Merged revisions 83352,83356-83358,83362,83366,83368-83369 via svnmerge from
svn+ssh://pythondev@svn.python.org/python/branches/py3k

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  r83352 | georg.brandl | 2010-07-31 20:11:07 +0200 (Sa, 31 Jul 2010) | 1 line

  #9440: Remove borderline test case that fails based on unpredictable conditions such as compiler flags.
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  r83356 | georg.brandl | 2010-07-31 21:29:15 +0200 (Sa, 31 Jul 2010) | 1 line

  Remove trailing whitespace.
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  r83357 | georg.brandl | 2010-07-31 21:59:55 +0200 (Sa, 31 Jul 2010) | 1 line

  #5778: document that sys.version can contain a newline.
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  r83358 | georg.brandl | 2010-07-31 22:05:31 +0200 (Sa, 31 Jul 2010) | 1 line

  #9442: do not document a specific format for sys.version; rather refer to version_info and the platform module.
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  r83362 | georg.brandl | 2010-07-31 23:12:15 +0200 (Sa, 31 Jul 2010) | 1 line

  #8910: add a file explaining why Lib/test/data is there.
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  r83366 | georg.brandl | 2010-07-31 23:26:40 +0200 (Sa, 31 Jul 2010) | 1 line

  There always is a False and True now.
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  r83368 | georg.brandl | 2010-07-31 23:40:15 +0200 (Sa, 31 Jul 2010) | 1 line

  #7909: the prefixes \\.\ and \\?\ indicate special Windows paths, do not try to manipulate them.  See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365247%28VS.85%29.aspx for details.
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  r83369 | georg.brandl | 2010-07-31 23:41:42 +0200 (Sa, 31 Jul 2010) | 1 line

  Fix "Berkeley" name.
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diff --git a/Lib/ntpath.py b/Lib/ntpath.py
index a124dfd..11a0a3e 100644
--- a/Lib/ntpath.py
+++ b/Lib/ntpath.py
@@ -399,6 +399,12 @@
     """Normalize path, eliminating double slashes, etc."""
     # Preserve unicode (if path is unicode)
     backslash, dot = (u'\\', u'.') if isinstance(path, unicode) else ('\\', '.')
+    if path.startswith(('\\\\.\\', '\\\\?\\')):
+        # in the case of paths with these prefixes:
+        # \\.\ -> device names
+        # \\?\ -> literal paths
+        # do not do any normalization, but return the path unchanged
+        return path
     path = path.replace("/", "\\")
     prefix, path = splitdrive(path)
     # We need to be careful here. If the prefix is empty, and the path starts
diff --git a/Lib/test/data/README b/Lib/test/data/README
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8bf8c9b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Lib/test/data/README
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+This empty directory serves as destination for temporary files
+created by some tests.
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_ntpath.py b/Lib/test/test_ntpath.py
index a3a22ef..73645f1 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_ntpath.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_ntpath.py
@@ -123,6 +123,9 @@
         tester("ntpath.normpath('C:////a/b')", r'C:\a\b')
         tester("ntpath.normpath('//machine/share//a/b')", r'\\machine\share\a\b')
 
+        tester("ntpath.normpath('\\\\.\\NUL')", r'\\.\NUL')
+        tester("ntpath.normpath('\\\\?\\D:/XY\\Z')", r'\\?\D:/XY\Z')
+
     def test_expandvars(self):
         with test_support.EnvironmentVarGuard() as env:
             env.clear()
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_optparse.py b/Lib/test/test_optparse.py
index ab5483b..bc8bb8a 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_optparse.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_optparse.py
@@ -791,15 +791,13 @@
         (options, args) = self.assertParseOK(["-q"],
                                              {'verbose': 0},
                                              [])
-        if hasattr(__builtins__, 'False'):
-            self.assertTrue(options.verbose is False)
+        self.assertTrue(options.verbose is False)
 
     def test_bool_true(self):
         (options, args) = self.assertParseOK(["-v"],
                                              {'verbose': 1},
                                              [])
-        if hasattr(__builtins__, 'True'):
-            self.assertTrue(options.verbose is True)
+        self.assertTrue(options.verbose is True)
 
     def test_bool_flicker_on_and_off(self):
         self.assertParseOK(["-qvq", "-q", "-v"],