>>> import email.policy as p
>>> p.default
Policy()
>>> p.HTTP
Policy(["linesep='\\r\\n'", 'max_line_length=None'])

I think you wanted Policy(linesep='\r\n', max_line_length=None); the problem comes from __repr__ where a format field is replaced by a list, which should have been something ', '.join(args) instead.

I can commit this minor thing if you want, I just wanted to check if I was right first.

That doesn't produce an evalable repr, though.  The repr should actually be

   Policy(linesep='\\r\\n', max_line_length=None)

I'm not immediately seeing how to get that to happen.

I don’t understand why the repr should use \\r instead of \r.  It seems to work:

>>> from email.policy import Policy, HTTP, strict
>>> strict
Policy(raise_on_defect=True)
>>> eval(repr(strict))
Policy(raise_on_defect=True)
>>> HTTP
Policy(linesep='\r\n', max_line_length=None)
>>> eval(repr(HTTP))
Policy(linesep='\r\n', max_line_length=None)
>>> HTTP.__dict__
{'max_line_length': None, 'linesep': '\r\n'}
>>> eval(repr(HTTP)).__dict__
{'max_line_length': None, 'linesep': '\r\n'}

Ach, I screwed up my testing at the interactive interpreter.  Yes, it does work, and I will commit the fix.  Thanks for the report.

New changeset 97b0cf9df420 by R David Murray in branch 'default':
#14344: fixed the repr of email.policy objects.
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/97b0cf9df420

Committed.