importing a module with bytes in `sys.path` fails with:

  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 182, in _path_isabs
TypeError: startswith first arg must be bytes or a tuple of bytes, not str

(see reproducer in attached demo.py)

however `sys.path` is documented as supporting bytes "Only strings and bytes should be added to sys.path; all other data types are ignored during import." https://docs.python.org/3/library/sys.html?highlight=Only%20strings%20and%20bytes#sys.path

bytes are allowed in PathFinder._find_spec https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/2cf7f865f099db11cc6903b334d9c376610313e8/Lib/importlib/_bootstrap_external.py#L1460-L1462 but perhaps they should be ignored or explicitly fsdecoded ? 


see also:
https://bugs.python.org/issue32642
https://github.com/python/importlib_metadata/issues/372#issuecomment-1067799424

In case it helps anyone:

On Windows 3.11.0a5+ the full traceback is:

$ ./python.bat demo.py
Running Debug|x64 interpreter...
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "...\demo.py", line 23, in <module>
    sys.exit(main())
             ^^^^^^
  File "...\Lib\contextlib.py", line 155, in __exit__
    self.gen.throw(typ, value, traceback)
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "...\demo.py", line 11, in _tmp_path
    yield pathlib.Path(tmp_dir)
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "...\demo.py", line 18, in main
    import module
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1178, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1140, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1080, in _find_spec
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 1487, in find_spec
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 1459, in _get_spec
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 1596, in find_spec
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 1656, in _fill_cache
TypeError: a bytes-like object is required, not 'str'

And on cygwin 3.8.12:

$ python demo.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 1346, in _path_importer_cache
KeyError: b'/tmp/tmprpymgive'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "demo.py", line 23, in <module>
    sys.exit(main())
  File "demo.py", line 18, in main
    import module
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 991, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 971, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 914, in _find_spec
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 1407, in find_spec
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 1376, in _get_spec
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 1348, in _path_importer_cache
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 1324, in _path_hooks
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 1594, in path_hook_for_FileFinder
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 1469, in __init__
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 177, in _path_isabs
TypeError: startswith first arg must be bytes or a tuple of bytes, not str

this is a regression from 3.2:

```
Python 3.2.6 (default, Jan 18 2016, 19:21:14) 
[GCC 4.9.2] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import tempfile
>>> tempfile.TemporaryDirectory()
<TemporaryDirectory '/tmp/tmpd4jzut'>
>>> v = _
>>> tmp_dir = str(v.__enter__())
>>> tmp_dir
'/tmp/tmpd4jzut'
>>> f = open(tmp_dir + "/module.py", "w")
>>> f.write("def function():\n    return 1\n")
29
>>> f.close()
>>> import sys
>>> sys.path.append(tmp_dir.encode())
>>> import module
>>> module
<module 'module' from '/tmp/tmpd4jzut/module.py'>
>>> 
```

https://docs.python.org/3/reference/import.html#path-entry-finders says "The encoding of bytes entries is determined by the individual path entry finders." see https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/82c1c781c7ee6496bd4c404b7ba972eed5dbcb12

interestingly bytes filenames pointing to zip files on sys.path do support bytes (see zipfile_demo.py)

> this is a regression from 3.2

In Windows, bytes paths in sys.path do not work in 3.2+. I didn't test 3.0 and 3.1, but practically one can say that bytes paths were never supported in Python 3 on Windows.

zipimporter.zipimporter handles non-bytes paths here: https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/2cf7f865f099db11cc6903b334d9c376610313e8/Lib/zipimport.py#L65-L67 I think FileFinder should do the same

I'd advocate for not supporting bytes paths and instead updating the documentation to require strings.

> I'd advocate for not supporting bytes paths and instead updating the documentation to require strings.

I've got PR GH-31934 started to do this

I think it depends on whether we want to say the standard/included/built-in import mechanisms don't support byte paths, or byte paths are entirely not supported even for 3rd-party code? I definitely think we should at least do the former, but I'm hesitant to close the door for those that need it by doing the latter.

messages: + msg415237