On 3.1, Windows
>>> from io import StringIO as s
>>> s('a\nb\nfoo').readline(-1)

'a\n'

which, I gather, is what you describe as expected, although using -1 to
mean None is rather weird.

The 3.1 doc says only
"readline(limit=-1)
Read and return one line from the stream. If limit is specified, at most
limit bytes will be read."
which would imply that negative numbers are the same as 0.

So even in 3.1, either the behavior is wrong or the doc is incomplete.

[exarkun]

Python 2.6, Linux.

[benjaminp]

Fixed in r76798.