gh-66172: Don't let a corrupt config file prevent IDLE from starting - #152764
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terryjreedy merged 2 commits intoSep 13, 2026
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…rting If a user configuration file cannot be read, rename it with a ".bad" suffix, use default settings, and warn the user with a message box.
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Nice fix. Approved either as is or with preferred changes.
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| def test_load_cfg_files_bad(self): | ||
| # gh-66172: an unparsable user file is renamed, not fatal, not lost. |
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This better describes what gets tested.
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| def test_load_cfg_files_bad(self): | |
| # gh-66172: an unparsable user file is renamed, not fatal, not lost. | |
| def test_load_cfg_files_bad_format(self): | |
| # gh-66172: rename an unparsable user file and save the exception. |
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When you're done making the requested changes, leave the comment: |
Say in the name of the test what it tests, and name the path after the file it points to, not after the state of that file. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <[email protected]>
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Thanks @serhiy-storchaka for the PR, and @terryjreedy for merging it 🌮🎉.. I'm working now to backport this PR to: 3.13, 3.14, 3.15. |
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GH-157458 is a backport of this pull request to the 3.15 branch. |
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GH-157459 is a backport of this pull request to the 3.14 branch. |
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GH-157460 is a backport of this pull request to the 3.13 branch. |
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…arting (GH-152764) (#157460) gh-66172: Don't let a corrupt config file prevent IDLE from starting (GH-152764) If a user configuration file cannot be read, because of either bad unicode or configuration, rename it with a ".bad" suffix, use default settings, and warn the user with a message box. --------- (cherry picked from commit ae0d6cc) Co-authored-by: Serhiy Storchaka <[email protected]> Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 <[email protected]>
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…arting (GH-152764) (#157459) gh-66172: Don't let a corrupt config file prevent IDLE from starting (GH-152764) If a user configuration file cannot be read, because of either bad unicode or configuration, rename it with a ".bad" suffix, use default settings, and warn the user with a message box. --------- (cherry picked from commit ae0d6cc) Co-authored-by: Serhiy Storchaka <[email protected]> Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 <[email protected]>
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IDLE crashed at startup if a user configuration file could not be read — for example, a hand-edited
config-extensions.cfgmissing a section header (configparser.MissingSectionHeaderError), or a file that is not valid UTF-8. The file is read at import time, before any Tk root exists, which is why the error could not previously be shown in a message box (and printing to the console is invisible underpythonw).Now the unreadable user file is renamed with a
.badsuffix — so the user's file is preserved rather than overwritten or deleted when settings are next saved — IDLE continues with default settings, andmain()shows a warning listing the affected files once the root is up. A corrupt shipped default file is left to surface as before, since that indicates a broken installation rather than user data.This also removes the
errors='replace'added toLoad()in gh-85320: silently replacing undecodable bytes with U+FFFD mangled the values (and could be written back on the next save, making the corruption permanent). Letting theUnicodeDecodeErrorpropagate and be handled the same way as a parse error is non-destructive and recoverable. Both changes target the same backport branches, so there is no version skew.