Let's say you use a custom opener, and that opener happens to return exactly -1. You end up with a SystemError because NULL got returned without an exception being set: def negative(fname, flags): return -1 with open('/tmp/foo.txt', 'w', encoding='utf-8', opener=negative) as fp: print('oops', file=fp) % python3 /tmp/foo.py Traceback (most recent call last): File "/tmp/foo.py", line 5, in <module> with open('/tmp/foo.txt', 'w', encoding='utf-8', opener=negative) as fp: SystemError: <class '_io.FileIO'> returned NULL without setting an error Anything else and you get a relatively decent exception. E.g. return -2 and you get an OSError. Raise an exception and you get that exception. The problem is pretty clear to see; when an opener is set, after coercing the fd to an integer, the check is made for that integer being -1, and then it jumps right to the exit. Let's say you return some non-integer, like 'foo'. Then the _PyLong_AsInt() will fail and a proper exception will be set. So I think the "if (self->fd == -1)" clause just needs to check for an exception set first and set one if there isn't one before it does the "goto error". I guess you'd want to see the same exception as if it returned say, -2: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/tmp/foo.py", line 5, in <module> with open('/tmp/foo.txt', 'w', encoding='utf-8', opener=negative) as fp: OSError: [Errno 0] Error: '/tmp/foo.txt'

Also, `OSError [Errno 0] Error` isn't the most helpful error message.

On May 20, 2016, at 12:12 AM, ppperry wrote: >Also, `OSError [Errno 0] Error` isn't the most helpful error message. No, definitely not. ;)

Here's a proposed fix.

Added comments on Rietveld.

In general LGTM, but I left style comment on Rietveld. And you can use assertRaisesRegex in tests if you prefers.

BTW, I may wait to commit this until after we've moved to GitHub. :)

New changeset 4af64ab34eef by Barry Warsaw in branch '3.5': Issue #27066: Fixed SystemError if a custom opener (for open()) returns https://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/4af64ab34eef New changeset 84c91d7d4667 by Barry Warsaw in branch 'default': Issue #27066: Fixed SystemError if a custom opener (for open()) returns a https://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/84c91d7d4667