New submission from Michael Yagliyan <myagliy...@bloomberg.net>:
For versions 2.7 through 3.9 of https://docs.python.org/3/library/os.html, os.WNOHANG is described as returning (0, 0) when no child process status is immediately available. However, both os.wait3() and os.wait4() return 3-element tuples and are described as being similar to os.waitpid(). This, combined with the os.WNOHANG documentation being somewhat open to interpretation, makes it very easy to conclude (incorrectly) that wait3(WNOHANG) and wait4(WNOHANG) would return (0, 0) when no child process status is immediately available. In fact, they would return a 3-element tuple with the first 2 elements being 0. I suggest rephrasing the os.WNOHANG documentation to the following (or something similar): "The option for waitpid() to return immediately if no child process status is available immediately, in which case the function returns (0, 0). Correspondingly, wait3() and wait4() would return 3-element tuples with the first 2 elements being 0 and the last being a default-constructed resource usage information object." Unfortunately that last part about the default-constructed resource usage information object is only true after this recent bug fix: https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/15111/files So I'll leave it to y'all to decide how to update the documentation since my proposed phrasing is dependent on that bug fix. ---------- assignee: docs@python components: Documentation messages: 356627 nosy: bbmmy, docs@python priority: normal severity: normal status: open title: Clearer wording of os.WNOHANG documentation to avoid misinterpretation type: enhancement versions: Python 2.7, Python 3.5, Python 3.6, Python 3.7, Python 3.8, Python 3.9 _______________________________________ Python tracker <rep...@bugs.python.org> <https://bugs.python.org/issue38802> _______________________________________ _______________________________________________ Python-bugs-list mailing list Unsubscribe: https://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-bugs-list/archive%40mail-archive.com
