File/Dir - cannot use path made of non-utf8 bytestrings

[gabriel-v]

All the code in redun.File and friends assumes we have a single valid utf-8 string for the path.

But python accepts bytes as the path objects too. This is needed when we're working with filesystems that encode filenames using something else than UTF-8.

There's some functions that crash when trying to give File a bytes path:

• File: get_filesystem_class() - get_proto() - the urlparse method fails on non-utf8 byte strings
• Dir: all of the above, and also concatenating the glob pattern - complains that TypeError: Can't mix strings and bytes in path components

The workaround is to hack:

• get_filesystem()
• init and setstate for all classes

I also tried changing the self.classes.File but it can't be overwritten (uses getitem) - so one would have to replace this whole FileClasses thing.

I think one of two things can be done here:

• either fix File, Dir and friends to work with non-uft8 bytestrings paths
• or, allow the user of the library to override the FileClasses, get_filesystem_class and friends, without so much monkeypatching
• refactor the whole thing to only use pathlib.Path as requested in Use pathlib.Path instead of strings for path #8
  • through I think the get_proto() and urlparse would still crash when given non-utf8 bytestrings

What do you think?