[Python-Dev] A wart which should have been repaired in 3.0?

Mon Dec 29 00:01:52 CET 2008

 Martin> I don't think any change is necessary. os.path.commonprefix
 Martin> works just fine on path components:
 ...
Ummm...
 >>> os.path.commonprefix(["/export/home", "/etc/passwd"])
 '/e'
I suppose that's correct given the defined behavior of the function, but
it certainly doesn't seem to be very path-like to me.
 Martin> Of course, using it that way would require a library function
 Martin> that reliably splits a path into components; I think one would
 Martin> have to do abspath on arbitrary inputs.
See <http://bugs.python.org/issue4755> for what I think is a function with
more predictable behavior given that we are discussing paths and not just
strings.
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