Mappy index file error

[DrQuestion]

Hello Doctor Li,
I'm a fan of this brilliant software, and I've been using the python module without creating the index file, at least so far. When I wanted to test if the indexing was actually faster when creating the index file, I tried to run both the ways (with and without the fn_idx_out option given). But, when the path to an index file was given, I was given this error:
index=mappy.Aligner(fn_idx_in=database, preset='map-ont', fn_idx_out=IDXFILE) File "python/mappy.pyx", line 145, in mappy.Aligner.__cinit__ TypeError: expected bytes, str found, where IDXFILE is of the form path/to/file/index.mmi.
Am I misinterpreting the option?
Thank you for your attention,
Alessio.
Ps.
I looked at the code, at the line raising the error (r = cmappy.mm_idx_reader_open(str.encode(fn_idx_in), &self.idx_opt, fn_idx_out)), and I was wondering if a str.encode was necessary also for the fn_idx_out option.

[lh3]

Sorry for the delay. Could you help to check if using str.encode(fn_idx_out) helps to fix the issue? I guess that is the cause. Thanks!

[lh3]

I have added str.encode() anyway in 1895555, but it would be good for someone to confirm.

[DrQuestion]

Hello Doctor Li,
thank you so much for your attention.
I didn't test the new version, but I think it should work, since with a little workaround in my python code,
fn_idx_out=bytes('path/name_of_index_file', encode='utf-8'),
which I just tried, it worked well, creating the index file.