Skip to content

Fix handling escape characters in HZ codec #74189

Closed

Description

@animalize
mannequin
BPO 30003
Nosy @terryjreedy, @vstinner, @ezio-melotti, @animalize, @zhangyangyu
PRs
  • bpo-30003: Fix handling escape characters in HZ codec #1556
  • [3.5] bpo-30003: Fix handling escape characters in HZ codec #1718
  • [3.6] bpo-30003: Fix handling escape characters in HZ codec #1719
  • [2.7] bpo-30003: Fix handling escape characters in HZ codec #1720
  • Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.

    Show more details

    GitHub fields:

    assignee = None
    closed_at = <Date 2017-05-22.17:04:55.233>
    created_at = <Date 2017-04-06.03:42:17.122>
    labels = ['type-bug', '3.7', 'expert-unicode']
    title = 'Fix handling escape characters in HZ codec'
    updated_at = <Date 2017-05-22.17:04:55.232>
    user = 'https://github.com/animalize'

    bugs.python.org fields:

    activity = <Date 2017-05-22.17:04:55.232>
    actor = 'xiang.zhang'
    assignee = 'none'
    closed = True
    closed_date = <Date 2017-05-22.17:04:55.233>
    closer = 'xiang.zhang'
    components = ['Unicode']
    creation = <Date 2017-04-06.03:42:17.122>
    creator = 'malin'
    dependencies = []
    files = []
    hgrepos = []
    issue_num = 30003
    keywords = []
    message_count = 10.0
    messages = ['291207', '291214', '291216', '291298', '291312', '291315', '294150', '294161', '294162', '294163']
    nosy_count = 5.0
    nosy_names = ['terry.reedy', 'vstinner', 'ezio.melotti', 'malin', 'xiang.zhang']
    pr_nums = ['1556', '1718', '1719', '1720']
    priority = 'normal'
    resolution = 'fixed'
    stage = 'resolved'
    status = 'closed'
    superseder = None
    type = 'behavior'
    url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue30003'
    versions = ['Python 2.7', 'Python 3.5', 'Python 3.6', 'Python 3.7']

    Activity

    1. animalize commented on Apr 6, 2017

      animalizemannequin
      MannequinAuthor

      hz is a Simplified Chinese codec, available in Python since around 2004.

      However, hz encoder has a serious bug, it forgets to escape ~
      >>> 'hi~'.encode('hz')
      b'hi~'    # the correct output should be b'hi~~'
      
      As a result, we can't finish a roundtrip:
      >>> b'hi~'.decode('hz')
      Traceback (most recent call last):
        File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
      UnicodeDecodeError: 'hz' codec can't decode byte 0x7e in position 2: incomplete multibyte

      In these years, no one has reported this bug, so I think it's pretty safe to remove hz codec.

      FYI:
      HZ codec is a 7-bit wrapper for GB2312, was formerly commonly used in email and USENET postings. It was designed in 1989 by Fung Fung Lee, and subsequently codified in 1995 into RFC 1843.

      It was popular in USENET networks, which in the late 1980s and early 1990s, generally did not allow transmission of 8-bit characters or escape characters.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HZ_(character_encoding)

      Does other languages have hz codec?
      Java 8: no [1]
      .NET: yes [2]
      PHP: yes [3]
      Perl: yes [4]

      [1] http://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/technotes/guides/intl/encoding.doc.html
      [2] https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.text.encoding(v=vs.110).aspx
      [3] http://php.net/manual/en/mbstring.supported-encodings.php
      [4] http://perldoc.perl.org/Encode/CN.html

    2. vstinner commented on Apr 6, 2017

      @vstinner
      Member

      Can't we fix the bug instead of removing the whole codec? Or do you know other bugs?

      The bug is only on the encoder part, right? I see unit test for '~' on the hz decoder.

    3. animalize commented on Apr 6, 2017

      animalizemannequin
      MannequinAuthor

      I tried to fix this two years ago, here is the patch (not merged):
      http://bugs.python.org/review/24117/diff/14803/Modules/cjkcodecs/_codecs_cn.c

      But later, I thought it's a good opportunity to remove this codec, this serious bug indicates that almost no one is using it. But fixing will create a possibility that someone will using it in future.
      So I suggest we don't fix it, just remove it or leave it as is.

      hz is outdated, searching on internet almost no one talking about it.

      Or do you know other bugs?
      It has another small bug in decoder, about state switch, but it's trivial, also fixed in the patch.

    4. terryjreedy commented on Apr 7, 2017

      @terryjreedy
      Member

      We seldom just remove things; we usually deprecate in the doc and if possible, issue a runtime warning.

      This is probably not the only obsolete codec. There should be a uniform policy for deprecation and removal, if ever. But for any codec, there might be archives, even if the codec is not used for new files.

      If the codec is buggy, I think it should be fixed. Bt you yourself closed bpo-24117, suggesting that you did not believe that the patches should be applied.

    5. vstinner commented on Apr 8, 2017

      @vstinner
      Member

      "But for any codec, there might be archives, even if the codec is not
      used for new files."

      The bug is in the encoder. The codec is still usable to *decode*
      files. So maybe a few people use it but didn't notice the encoder bug?

    6. animalize commented on Apr 8, 2017

      animalizemannequin
      MannequinAuthor

      From my subjective feelings, probably no old archives still exist, but I can't assert it. That's why I suggest remove it, or at least don't fix it.

      Ah, let's slow down the pace, this bug exists over a dacade, we don't need to solve it at once.

      I closed bpo-24117, because it became a soup of small issues, so I split it into individual issues (such as this issue).

    7. changed the title [-]Remove hz codec[/-] [+]Fix handling escape characters in HZ codec[/+] on May 12, 2017
    8. zhangyangyu commented on May 22, 2017

      @zhangyangyu
      Member

      New changeset 89a5e03 by Xiang Zhang in branch 'master':
      bpo-30003: Fix handling escape characters in HZ codec (bpo-1556)
      89a5e03

    9. zhangyangyu commented on May 22, 2017

      @zhangyangyu
      Member

      New changeset 65440f8 by Xiang Zhang in branch '3.5':
      bpo-30003: Fix handling escape characters in HZ codec (bpo-1556) (bpo-1718)
      65440f8

    10. zhangyangyu commented on May 22, 2017

      @zhangyangyu
      Member

      New changeset 54af41d by Xiang Zhang in branch '3.6':
      bpo-30003: Fix handling escape characters in HZ codec (bpo-1556) (bpo-1719)
      54af41d

    11. zhangyangyu commented on May 22, 2017

      @zhangyangyu
      Member

      New changeset 6e1b832 by Xiang Zhang in branch '2.7':
      bpo-30003: Fix handling escape characters in HZ codec (bpo-1720) (bpo-1556)
      6e1b832

    12. transferred this issue fromon Apr 10, 2022
    Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment

    Metadata

    Metadata

    Assignees

    No one assigned

      Labels

      Projects

      No projects

        Milestone

        No milestone

        Relationships

        None yet

        Development

        No branches or pull requests

        Issue actions