Tkinter widget.unbind(sequence, funcid) unbind all bindings

@terryjreedy

BPO	31485
Nosy	@terryjreedy, @serhiy-storchaka, @j4321, @GiovaLomba
PRs	gh-75666: Fix Misc.unbind behaviour when funcid is given #17954

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

Show more details

GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = None
created_at = <Date 2017-09-15.13:57:14.322>
labels = ['type-feature', 'expert-tkinter', '3.10']
title = 'Tkinter widget.unbind(sequence, funcid) unbind all bindings'
updated_at = <Date 2020-05-26.07:51:27.964>
user = 'https://github.com/j4321'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2020-05-26.07:51:27.964>
actor = 'terry.reedy'
assignee = 'none'
closed = False
closed_date = None
closer = None
components = ['Tkinter']
creation = <Date 2017-09-15.13:57:14.322>
creator = 'j-4321-i'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 31485
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 10.0
messages = ['302256', '302258', '302262', '302293', '302299', '302487', '358227', '359369', '360142', '360145']
nosy_count = 4.0
nosy_names = ['terry.reedy', 'serhiy.storchaka', 'j-4321-i', 'glombardo']
pr_nums = ['17954']
priority = 'normal'
resolution = None
stage = 'patch review'
status = 'open'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue31485'
versions = ['Python 3.10']

Linked PRs

I am using python 3.6.2 with tk 8.6.7 in Linux and when I call widget.unbind(<Sequence>, funcid), it unbinds all bindings for <Sequence>, while I would expect it to unbind only funcid. Here is an example reproducing the problem:

import tkinter as tk

root = tk.Tk()

def cmd1(event):
    print('1')

def cmd2(event):
    print('2')

def unbind1():
    l.unbind('<Motion>', b1)

def unbind2():
    l.unbind('<Motion>', b2)

l = tk.Label(root, text='Hover')

b1 = l.bind('<Motion>', cmd1)
b2 = l.bind('<Motion>', cmd2, True)

l.pack()
tk.Button(root, text='Unbind 1', command=unbind1).pack()
tk.Button(root, text='Unbind 2', command=unbind2).pack()

root.mainloop()

In this example, clicking on one of the buttons unbinds both bindings instead of only one.

I have found a workaround to unbind a single binding (inspired by https://mail.python.org/pipermail/tkinter-discuss/2012-May/003151.html):

def unbind(widget, seq, funcid):
    bindings = {x.split()[1][3:]: x for x in widget.bind(seq).splitlines() if x.strip()}
    try:
        del bindings[funcid]
    except KeyError:
        raise tk.TclError('Binding "%s" not defined.' % funcid)
    widget.bind(seq, '\n'.join(list(bindings.values())))

Tk do not provide a way of unbinding a specific command. It supports binding a script with replacing an existing binding, appending a script to an existing binding, and destroying an existing binding. Unbinding a specific command can be implemented in Python with a code similar to your example, but more complex due to taking to account different corner cases.

Do you want to write a patch and open a pull request Juliette?

The unbind docstring, "Unbind for this widget for event SEQUENCE the
function identified with FUNCID" implies to me the behavior Juliette expected. The NMT reference unpacks this to two sentences. Reading the code
self.tk.call('bind', self._w, sequence, '')
if funcid:
self.deletecommand(funcid)

the docstring should be something like "Unbind for this widget the event SEQUENCE. If funcid is given, delete the command also" This part of the bind docstring, "Bind will return an identifier to allow deletion of the bound function with unbind without memory leak." implies that the unbind behavior is deliberate.

Serhiy, are you proposing to add a new method that does what some people thought unbind would do?

I don't think a new method is needed. We can make unbind() destroying all bindings if FUNCID is not given (note that registered commands are leaked in this case), and only the specified command if it is specified. We can add a boolean parameter (similar to the one in bind()) for restoring the old behavior if this is needed.

I don't mind writing a patch and opening a pull request, however I don't know which corner cases I need to take into account.

http://docs.python.org/devguide/triaging.html#assigned-to

I propose the below fix:

    def unbind(self, sequence, funcid=None):
        """Unbind for this widget for event SEQUENCE  the
        function identified with FUNCID."""
        bound = ''
        if funcid:
            self.deletecommand(funcid)
            funcs = self.tk.call('bind', self._w, sequence, None).split('\n')
            bound = '\n'.join([f for f in funcs if not f.startswith('if {{"[{0}'.format(funcid))])
        self.tk.call('bind', self._w, sequence, bound)

Serhiy, if I understand your last message (msg302299), the docstring should read:

   Unbind for this widget the event SEQUENCE.
   If FUNCID is given, only unbind the function identified with FUNCID
   and also delete that command.

The main doc change is to specify what happens when funcid is not given while the code change in the patch is to no longer unbind everything when funcid *is* given.

Serhiy, given that the code did not match the docstring and that we are changing the code to match the clarified docstring, should we consider this a bugfix, and, should we backport it?

pythongh-75666: Tkinter: add tests for binding (pythonGH-111202)

pythongh-75666: Tkinter: "unbind(sequence, funcid)" now only unbinds …

pythongh-75666: Tkinter: add tests for binding (pythonGH-111202)

pythongh-75666: Tkinter: "unbind(sequence, funcid)" now only unbinds …

Opened #151808.

I wrote it almost 3 years ago, but there was a little issue with IDLE, so I put it aside and then forgot about it. Turned out, the bug was in IDLE tests. It was hidden by that bug in unbind() and was exposed when it was fixed. The change does not affect IDLE, and I hope it will not break much user code.

gh-75666: Fix a reference leak in tkinter event bindings (GH-151808)

Still, it is safer to only backport this fix to 3.15. The leak was always.

[3.15] gh-75666: Fix a reference leak in tkinter event bindings (GH-1…

[3.14]gh-75666: idlelib backport of iomenu change (GH-151958) (#152995)

[3.13] gh-75666: idlelib backport of iomenu change (GH-151958) (GH-15…

pythongh-75666: Fix a reference leak in tkinter event bindings (pytho…

Navigation Menu

Repository navigation

Tkinter widget.unbind(sequence, funcid) unbind all bindings #75666

Linked PRs

29 remaining items

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Relationships

Development

Tkinter widget.unbind(sequence, funcid) unbind all bindings #75666

Description

Linked PRs

Activity

j4321 commented on Sep 15, 2017

j4321 commented on Sep 15, 2017

serhiy-storchaka commented on Sep 15, 2017

terryjreedy commented on Sep 15, 2017

serhiy-storchaka commented on Sep 15, 2017

j4321 commented on Sep 18, 2017

GiovaLomba commented on Dec 10, 2019

GiovaLomba commented on Jan 5, 2020

terryjreedy commented on Jan 16, 2020

terryjreedy commented on Jan 16, 2020

29 remaining items

hugovk commented on Jan 11, 2024

serhiy-storchaka commented on Jan 11, 2024

serhiy-storchaka commented on Jun 20, 2026

serhiy-storchaka commented on Jun 23, 2026

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Relationships

Development

Issue actions