Pynotify screws up datetime, why?

Question

The Problem This code ``` #!/usr/bin/env python import pynotify import time import datetime c='5/1/12 1:15 PM' print c dt = time.strptime(c, "%d/%m/%y %H:%M %p") ``` produces ``` 5/1/12 1:15 PM Traceback (most recent call last): File "tmp.py", line 9, in <module> dt = time.strptime(c, "%d/%m/%y %H:%M %p") File "/usr/lib/python2.7/_strptime.py", line 454, in _strptime_time return _strptime(data_string, format)[0] File "/usr/lib/python2.7/_strptime.py", line 328, in _strptime data_string[found.end():]) ValueError: unconverted data remains: PM ``` Removing the `import pynotify`, ``` #!/usr/bin/env python import time import datetime c='5/1/12 1:15 PM' print c dt = time.strptime(c, "%d/%m/%y %H:%M %p") ``` Removes the error. ``` 5/1/12 1:15 PM ``` WHY?!!?! Python Version Python 2.7.2+ (default, Oct 4 2011, 20:06:09) [GCC 4.6.1] on linux2 pynotify.file I added print calls for `pynotify.__file__` and `datetime.__file__` ``` /usr/lib/python2.7/lib-dynload/datetime.so /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-p…

Accepted Answer

That's a fun problem. I'd wager what's happening is that pynotify is changing your locale settings, which is breaking `strptime`'s interpretation of your timestamp string.

Here's your code with a couple of debugging print statements that will illustrate the theory:

```
#!/usr/bin/env python

import time
import datetime
import locale

print locale.getlocale()
import pynotify
print locale.getlocale()
c='5/1/12 1:15 PM'
print c
dt = time.strptime(c, "%d/%m/%y %H:%M %p")
```

On my system, I get the following:

```
(None, None)
('en_US', 'UTF8')
5/1/12 1:15 PM
```

I am not getting your error, but it's possible pynotify is setting your locale to something completely silly which is confusing strptime.

Maybe have a look at that and fiddle a bit with your locale settings, either unset it before calling strptime (and set it back after, no knowing what kind of assumptions pynotify makes) or set it to something sane if you discover it's set to something silly.

Pynotify screws up datetime, why?

Solution

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