[mod_python] os.listdir()

William Chan wrote ..
> I'm using mod_python.publisher. My codes are:
> 
> import os
> def index():
>     return str(os.listdir('/tmp'))
> 
> and the output is:
> 
> ['', '', '', '', '', '', '', '', '', '']

The explicit conversion of the result of os.listdir() to a string
using str() is not actually required as mod_python.publisher
will automatically convert any result into a string anyway.
This fact shouldn't make any difference though.

All I can suggest is changing your handler to:

  import os

  def index(req):
    req.content_type = "text/plain"
    req.send_http_header()
    return os.listdir('/tmp')

By setting the content type to "text/plain" you avoid publisher
making a guess as to whether the content type may be HTML
or not. It is possible, although unlikely that some filename in
/tmp contains the magic characters it looks for. I don't though
see this happening based on what you say is being displayed.

Other thing to try would be:

  import os

  def index(req):
    req.content_type = "text/plain"
    req.send_http_header()
    return repr(os.listdir('/tmp'))

This takes the task of converting the result to a string away from
publisher and displays it in a form which will hopefully encode
any strange characters so they are visible and will not cause any
problem.

Graham