John Arbash Meinel has voted +1. Status is now: Approved Comment: I would probably prefer "os.lstat(u'\u1234')" but otherwise it seems fine. (Then you don't need to close anything) For details, see: http://bundlebuggy.aaronbentley.com/request/%3Cd06a5cd30707260059r7249c2d4l7c41e691f89383ff%40mail.gmail.com%3E