If you assign a function a restype of c_char_p, you get back a Unicode
string, but you should get a bytes object.

>>> from ctypes import *
>>> strchr = cdll['libc.so.6'].strchr
>>> strchr.restype = c_char_p
>>> strchr.argtypes = [c_char_p, c_char]
>>> strchr(b'abcde', b'd')
'de'

Here's a patch.

I agree that the C type 'char' is a byte, not a character. So Python3
should creates a Python bytes object for the ctypes "c_char_p" type.
Since Python 3.1 is out, is it too late to change it in the 3.x branch?
:-) Maybe for Python 3.2?

> I agree that the C type 'char' is a byte, not a character. So Python3
> should creates a Python bytes object for the ctypes "c_char_p" type.
> Since Python 3.1 is out, is it too late to change it in the 3.x branch?
> :-) Maybe for Python 3.2?

I think the current behaviour is clearly a bug, so I would apply
this patch to Python 3.1 as well.  Any comments?  Who will decide that?

I agree that it's a bug.  Letting Benjamin decide whether to put it in
3.1.1 :)

Sounds ok to me.

2009/8/15 Georg Brandl <report@bugs.python.org>:
>
> Georg Brandl <georg@python.org> added the comment:
>
> I agree that it's a bug.  Letting Benjamin decide whether to put it in
> 3.1.1 :)
>
> ----------
> assignee: theller -> benjamin.peterson
> nosy: +benjamin.peterson
>
> _______________________________________
> Python tracker <report@bugs.python.org>
> <http://bugs.python.org/issue6239>
> _______________________________________
>

> I agree that it's a bug.
> Letting Benjamin decide whether to put it in 3.1.1 :)

And what about 3.0.x? Is this branch still alive or not?

2009/8/15 STINNER Victor <report@bugs.python.org>:
>
> STINNER Victor <victor.stinner@haypocalc.com> added the comment:
>
>> I agree that it's a bug.
>> Letting Benjamin decide whether to put it in 3.1.1 :)
>
> And what about 3.0.x? Is this branch still alive or not?

No, it's as dead as a doornail.

i just found this bug independently, but yes its a bug, which i hope 
gets fixed for sake of extension community:

// test.c beg
char s[4] = "ab\xff";
char *foo() { return s; }
// test.c end

$ gcc -fPIC -g -c -Wall test.c
$ gcc -shared test.o -o test.so
$ python3.1 -c "import ctypes; lib = 
ctypes.cdll.LoadLibrary('./test.so'); lib.foo.restype = ctypes.c_char_p; 
lib.foo()"
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0xff in position 2: 
unexpected code byte

wrote an extension application which relies on the patch (works after 
applying patch to python 3.1.1).

it converts png images to colorized ascii-art on ansi-compatible 
terminal.  requires the patch b/c a ctype function returns a c-string w/ 
ansi-escape characters.

>>> import ctypes
>>> lib = ctypes.cdll.LoadLibrary("_asciiporn.so")
>>> lib.img_read(b"foo.png") // load png image
>>> lib.asc_itp(4, 16)       // ascii-rize algorithm
>>> lib.asc_str.restype = ctypes.c_char_p
>>> print( lib.asc_str() )   // prints out ansi-colorized ascii-art

hopefully, this is more motivation to commit the patch to trunk

Assigning back to Thomas for commit.

Commited as svn rev 74664 (py3k) and rev 74665 (release31-maint).

> Commited as svn rev 74664 (py3k) and rev 74665 (release31-maint).

@theller: Cool, thanks ;-)