On Windows, urllib.url2pathname('///path/to/file') returns 
r'\\\path\to\file'. This path cannot be used in things like 
open() and os.access(). It should probably return 
r'\path\to\file'.

In addition, '//localhost/path/to/file' is a special case that 
should become '\path\to\file'.  I'll post this as a separate 
bug since it affects all file URIs.

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See #649974 -- url2pathname() and pathname2url() are
undocumented, platform-specific, and not really
general-purpose. It probably should not be assumed that they
are intended to produce values that are usable with open(),
os.access(), or anything other than where they are currently
used internally in urllib.

The solution as proposed for #649974 is probably just to
document the functions and discourage their general use. See
the suggested diffs attached to that report.

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Please, could you verify if this problem persists in Python 2.3.4
or 2.4?

If yes, in which version? Can you provide a test case?

If the problem is solved, from which version?

Note that if you fail to answer in one month, I'll close this bug
as "Won't fix".

Thank you! 

.    Facundo

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The documentation for urllib states that:

Although the urllib module contains (undocumented) routines
to parse and unparse URL strings, the recommended interface
for URL manipulation is in module urlparse.

So, if you think that the files should also be modified,
change the group of this bug to 2.4. Otherwise it will be
closed as won't fix.

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Ah, gotcha. I am closing this as "Wont Fix", myself. I have
modified the description of #649974 to make it be a
Documentation enhancement for 2.4. My proposed patches in
that report will satisfy my concerns without going into
unnecessary detail.

Thanks! -Mike