Don't know whether it should be considered a documentation or behavioral issue, but os.samefile calls os.stat() on given files, following symlinks. Does this really "test whether two pathnames reference the same actual file"? I'd consider os.lstat() more suited for that.

This bites me every time I want to overwrite a symlink with its referenced file using ranger.

I would take "actual file" as meaning the file the symlink points to, so I'd say the documentation matches the implementation according to your description of the two.  The current docs actually say "refer to the same file or directory", and mention os.stat explicitly, so again I'd say the docs and implementation match.

It sounds like what you want is to open a feature request for a samefile equivalent that does not follow symlinks.  lsamefile?

We could use this issue for making the docstring match the docs, though.  I think the sentence in the docs is short enough to just get copied into the docstring.

I think the docs are too specific about the mechanism used here - if we document *how* it works then we may not be able to make it work correctly (with a different mechanic) on a different platform.

Sorry, I meant the docs after the patch. Before, it's fine.

New changeset 8e568ef266a2805f9a6042003723d9c050830461 by Steve Dower (Timo Furrer) in branch 'master':
bpo-30974: Change os.path.samefile docstring to match docs (GH-7337)
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/8e568ef266a2805f9a6042003723d9c050830461

I'm not personally thrilled about it being documented like this, but it's certainly how the current documentation reads. Consistency is better until we get motivated enough to fix all of it.

Thanks for the patch!

Still needs a 2.7 backport if someone would like to do it.

New changeset 6b833901fe9053937c289c6371bb731c9aceb58e by Miss Islington (bot) in branch '3.8':
bpo-30974: Change os.path.samefile docstring to match docs (GH-7337)
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/6b833901fe9053937c289c6371bb731c9aceb58e

New changeset a49f203e052c6fb1244d4e55c3fccc439dda0e2e by Miss Islington (bot) in branch '3.7':
bpo-30974: Change os.path.samefile docstring to match docs (GH-7337)
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/a49f203e052c6fb1244d4e55c3fccc439dda0e2e

Since backport to 2.7 is no longer relevant, I think this issue can be closed.