Review comments incorporated for issue #11282

changelog/11282.breaking.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+Sanitized the default value for configuration options.
+
+Previously if a default was not supplied during :meth:`parser.addini <pytest.Parser.addini>` and the option value was not defined, then a call to :func:`config.getini <pytest.Config.getini>` to get the config option value either returned an *empty list* or an *empty string* depending on whether a type is supplied or not respectively, which is clearly incorrect. Also, ``None`` was not honored as ``default`` even if ``default=None`` was used explicitly while defining the option.
+
+Now the behavior is as follows:
+
+* If a default value is NOT set but the type for the option is provided, then a type specific default will be returned. For example ``type=bool`` will return ``False``, ``type=str`` will return ``""``, etc.
+* If a default value of ``None`` is supplied, then ``None`` will be returned, regardless of the ``type``.
+* If neither ``default`` nor ``type`` are provided, assume ``type=str`` and return ``""`` as default (this is as per previous behavior).
+
+The team decided to not introduce a deprecation period for this change, as doing so would be complicated both in terms of communicating this to the community as well as implementing it, and also because the team believes this change should not break existing plugins except in rare cases.

changelog/11282.bugfix.rst

@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-Fixed returning "None" as the default value for a config option when "None" is explicitly
-provided as the default while creating the config option. If no default value is provided
-at the time of creating the config option, then a default based on the option type is returned

src/_pytest/config/__init__.py

@@ -1495,6 +1495,27 @@ class Config:
     def getini(self, name: str):
         """Return configuration value from an :ref:`ini file <configfiles>`.
 
+        If a configuration value is not defined in an
+        :ref:`ini file <configfiles>`, then the ``default`` value provided while
+        registering the configuration through
+        :func:`parser.addini <pytest.Parser.addini>` will be returned.
+        Please note that you can even provide ``None`` as a valid
+        default value.
+
+        If ``default`` is not provided while registering using
+        :func:`parser.addini <pytest.Parser.addini>`, then a default value
+        based on the ``type`` parameter passed to
+        :func:`parser.addini <pytest.Parser.addini>` will be returned.
+        The default values based on ``type`` are:
+        ``paths``, ``pathlist``, ``args`` and ``linelist`` : empty list ``[]``
+        ``bool`` : ``False``
+        ``string`` : empty string ``""``
+
+        If neither the ``default`` nor the ``type`` parameter is passed
+        while registering the configuration through
+        :func:`parser.addini <pytest.Parser.addini>`, then the configuration
+        is treated as a string and a default empty string '' is returned.
+
         If the specified name hasn't been registered through a prior
         :func:`parser.addini <pytest.Parser.addini>` call (usually from a
         plugin), a ValueError is raised.

src/_pytest/config/argparsing.py

@@ -27,12 +27,12 @@ from _pytest.deprecated import check_ispytest
 FILE_OR_DIR = "file_or_dir"
 
 
-class Notset:
+class NotSet:
     def __repr__(self) -> str:
         return "<notset>"
 
 
-notset = Notset()
+NOT_SET = NotSet()
 
 
 @final
@@ -184,7 +184,7 @@ class Parser:
         type: Optional[
             Literal["string", "paths", "pathlist", "args", "linelist", "bool"]
         ] = None,
-        default: Any = notset,
+        default: Any = NOT_SET,
     ) -> None:
         """Register an ini-file option.
 
@@ -211,21 +211,26 @@ class Parser:
         :py:func:`config.getini(name) <pytest.Config.getini>`.
         """
         assert type in (None, "string", "paths", "pathlist", "args", "linelist", "bool")
-        if default is notset:
+        if default is NOT_SET:
-            if type is None:
+            default = self._get_ini_default_for_type(type)
-                default = ""
-            else:
-                if type in ["paths", "pathlist", "args", "linelist"]:
-                    default = []
-                elif type == "bool":
-                    default = False
-                else:
-                    # for string type
-                    default = ""
 
         self._inidict[name] = (help, type, default)
         self._ininames.append(name)
 
+    def _get_ini_default_for_type(self, type) -> Any:
+        default = Any
+        if type is None:
+            default = ""
+        else:
+            if type in ["paths", "pathlist", "args", "linelist"]:
+                default = []
+            elif type == "bool":
+                default = False
+            else:
+                # for string type
+                default = ""
+        return default
+
 
 class ArgumentError(Exception):
     """Raised if an Argument instance is created with invalid or