[Bug 223281] Re: locale._parse_localename fails when localename does not contain encoding information (was: alacarte crashed with ValueError in _parse_localename() )

Jonathan Marsden jmarsden at fastmail.fm
Thu Dec 3 20:27:15 GMT 2009 

** Description changed:

  Binary package hint: alacarte
  
  "Main Menu" worked with first ubuntu 8.04 installation. After serbian
  language pack installed program did not working any more and in the
  terminal generate errors such like this:
  
  user at computer:~$ alacarte
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/bin/alacarte", line 36, in <module>
      main()
    File "/usr/bin/alacarte", line 32, in main
      app = MainWindow(datadir, version, sys.argv)
    File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/Alacarte/MainWindow.py", line 49, in __init__
      self.editor = MenuEditor()
    File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/Alacarte/MenuEditor.py", line 35, in __init__
      self.locale = locale.getdefaultlocale()[0]
    File "/usr/lib/python2.5/locale.py", line 443, in getdefaultlocale
      return _parse_localename(localename)
    File "/usr/lib/python2.5/locale.py", line 375, in _parse_localename
      raise ValueError, 'unknown locale: %s' % localename
  ValueError: unknown locale: sr_ME
  Error in sys.excepthook:
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/apport_python_hook.py", line 78, in apport_excepthook
      report_file = open(pr_filename, 'wt')
  IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/crash/_usr_bin_alacarte.1000.crash'
  
  Original exception was:
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/bin/alacarte", line 36, in <module>
      main()
    File "/usr/bin/alacarte", line 32, in main
      app = MainWindow(datadir, version, sys.argv)
    File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/Alacarte/MainWindow.py", line 49, in __init__
      self.editor = MenuEditor()
    File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/Alacarte/MenuEditor.py", line 35, in __init__
      self.locale = locale.getdefaultlocale()[0]
    File "/usr/lib/python2.5/locale.py", line 443, in getdefaultlocale
      return _parse_localename(localename)
    File "/usr/lib/python2.5/locale.py", line 375, in _parse_localename
      raise ValueError, 'unknown locale: %s' % localename
  ValueError: unknown locale: sr_ME
  
  ProblemType: Crash
  Architecture: i386
  Date: Sun Apr 27 23:08:17 2008
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.04
  ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/alacarte
  InterpreterPath: /usr/bin/python2.5
  Package: alacarte 0.11.5-0ubuntu1
  PackageArchitecture: all
  ProcCmdline: /usr/bin/python -OOt /usr/bin/alacarte
  ProcEnviron:
   PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin
   LANG=sr_ME
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  PythonArgs: ['/usr/bin/alacarte']
  SourcePackage: alacarte
  Title: alacarte crashed with ValueError in _parse_localename()
  Uname: Linux 2.6.24-16-generic i686
  UserGroups:
  
  -------------------
  
  INFORMATION FOR SRU CONSIDERATION FOLLOWS:
  
  1. A statement explaining the impact of the bug on users and
  justification for backporting the fix to the stable release:
  
  This bug prevents users in some locales (notable Serbia and Antigua,
  sr_ME and en_AG) from running locale-aware Python software in Ubuntu,
  including alacarte and software-center.  The latter is particularly
  problematic, as it is likely to affect many novice users.
  
  The proposed fix is small, clear, in the upstream bugtracker already,
  and is isolated to one function in one file, and has been used with
  success by users of Ubuntu Karmic in both the mentioned locales from a
  PPA.
  
  This appears to qualify as a bug ... "which represents a severe
  regression from the previous release of Ubuntu. This includes packages
  which are totally unusable, like being uninstallable or crashing on
  startup."
  
  It could perhaps be argued that these locales did not exist in earlier
  versions so this is not technically a regression?
  
  2. An explanation of how the bug has been addressed in the development
  branch, including the relevant version numbers of packages modified in
  order to implement the fix.
  
  An attached debdiff for Ubuntu Lucid is attached to this bug report.  It
  awaits sponsorship.
  
  3. A minimal patch applicable to the stable version of the package.
  
  See attached debdiffs.  The original patch is at
  http://bugs.python.org/file14881/locale.py-parselocale-patch.diff
  
  4. Detailed instructions how to reproduce the bug.
  
  TEST CASE:
  
  4.1 Install Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Desktop (i386 and amd64 have both been
  tested).
  
  4.2 At the GDM login screen, set the locale to English/Antigua and log
  in (start a session) in that locale.
  
  4.3 Click on Applications -> Ubuntu Software Center
  
  4.4 To see the Python traceback, open a Terminal window and run
- software-center from it.
+ software-center from it.  A smaller test case would be to run
+ 
+   LANG=en_AG python2.6 -c "import locale ; print
+ locale.getdefaultlocale()"
+ 
+ and testing all locales in this way can therefore be done by running
+ 
+   sudo apt-get install ^language-pack-\*  -y    # Install all locales
+   for i in $(locale -a)
+   do
+     echo $i
+     LANG=$i python2.6 -c "import locale ; print locale.getdefaultlocale()" || break
+   done
  
  4.5 If desired, obtain the patched python2.6 package(s) from the PPA at
  https://launchpad.net/~jmarsden/+archive/ppa/ and repeat the tests.
  software-center will now run and operate correctly.
  
  5. A discussion of the regression potential of the patch and how users
  could get inadvertently affected.
  
- Not every Python app has been tested with this patch, nor has it been
- tested with every possible supported locale setting!  So, by definition,
- there is a non-zero regression potential.  Nevertheless, the patch is so
- small, and can be reviewed by anyone who reads Python for correctness.
- It affects just one function, and then only in locales without a period
- in them (there are few such locales).  On that basis, it is hard to see
- how it can really introduce a regression in practice.  This issue has
- been around for several versions of Ubuntu, so the current behaviour
- with the patch in place (for locale-aware Python applications at least)
- is an obvious improvement over earlier behaviour -- the applications
- actually run.  So far, no Python apps have been found which this patch
- affects negatively.  The patch has been tested in several commonly used
- locales, including en_US.UTF-8, de_DE.utf8, es_ES.utf8 and fr_FR.utf8,
- as well as the affected locales sr_ME and en_AG.
+ This patch has been tested for every locale in Ubuntu Karmic, see 4.4
+ above, but not every Python app has been tested with this patch.  So, by
+ definition, there is a non-zero regression potential.
+ 
+ Nevertheless, the patch is so small, and can be reviewed by anyone who
+ reads Python for correctness.  It affects just one function, and then
+ only in locales without a period in them (there are few such locales).
+ On that basis, it is hard to see how it can really introduce a
+ regression in practice.  This issue has been around for several versions
+ of Ubuntu, so the current behaviour with the patch in place (for locale-
+ aware Python applications at least) is an obvious improvement over
+ earlier behaviour -- the applications actually run.  So far, no Python
+ apps have been found which this patch affects negatively.  The patch has
+ been tested in several commonly used locales, including en_US.UTF-8,
+ de_DE.utf8, es_ES.utf8 and fr_FR.utf8, as well as the affected locales
+ sr_ME and en_AG.
  
  -------------------

-- 
locale._parse_localename fails when localename does not contain encoding information (was: alacarte crashed with ValueError in _parse_localename() )
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/223281
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Sponsors for main, which is a direct subscriber.

More information about the Ubuntu-main-sponsors mailing list