Make iselement stricter + incorporate feedback

Adjusts iselement() based off feedback from picnixz. Since ElementTree
needs to be compatible with element-like objects, the function now checks
for all attributes that are necessary to instantiate an ElementTree object
and successfully write it to a file (preventing issue #135640).
This commit also incorporates other feedback requesting moving the
tests and adding more tests, and adds a news entry.

Author: abstractedfox

Lib/test/test_xml_etree.py

@@ -218,6 +218,42 @@ class ElementTreeTest(unittest.TestCase):
     def serialize_check(self, elem, expected):
         self.assertEqual(serialize(elem), expected)
 
+    def test_constructor(self):
+        # Test constructor behavior.
+
+        with self.assertRaises(TypeError):
+            tree = ET.ElementTree("")
+        with self.assertRaises(TypeError):
+            tree = ET.ElementTree(ET.ElementTree())
+
+        # Test _setroot as well, since it also sets the _root object.
+
+        tree = ET.ElementTree()
+        with self.assertRaises(TypeError):
+            tree._setroot("")
+        with self.assertRaises(TypeError):
+            tree._setroot(ET.ElementTree())
+
+        # Make sure it accepts an Element-like object.
+
+        class ElementLike:
+            def __init__(self):
+                self.tag = "tag"
+                self.text = None
+                self.tail = None
+            def iter(self):
+                pass
+            def items(self):
+                pass
+            def __len__(self):
+                pass
+
+        element_like = ElementLike()
+        try:
+            tree = ET.ElementTree(element_like)
+        except Exception as err:
+            self.fail(err)
+
     def test_interface(self):
         # Test element tree interface.
 
@@ -247,13 +283,6 @@ def check_element(element):
         self.assertRegex(repr(element), r"^<Element 't\xe4g' at 0x.*>$")
         element = ET.Element("tag", key="value")
 
-        # Verify type checking for ElementTree constructor
-
-        with self.assertRaises(TypeError):
-            tree = ET.ElementTree("")
-        with self.assertRaises(TypeError):
-            tree = ET.ElementTree(ET.ElementTree())
-
         # Make sure all standard element methods exist.
 
         def check_method(method):

Lib/xml/etree/ElementTree.py

@@ -120,8 +120,9 @@ class ParseError(SyntaxError):
 
 def iselement(element):
     """Return True if *element* appears to be an Element."""
-    return hasattr(element, 'tag')
-
+    return (hasattr(element, 'tag') and hasattr(element, 'text') and
+        hasattr(element, 'tail') and callable(element.iter) and
+        callable(element.items) and callable(element.__len__))
 
 class Element:
     """An XML element.
@@ -528,7 +529,7 @@ class ElementTree:
     """
     def __init__(self, element=None, file=None):
         if element is not None and not iselement(element):
-            raise TypeError(f"element must be etree.Element, "
+            raise TypeError(f"element must be xml.etree.Element, "
                             f"not {type(element).__name__}")
         self._root = element # first node
         if file:
@@ -546,7 +547,7 @@ def _setroot(self, element):
 
         """
         if not iselement(element):
-            raise TypeError(f"element must be etree.Element, "
+            raise TypeError(f"element must be xml.etree.Element, "
                             f"not {type(element).__name__}")
         self._root = element
 

Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2025-06-22-02-16-17.gh-issue-135640.FXyFL6.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+Address bug where calling :func:`xml.etree.ElementTree.ElementTree.write` on
+an ElementTree object with an invalid root element would blank the file
+passed to ``write`` if it already existed.