Bytes message argument error

Question

I can't figure out what the 'bytes' method is complaining about. In the code below, i am trying to generate an authentication key for my client and i keep getting this error [1]

import hmac
import hashlib
import base64

message = bytes("Message", 'utf-8') # errors here
secret = bytes("secret", 'utf-8')

signature = base64.b64encode(hmac.new(secret, message, digestmod=hashlib.sha256).digest());
print(signature)

[1]

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "API/test/auth-client.py", line 11, in <module>
    message = bytes("Message", 'utf-8')
TypeError: str() takes at most 1 argument (2 given)

Answer 1

bytes() in Python 2.x is the same as str() and it accepts only one string argument.

Use just message = "Message" and secret = "secret". You don't even need bytes() here.

Answer 2

The likely reason you encountered this problem is the code you were using was written for Python 3.x and you executed it under Python 2.x.

I know someone has already partially stated this, but I thought it might be helpful to make it clearer to people new to Python who may not realize why the 'utf-8' argument was being used as the person asking the question noted that they did not know what the argument was for.

Anyone who comes here may find that useful in understanding why there was an argument of 'utf-8'.

Answer 3

try,

import hmac
import hashlib
import base64

message = bytes("Message")
secret = bytes("secret")

signature = base64.b64encode(hmac.new(secret, message, digestmod=hashlib.sha256).digest())
print(signature)