Path are coerced to string

[slaperche-scality]

The documentation mention that doit accept Path object inside file_dep and targets but I noticed that when I got the item back they're no longer Path object but have been converted to string.

e.g:

#!/usr/bin/env python
# coding: utf-8

import pathlib

def task_path():
    """test"""
    def mkdir(targets):
        for directory in targets:
            directory.mkdir()

    return {
        'actions': [mkdir],
        'targets': [pathlib.Path('baz')],
        'clean': True,
    }

gives

% doit path
.  path
TaskError - taskid:path
PythonAction Error
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/sylvain/dev/doit_bug/partialfunc/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/doit/action.py", line 424, in execute
    returned_value = self.py_callable(*self.args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/sylvain/dev/doit_bug/order/dodo.py", line 25, in mkdir
    directory.mkdir()
AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'mkdir'

I would have expected the types to be preserved.

Is it a bug or do you have some internal constraints that force you to convert everything to string?

[schettino72]

Some places expect it to be a string...

When I added support for Path, I did the easy way just converting it when the task is created.

Since you can easily re-create a Path. I am not sure it is worth to implement this. I would need to check the code in details to see everywhere a change is required.

[slaperche-scality]

I see, it makes sense.

It could be an issue if you have a lot of paths, then the cost of recreating all the Path objects may be noticeable (that being said, that's not an issue I have for now).

If it's not worth implementing, documenting the behavior to make it less surprising can be enough I think.

[schettino72]

@slaperche-scality off-topic:

Saw your work on metalk8s, awesome! Also glad you had only 3 (small) requests :grinning: I would really appreciate if you could contribute a success story [1] describing your project, how doit is used, and why doit was chosen.

[1] http://pydoit.org/stories.html

[slaperche-scality]

No problem :slightly_smiling_face: , I'll submit a PR for that :) (probably next week).