os.path.isfile doesn't work with some greek characters

[wyj1046]

BPO	10754
Nosy	@loewis, @abalkin, @tjguk, @bitdancer, @briancurtin

^{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 2010-12-22.03:21:31.357>
created_at = <Date 2010-12-22.01:51:56.165>
labels = ['type-bug', 'invalid', 'expert-unicode', 'OS-windows']
title = "os.path.isfile doesn't work with some greek characters"
updated_at = <Date 2010-12-22.06:18:56.820>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/wyj1046'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2010-12-22.06:18:56.820>
actor = 'loewis'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2010-12-22.03:21:31.357>
closer = 'r.david.murray'
components = ['Unicode', 'Windows']
creation = <Date 2010-12-22.01:51:56.165>
creator = 'wyj1046'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 10754
keywords = []
message_count = 7.0
messages = ['124473', '124475', '124476', '124482', '124483', '124485', '124488']
nosy_count = 6.0
nosy_names = ['loewis', 'belopolsky', 'tim.golden', 'r.david.murray', 'brian.curtin', 'wyj1046']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'not a bug'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue10754'
versions = ['Python 2.6']

[wyj1046]

There is a file named "µTorrent.lnk" in the folder.

Here is the code:

#encoding=utf-8

import os
for i in os.listdir('.'):
    print os.path.isfile(i), '\t', i
a = input()

and the output:

True 3.py
False aμ汉字.txt
True uTorrent.lnk
False μTorrent.lnk
False μTorrent1.lnk
False μ汉字.txt
False μ汉字.txt.lnk
True αγβδο
True φχ.txt
True φχ.txt.lnk

the function just doesn't work with the character "μ"

[bitdancer]

I am unable to reproduce this on any python from py3k trunk down to 2.6.6. Can you provide a complete test program that demonstrates the failure? (That is, it creates the file and then fails to detect it as a file with isfile.)

[bitdancer]

Oh, yes, and it is likely to be important to know what OS you are on. I tested on linux.

[wyj1046]

I encoutered this problem on Winxp sp3.

I have retested it on the win7, and it could return the correct value as it did on linux.

[bitdancer]

Since the os functions tend to be small wrappers around system functions, this sounds like it is probably a platform issue and not a Python issue. I'm adding our windows experts as nosy, they can reopen the issue if they disagree.

[abalkin]

Just a random thought (no, I don't know anything about Windows): there are two "mu" characters: GREEK SMALL LETTER MU (μ) and MICRO SIGN (µ). Normalization turns one into the other:

>>> from unicodedata import *
>>> name(normalize('NFKC', '\N{MICRO SIGN}'))
'GREEK SMALL LETTER MU'

it is possible that somehow the two characters get confused by OP system.

I could not reproduce the issue on OSX, so I won't reopen it.

[loewis]

On Windows, using the bytes APIs for filenames is unreliable and fails for characters that are not in the ANSI code page. So you should use

import os
for i in os.listdir(u'.'):
    print os.path.isfile(i), '\t', i

instead.