[Pytables-users] pytables bug when checking file access rights

[Alexandre F. <ale...@lo...>]

Hi,

I'm running into a weird problem with an application using pytables on
Windows XP: tables.openFile refuses to create a file on the Desktop,
because 'the directory exists but it cannot be written'. At the same
time, I'm able to use the builtin function open() to create a file in
the same directory. Here is a sample interactive session ('Bureau' is
MS french for 'Desktop'):

>>> f =3D open('../../Bureau/toto.txt', 'w')
>>> f.write('toto')
>>> f.close()
>>> import tables
>>> hdf =3D tables.openFile('../../Bureau/toto.h5', 'w')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
  File "C:\Python24\Lib\site-packages\tables\File.py", line 227, in
openFile
    METADATA_CACHE_SIZE, nodeCacheSize)
  File "hdf5Extension.pyx", line 580, in hdf5Extension.File.__new__
  File "C:\Python24\Lib\site-packages\tables\utils.py", line 587, in
checkFileAccess
    raise IOError("directory ``%s`` exists but it can not be written"
IOError: directory ``../../Bureau`` exists but it can not be written
>>> import os
>>> os.getcwd()
'C:\\Documents and Settings\\alexandre\\dev\\projects'

creating an hdf file in the projects directory works fine:
>>> hdf =3D tables.openFile('toto.h5', 'w')
>>> print hdf
toto.h5 (File) ''
Last modif.: 'Tue Aug 22 20:38:24 2006'
Object Tree:
/ (RootGroup) ''

I'm more of a Linux guy, but the customer gets the final word on the OS.
Any hint on what is going on is welcome. Maybe the permission check in
openFile() should be changed to a try...except clause?=20

In case it matters, I'm running WinXP SP1, python2.4 and pytables 1.3.2.

--=20
Alexandre Fayolle                              LOGILAB, Paris (France)
Formations Python, Zope, Plone, Debian:  http://www.logilab.fr/formations
D=E9veloppement logiciel sur mesure:       http://www.logilab.fr/services
Informatique scientifique:               http://www.logilab.fr/science