From 50cb936bd0fe2645d975f6acf519caa606fc82d3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Nadeem Vawda <nadeem.vawda@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2012 23:31:22 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Clarify acceptable values for BZ2File.__init__'s mode
 argument.

---
 Doc/library/bz2.rst | 8 +++++---
 Lib/bz2.py          | 4 ++--
 2 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Doc/library/bz2.rst b/Doc/library/bz2.rst
index de5c825b9c8..893bb9ba825 100644
--- a/Doc/library/bz2.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/bz2.rst
@@ -35,9 +35,11 @@ All of the classes in this module may safely be accessed from multiple threads.
    be used to read or write the compressed data.
 
    The *mode* argument can be either ``'r'`` for reading (default), ``'w'`` for
-   overwriting, or ``'a'`` for appending. If *filename* is a file object (rather
-   than an actual file name), a mode of ``'w'`` does not truncate the file, and
-   is instead equivalent to ``'a'``.
+   overwriting, or ``'a'`` for appending. These can equivalently be given as
+   ``'rb'``, ``'wb'``, and ``'ab'`` respectively.
+
+   If *filename* is a file object (rather than an actual file name), a mode of
+   ``'w'`` does not truncate the file, and is instead equivalent to ``'a'``.
 
    The *buffering* argument is ignored. Its use is deprecated.
 
diff --git a/Lib/bz2.py b/Lib/bz2.py
index ae59407c1ac..d04731bfd1a 100644
--- a/Lib/bz2.py
+++ b/Lib/bz2.py
@@ -46,8 +46,8 @@ def __init__(self, filename, mode="r", buffering=None, compresslevel=9):
         be opened. Otherwise, it should be a file object, which will be used to
         read or write the compressed data.
 
-        mode can be 'r' for reading (default), 'w' for (over)writing, or
-        'a' for appending.
+        mode can be 'r' for reading (default), 'w' for (over)writing, or 'a' for
+        appending. These can equivalently be given as 'rb', 'wb', and 'ab'.
 
         buffering is ignored. Its use is deprecated.