re.escape escapes underscore (Python 2.7)

[vajrasky]

BPO	18781
Nosy	@ezio-melotti, @vajrasky
Files	dont_escape_underscore_in_regex_27.patch

^{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 = 'https://github.com/ezio-melotti'
closed_at = <Date 2013-08-19.15:18:33.942>
created_at = <Date 2013-08-19.15:05:40.429>
labels = ['expert-regex', 'type-bug']
title = 're.escape escapes underscore (Python 2.7)'
updated_at = <Date 2013-08-19.15:18:33.941>
user = 'https://github.com/vajrasky'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2013-08-19.15:18:33.941>
actor = 'ezio.melotti'
assignee = 'ezio.melotti'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2013-08-19.15:18:33.942>
closer = 'ezio.melotti'
components = ['Regular Expressions']
creation = <Date 2013-08-19.15:05:40.429>
creator = 'vajrasky'
dependencies = []
files = ['31373']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 18781
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 2.0
messages = ['195638', '195640']
nosy_count = 3.0
nosy_names = ['ezio.melotti', 'mrabarnett', 'vajrasky']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'rejected'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue18781'
versions = ['Python 2.7']

[vajrasky]

$ ./python --version
Python 2.7.5+
$ ./python
Python 2.7.5+ (2.7:062533327ad2, Aug 19 2013, 22:44:52) 
[GCC 4.7.2 20121109 (Red Hat 4.7.2-8)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import re
>>> re.escape('_')
'\\_'

Python 3.3 and 3.4 got it right and don't escape the underscore.

Because many people are still doing their livelihoods with Python 2.7 and I am a compassionate person, here is the patch to fix the bug in Python 2.7.

[ezio-melotti]

This was considered a new feature when it was added in 3.2 (see bpo-2650), so it was not backported to 2.7 because -- even if it was a minor change -- it was not 100% backward compatible.