Python syntax error in textobject.py

[Jesse Manning]

Traceback (most recent call last):
...
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/reportlab/pdfgen/textobject.py", line 436, in textLines
    lines = '\n'.split(asUnicode(stuff).strip())
ValueError: empty separator

This is a split, not a join. The fix is to change the line to:

lines = asUnicode(stuff).strip().split('\n')

% lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
Release: 14.04

% apt-cache policy python-reportlab
python-reportlab:
  Installed: 3.0-1build1
  Candidate: 3.0-1build1
  Version table:
 *** 3.0-1build1 0
        500 http://mirrors.us.kernel.org/ubuntu/ trusty/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

This was discovered as part of an attempted PDF export in ocrfeeder.
The PDF was not exported until I manually went into this python module and fixed the syntax error. The fix produced the desired result.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: python-reportlab 3.0-1build1 [modified: usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/reportlab/pdfgen/textobject.py]
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-24.46-generic 3.13.9
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-24-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
Date: Sun May 18 10:13:31 2014
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-09-09 (615 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Server 12.04.1 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120817.3)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/usr/bin/zsh
SourcePackage: python-reportlab
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2014-04-26 (22 days ago)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

This seems to still be an issue in vivid and python-reportlab version 3.1.8. It'd be good if you were to send your fix to the upstream developers.