msilib: SetProperty() accepts str, but GetProperty() returns bytes

[serhiy-storchaka]

BPO	41190
Nosy	@pfmoore, @tjguk, @zware, @serhiy-storchaka, @zooba

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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assignee = None
closed_at = None
created_at = <Date 2020-07-01.18:15:29.344>
labels = ['type-bug', 'OS-windows']
title = 'msilib: SetProperty() accepts str, but GetProperty() returns bytes'
updated_at = <Date 2020-07-01.18:15:29.344>
user = 'https://github.com/serhiy-storchaka'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2020-07-01.18:15:29.344>
actor = 'serhiy.storchaka'
assignee = 'none'
closed = False
closed_date = None
closer = None
components = ['Windows']
creation = <Date 2020-07-01.18:15:29.344>
creator = 'serhiy.storchaka'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 41190
keywords = []
message_count = 1.0
messages = ['372777']
nosy_count = 5.0
nosy_names = ['paul.moore', 'tim.golden', 'zach.ware', 'serhiy.storchaka', 'steve.dower']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = None
stage = None
status = 'open'
superseder = None
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue41190'
versions = []

[serhiy-storchaka]

There is an inconsistency in the _msi.SummaryInformation class. Its method SetProperty() accepts str, but GetProperty() returns bytes (encoded with the Windows ANSI encoding).

Since os.fsencode()/os.fsdecode() now use UTF-8 encoding, it is not so easy to convert between bytes and str. Also, the encoding with the Windows ANSI encoding is lossy, so it may be that there is a loss in GetProperty().

[hugovk]

Note the msilib module is deprecated in 3.11 and set for removal in 3.13.

See PEP 594 – Removing dead batteries from the standard library and #91217.