pathlib — Object-oriented filesystem paths
Added in version 3.4.
Source code:
———
This module offers classes representing filesystem paths with semantics appropriate for different operating systems. Path classes are divided between
, which provide purely computational operations without I/O, and
, which inherit from pure paths but also provide I/O operations.
If you’ve never used this module before or just aren’t sure which class is right for your task,
is most likely what you need. It instantiates a
for the platform the code is running on.
Pure paths are useful in some special cases; for example:
If you want to manipulate Windows paths on a Unix machine (or vice versa). You cannot instantiate a
when running on Unix, but you can instantiate
.
You want to make sure that your code only manipulates paths without actually accessing the OS. In this case, instantiating one of the pure classes may be useful since those simply don’t have any OS-accessing operations.
See also
: The pathlib module – object-oriented filesystem paths.
See also
For low-level path manipulation on strings, you can also use the
module.
Basic use
Importing the main class:
>>> frompathlibimportPathListing subdirectories:
>>> p=Path('.')>>> [xforxinp.iterdir()ifx.is_dir()][PosixPath('.hg'), PosixPath('docs'), PosixPath('dist'), PosixPath('__pycache__'), PosixPath('build')]Listing Python source files in this directory tree:
>>> list(p.glob('**/*.py'))[PosixPath('test_pathlib.py'), PosixPath('setup.py'), PosixPath('pathlib.py'), PosixPath('docs/conf.py'), PosixPath('build/lib/pathlib.py')]Navigating inside a directory tree:
>>> p=Path('/etc')>>> q=p/'init.d'/'reboot'>>> qPosixPath('/etc/init.d/reboot')>>> q.resolve()PosixPath('/etc/rc.d/init.d/halt')Querying path properties:
>>> q.exists()True>>> q.is_dir()FalseOpening a file:
>>> withq.open()asf:f.readline()...'#!/bin/bash\n'Exceptions
exceptionpathlib.UnsupportedOperation
An exception inheriting
that is raised when an unsupported operation is called on a path object.
Added in version 3.13.
Pure paths
Pure path objects provide path-handling operations which don’t actually access a filesystem. There are three ways to access these classes, which we also call flavours:
classpathlib.PurePath(*pathsegments)
A generic class that represents the system’s path flavour (instantiating it creates either a
or a
):
>>> PurePath('setup.py')# Running on a Unix machinePurePosixPath('setup.py')Each element of pathsegments can be either a string representing a path segment, or an object implementing the
interface where the
method returns a string, such as another path object:
>>> PurePath('foo','some/path','bar')PurePosixPath('foo/some/path/bar')>>> PurePath(Path('foo'),Path('bar'))PurePosixPath('foo/bar')When pathsegments is empty, the current directory is assumed:
>>> PurePath()PurePosixPath('.')If a segment is an absolute path, all previous segments are ignored (like
):
>>> PurePath('/etc','/usr','lib64')PurePosixPath('/usr/lib64')>>> PureWindowsPath('c:/Windows','d:bar')PureWindowsPath('d:bar')On Windows, the drive is not reset when a rooted relative path segment (e.g., r'\foo') is encountered:
>>> PureWindowsPath('c:/Windows','/Program Files')PureWindowsPath('c:/Program Files')Spurious slashes and single dots are collapsed, but double dots ('..') and leading double slashes ('//') are not, since this would change the meaning of a path for various reasons (e.g. symbolic links, UNC paths):
>>> PurePath('foo//bar')PurePosixPath('foo/bar')>>> PurePath('//foo/bar')PurePosixPath('//foo/bar')>>> PurePath('foo/./bar')PurePosixPath('foo/bar')>>> PurePath('foo/../bar')PurePosixPath('foo/../bar')(a naïve approach would make PurePosixPath('foo/../bar') equivalent to PurePosixPath('bar'), which is wrong if foo is a symbolic link to another directory)
Pure path objects implement the
interface, allowing them to be used anywhere the interface is accepted.
Changed in version 3.6: Added support for the
interface.
classpathlib.PurePosixPath(*pathsegments)
A subclass of
, this path flavour represents non-Windows filesystem paths:
>>> PurePosixPath('/etc/hosts')PurePosixPath('/etc/hosts')pathsegments is specified similarly to
.
classpathlib.PureWindowsPath(*pathsegments)
A subclass of
, this path flavour represents Windows filesystem paths, including
:
>>> PureWindowsPath('c:/','Users','Ximénez')PureWindowsPath('c:/Users/Ximénez')>>> PureWindowsPath('//server/share/file')PureWindowsPath('//server/share/file')pathsegments is specified similarly to
.
Regardless of the system you’re running on, you can instantiate all of these classes, since they don’t provide any operation that does system calls.
General properties
Paths are immutable and
. Paths of a same flavour are comparable and orderable. These properties respect the flavour’s case-folding semantics:
>>> PurePosixPath('foo')==PurePosixPath('FOO')False>>> PureWindowsPath('foo')==PureWindowsPath('FOO')True>>> PureWindowsPath('FOO')in{PureWindowsPath('foo')}True>>> PureWindowsPath('C:')<PureWindowsPath('d:')TruePaths of a different flavour compare unequal and cannot be ordered:
>>> PureWindowsPath('foo')==PurePosixPath('foo')False>>> PureWindowsPath('foo')<PurePosixPath('foo')Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>TypeError: '<' not supported between instances of 'PureWindowsPath' and 'PurePosixPath'Operators
The slash operator helps create child paths, like
. If the argument is an absolute path, the previous path is ignored. On Windows, the drive is not reset when the argument is a rooted relative path (e.g., r'\foo'):
>>> p=PurePath('/etc')>>> pPurePosixPath('/etc')>>> p/'init.d'/'apache2'PurePosixPath('/etc/init.d/apache2')>>> q=PurePath('bin')>>> '/usr'/qPurePosixPath('/usr/bin')>>> p/'/an_absolute_path'PurePosixPath('/an_absolute_path')>>> PureWindowsPath('c:/Windows','/Program Files')PureWindowsPath('c:/Program Files')A path object can be used anywhere an object implementing
is accepted:
>>> importos>>> p=PurePath('/etc')>>> os.fspath(p)'/etc'The string representation of a path is the raw filesystem path itself (in native form, e.g. with backslashes under Windows), which you can pass to any function taking a file path as a string:
>>> p=PurePath('/etc')>>> str(p)'/etc'>>> p=PureWindowsPath('c:/Program Files')>>> str(p)'c:\\Program Files'Similarly, calling
on a path gives the raw filesystem path as a bytes object, as encoded by
:
>>> bytes(p)b'/etc'Note
Calling
is only recommended under Unix. Under Windows, the unicode form is the canonical representation of filesystem paths.
Accessing individual parts
To access the individual “parts” (components) of a path, use the following property:
PurePath.parts
A tuple giving access to the path’s various components:
>>> p=PurePath('/usr/bin/python3')>>> p.parts('/', 'usr', 'bin', 'python3')>>> p=PureWindowsPath('c:/Program Files/PSF')>>> p.parts('c:\\', 'Program Files', 'PSF')(note how the drive and local root are regrouped in a single part)
Methods and properties
Pure paths provide the following methods and properties:
PurePath.parser
The implementation of the
module used for low-level path parsing and joining: either posixpath or ntpath.
Added in version 3.13.
PurePath.drive
A string representing the drive letter or name, if any:
>>> PureWindowsPath('c:/Program Files/').drive'c:'>>> PureWindowsPath('/Program Files/').drive''>>> PurePosixPath('/etc').drive''UNC shares are also considered drives:
>>> PureWindowsPath('//host/share/foo.txt').drive'\\\\host\\share'PurePath.root
A string representing the (local or global) root, if any:
>>> PureWindowsPath('c:/Program Files/').root'\\'>>> PureWindowsPath('c:Program Files/').root''>>> PurePosixPath('/etc').root'/'UNC shares always have a root:
>>> PureWindowsPath('//host/share').root'\\'If the path starts with more than two successive slashes,
collapses them:
>>> PurePosixPath('//etc').root'//'>>> PurePosixPath('///etc').root'/'>>> PurePosixPath('////etc').root'/'Note
This behavior conforms to The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6, paragraph
:
“A pathname that begins with two successive slashes may be interpreted in an implementation-defined manner, although more than two leading slashes shall be treated as a single slash.”
PurePath.anchor
The concatenation of the drive and root:
>>> PureWindowsPath('c:/Program Files/').anchor'c:\\'>>> PureWindowsPath('c:Program Files/').anchor'c:'>>> PurePosixPath('/etc').anchor'/'>>> PureWindowsPath('//host/share').anchor'\\\\host\\share\\'PurePath.parents
An immutable sequence providing access to the logical ancestors of the path:
>>> p=PureWindowsPath('c:/foo/bar/setup.py')>>> p.parents[0]PureWindowsPath('c:/foo/bar')>>> p.parents[1]PureWindowsPath('c:/foo')>>> p.parents[2]PureWindowsPath('c:/')Changed in version 3.10: The parents sequence now supports
and negative index values.
PurePath.parent
The logical parent of the path:
>>> p=PurePosixPath('/a/b/c/d')>>> p.parentPurePosixPath('/a/b/c')You cannot go past an anchor, or empty path:
>>> p=PurePosixPath('/')>>> p.parentPurePosixPath('/')>>> p=PurePosixPath('.')>>> p.parentPurePosixPath('.')Note
This is a purely lexical operation, hence the following behaviour:
>>> p=PurePosixPath('foo/..')>>> p.parentPurePosixPath('foo')If you want to walk an arbitrary filesystem path upwards, it is recommended to first call
so as to resolve symlinks and eliminate ".." components.
PurePath.name
A string representing the final path component, excluding the drive and root, if any:
>>> PurePosixPath('my/library/setup.py').name'setup.py'UNC drive names are not considered:
>>> PureWindowsPath('//some/share/setup.py').name'setup.py'>>> PureWindowsPath('//some/share').name''PurePath.suffix
The last dot-separated portion of the final component, if any:
>>> PurePosixPath('my/library/setup.py').suffix'.py'>>> PurePosixPath('my/library.tar.gz').suffix'.gz'>>> PurePosixPath('my/library').suffix''This is commonly called the file extension.
Changed in version 3.14: A single dot (”.”) is considered a valid suffix.
PurePath.suffixes
A list of the path’s suffixes, often called file extensions:
>>> PurePosixPath('my/library.tar.gar').suffixes['.tar', '.gar']>>> PurePosixPath('my/library.tar.gz').suffixes['.tar', '.gz']>>> PurePosixPath('my/library').suffixes[]Changed in version 3.14: A single dot (”.”) is considered a valid suffix.
PurePath.stem
The final path component, without its suffix:
>>> PurePosixPath('my/library.tar.gz').stem'library.tar'>>> PurePosixPath('my/library.tar').stem'library'>>> PurePosixPath('my/library').stem'library'Changed in version 3.14: A single dot (”.”) is considered a valid suffix.
PurePath.as_posix()
Return a string representation of the path with forward slashes (/):
>>> p=PureWindowsPath('c:\\windows')>>> str(p)'c:\\windows'>>> p.as_posix()'c:/windows'PurePath.is_absolute()
Return whether the path is absolute or not. A path is considered absolute if it has both a root and (if the flavour allows) a drive:
>>> PurePosixPath('/a/b').is_absolute()True>>> PurePosixPath('a/b').is_absolute()False>>> PureWindowsPath('c:/a/b').is_absolute()True>>> PureWindowsPath('/a/b').is_absolute()False>>> PureWindowsPath('c:').is_absolute()False>>> PureWindowsPath('//some/share').is_absolute()TruePurePath.is_relative_to(other)
Return whether or not this path is relative to the other path.
>>> p=PurePath('/etc/passwd')>>> p.is_relative_to('/etc')True>>> p.is_relative_to('/usr')FalseThis method is string-based; it neither accesses the filesystem nor treats “..” segments specially. The following code is equivalent:
>>> u=PurePath('/usr')>>> u==poruinp.parentsFalseAdded in version 3.9.
Deprecated since version 3.12, removed in version 3.14: Passing additional arguments is deprecated; if supplied, they are joined with other.
PurePath.joinpath(*pathsegments)
Calling this method is equivalent to combining the path with each of the given pathsegments in turn:
>>> PurePosixPath('/etc').joinpath('passwd')PurePosixPath('/etc/passwd')>>> PurePosixPath('/etc').joinpath(PurePosixPath('passwd'))PurePosixPath('/etc/passwd')>>> PurePosixPath('/etc').joinpath('init.d','apache2')PurePosixPath('/etc/init.d/apache2')>>> PureWindowsPath('c:').joinpath('/Program Files')PureWindowsPath('c:/Program Files')PurePath.full_match(pattern, *, case_sensitive=None)
Match this path against the provided glob-style pattern. Return True if matching is successful, False otherwise. For example:
>>> PurePath('a/b.py').full_match('a/*.py')True>>> PurePath('a/b.py').full_match('*.py')False>>> PurePath('/a/b/c.py').full_match('/a/**')True>>> PurePath('/a/b/c.py').full_match('**/*.py')TrueSee also
documentation.
As with other methods, case-sensitivity follows platform defaults:
>>> PurePosixPath('b.py').full_match('*.PY')False>>> PureWindowsPath('b.py').full_match('*.PY')TrueSet case_sensitive to True or False to override this behaviour.
Added in version 3.13.
PurePath.match(pattern, *, case_sensitive=None)
Match this path against the provided non-recursive glob-style pattern. Return True if matching is successful, False otherwise.
This method is similar to
, but empty patterns aren’t allowed (
is raised), the recursive wildcard “**” isn’t supported (it acts like non-recursive “*”), and if a relative pattern is provided, then matching is done from the right:
>>> PurePath('a/b.py').match('*.py')True>>> PurePath('/a/b/c.py').match('b/*.py')True>>> PurePath('/a/b/c.py').match('a/*.py')FalseChanged in version 3.12: The pattern parameter accepts a
.
Changed in version 3.12: The case_sensitive parameter was added.
PurePath.relative_to(other, walk_up=False)
Compute a version of this path relative to the path represented by other. If it’s impossible,
is raised:
>>> p=PurePosixPath('/etc/passwd')>>> p.relative_to('/')PurePosixPath('etc/passwd')>>> p.relative_to('/etc')PurePosixPath('passwd')>>> p.relative_to('/usr')Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> File "pathlib.py", line 941, in relative_toraiseValueError(error_message.format(str(self),str(formatted)))ValueError: '/etc/passwd' is not in the subpath of '/usr' OR one path is relative and the other is absolute.When walk_up is false (the default), the path must start with other. When the argument is true, .. entries may be added to form the relative path. In all other cases, such as the paths referencing different drives,
is raised.:
>>> p.relative_to('/usr',walk_up=True)PurePosixPath('../etc/passwd')>>> p.relative_to('foo',walk_up=True)Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> File "pathlib.py", line 941, in relative_toraiseValueError(error_message.format(str(self),str(formatted)))ValueError: '/etc/passwd' is not on the same drive as 'foo' OR one path is relative and the other is absolute.Warning
This function is part of
and works with strings. It does not check or access the underlying file structure. This can impact the walk_up option as it assumes that no symlinks are present in the path; call
first if necessary to resolve symlinks.
Changed in version 3.12: The walk_up parameter was added (old behavior is the same as walk_up=False).
Deprecated since version 3.12, removed in version 3.14: Passing additional positional arguments is deprecated; if supplied, they are joined with other.
PurePath.with_name(name)
Return a new path with the
changed. If the original path doesn’t have a name, ValueError is raised:
>>> p=PureWindowsPath('c:/Downloads/pathlib.tar.gz')>>> p.with_name('setup.py')PureWindowsPath('c:/Downloads/setup.py')>>> p=PureWindowsPath('c:/')>>> p.with_name('setup.py')Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> File "/home/antoine/cpython/default/Lib/pathlib.py", line 751, in with_nameraiseValueError("%r has an empty name"%(self,))ValueError: PureWindowsPath('c:/') has an empty namePurePath.with_stem(stem)
Return a new path with the
changed. If the original path doesn’t have a name, ValueError is raised:
>>> p=PureWindowsPath('c:/Downloads/draft.txt')>>> p.with_stem('final')PureWindowsPath('c:/Downloads/final.txt')>>> p=PureWindowsPath('c:/Downloads/pathlib.tar.gz')>>> p.with_stem('lib')PureWindowsPath('c:/Downloads/lib.gz')>>> p=PureWindowsPath('c:/')>>> p.with_stem('')Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> File "/home/antoine/cpython/default/Lib/pathlib.py", line 861, in with_stemreturnself.with_name(stem+self.suffix) File "/home/antoine/cpython/default/Lib/pathlib.py", line 851, in with_nameraiseValueError("%r has an empty name"%(self,))ValueError: PureWindowsPath('c:/') has an empty nameAdded in version 3.9.
PurePath.with_suffix(suffix)
Return a new path with the
changed. If the original path doesn’t have a suffix, the new suffix is appended instead. If the suffix is an empty string, the original suffix is removed:
>>> p=PureWindowsPath('c:/Downloads/pathlib.tar.gz')>>> p.with_suffix('.bz2')PureWindowsPath('c:/Downloads/pathlib.tar.bz2')>>> p=PureWindowsPath('README')>>> p.with_suffix('.txt')PureWindowsPath('README.txt')>>> p=PureWindowsPath('README.txt')>>> p.with_suffix('')PureWindowsPath('README')Changed in version 3.14: A single dot (”.”) is considered a valid suffix. In previous versions,
is raised if a single dot is supplied.
PurePath.with_segments(*pathsegments)
Create a new path object of the same type by combining the given pathsegments. This method is called whenever a derivative path is created, such as from
and
. Subclasses may override this method to pass information to derivative paths, for example:
frompathlibimportPurePosixPathclassMyPath(PurePosixPath):def__init__(self,*pathsegments,session_id):super().__init__(*pathsegments)self.session_id=session_iddefwith_segments(self,*pathsegments):returntype(self)(*pathsegments,session_id=self.session_id)etc=MyPath('/etc',session_id=42)hosts=etc/'hosts'print(hosts.session_id)# 42Added in version 3.12.
Concrete paths
Concrete paths are subclasses of the pure path classes. In addition to operations provided by the latter, they also provide methods to do system calls on path objects. There are three ways to instantiate concrete paths:
classpathlib.Path(*pathsegments)
A subclass of
, this class represents concrete paths of the system’s path flavour (instantiating it creates either a
or a
):
>>> Path('setup.py')PosixPath('setup.py')pathsegments is specified similarly to
.
classpathlib.PosixPath(*pathsegments)
A subclass of
and
, this class represents concrete non-Windows filesystem paths:
>>> PosixPath('/etc/hosts')PosixPath('/etc/hosts')pathsegments is specified similarly to
.
Changed in version 3.13: Raises
on Windows. In previous versions,
was raised instead.
classpathlib.WindowsPath(*pathsegments)
A subclass of
and
, this class represents concrete Windows filesystem paths:
>>> WindowsPath('c:/','Users','Ximénez')WindowsPath('c:/Users/Ximénez')pathsegments is specified similarly to
.
Changed in version 3.13: Raises
on non-Windows platforms. In previous versions,
was raised instead.
You can only instantiate the class flavour that corresponds to your system (allowing system calls on non-compatible path flavours could lead to bugs or failures in your application):
>>> importos>>> os.name'posix'>>> Path('setup.py')PosixPath('setup.py')>>> PosixPath('setup.py')PosixPath('setup.py')>>> WindowsPath('setup.py')Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> File "pathlib.py", line 798, in __new__%(cls.__name__,))UnsupportedOperation: cannot instantiate 'WindowsPath' on your systemSome concrete path methods can raise an
if a system call fails (for example because the path doesn’t exist).
Parsing and generating URIs
Concrete path objects can be created from, and represented as, ‘file’ URIs conforming to
.
classmethodPath.from_uri(uri)
Return a new path object from parsing a ‘file’ URI. For example:
>>> p=Path.from_uri('file:///etc/hosts')PosixPath('/etc/hosts')On Windows, DOS device and UNC paths may be parsed from URIs:
>>> p=Path.from_uri('file:///c:/windows')WindowsPath('c:/windows')>>> p=Path.from_uri('file://server/share')WindowsPath('//server/share')Several variant forms are supported:
>>> p=Path.from_uri('file:////server/share')WindowsPath('//server/share')>>> p=Path.from_uri('file://///server/share')WindowsPath('//server/share')>>> p=Path.from_uri('file:c:/windows')WindowsPath('c:/windows')>>> p=Path.from_uri('file:/c|/windows')WindowsPath('c:/windows')
is raised if the URI does not start with file:, or the parsed path isn’t absolute.
Added in version 3.13.
Changed in version 3.14: The URL authority is discarded if it matches the local hostname. Otherwise, if the authority isn’t empty or localhost, then on Windows a UNC path is returned (as before), and on other platforms a
is raised.
Path.as_uri()
Represent the path as a ‘file’ URI.
is raised if the path isn’t absolute.
>>> p=PosixPath('/etc/passwd')>>> p.as_uri()'file:///etc/passwd'>>> p=WindowsPath('c:/Windows')>>> p.as_uri()'file:///c:/Windows'Deprecated since version 3.14, will be removed in version 3.19: Calling this method from
rather than
is possible but deprecated. The method’s use of
makes it strictly impure.
Expanding and resolving paths
classmethodPath.home()
Return a new path object representing the user’s home directory (as returned by
with ~ construct). If the home directory can’t be resolved,
is raised.
>>> Path.home()PosixPath('/home/antoine')Added in version 3.5.
Path.expanduser()
Return a new path with expanded ~ and ~user constructs, as returned by
. If a home directory can’t be resolved,
is raised.
>>> p=PosixPath('~/films/Monty Python')>>> p.expanduser()PosixPath('/home/eric/films/Monty Python')Added in version 3.5.
classmethodPath.cwd()
Return a new path object representing the current directory (as returned by
):
>>> Path.cwd()PosixPath('/home/antoine/pathlib')Path.absolute()
Make the path absolute, without normalization or resolving symlinks. Returns a new path object:
>>> p=Path('tests')>>> pPosixPath('tests')>>> p.absolute()PosixPath('/home/antoine/pathlib/tests')Path.resolve(strict=False)
Make the path absolute, resolving any symlinks. A new path object is returned:
>>> p=Path()>>> pPosixPath('.')>>> p.resolve()PosixPath('/home/antoine/pathlib')“..” components are also eliminated (this is the only method to do so):
>>> p=Path('docs/../setup.py')>>> p.resolve()PosixPath('/home/antoine/pathlib/setup.py')If a path doesn’t exist or a symlink loop is encountered, and strict is True,
is raised. If strict is False, the path is resolved as far as possible and any remainder is appended without checking whether it exists.
Changed in version 3.6: The strict parameter was added (pre-3.6 behavior is strict).
Changed in version 3.13: Symlink loops are treated like other errors:
is raised in strict mode, and no exception is raised in non-strict mode. In previous versions,
is raised no matter the value of strict.
Path.readlink()
Return the path to which the symbolic link points (as returned by
):
>>> p=Path('mylink')>>> p.symlink_to('setup.py')>>> p.readlink()PosixPath('setup.py')Added in version 3.9.
Querying file type and status
Changed in version 3.8:
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
now return False instead of raising an exception for paths that contain characters unrepresentable at the OS level.
Changed in version 3.14: The methods given above now return False instead of raising any
exception from the operating system. In previous versions, some kinds of OSError exception are raised, and others suppressed. The new behaviour is consistent with
,
, etc. Use
to retrieve the file status without suppressing exceptions.
Path.stat(*, follow_symlinks=True)
Return an
object containing information about this path, like
. The result is looked up at each call to this method.
This method normally follows symlinks; to stat a symlink add the argument follow_symlinks=False, or use
.
>>> p=Path('setup.py')>>> p.stat().st_size956>>> p.stat().st_mtime1327883547.852554Changed in version 3.10: The follow_symlinks parameter was added.
Path.lstat()
Like
but, if the path points to a symbolic link, return the symbolic link’s information rather than its target’s.
Path.exists(*, follow_symlinks=True)
Return True if the path points to an existing file or directory. False will be returned if the path is invalid, inaccessible or missing. Use
to distinguish between these cases.
This method normally follows symlinks; to check if a symlink exists, add the argument follow_symlinks=False.
>>> Path('.').exists()True>>> Path('setup.py').exists()True>>> Path('/etc').exists()True>>> Path('nonexistentfile').exists()FalseChanged in version 3.12: The follow_symlinks parameter was added.
Path.is_file(*, follow_symlinks=True)
Return True if the path points to a regular file. False will be returned if the path is invalid, inaccessible or missing, or if it points to something other than a regular file. Use
to distinguish between these cases.
This method normally follows symlinks; to exclude symlinks, add the argument follow_symlinks=False.
Changed in version 3.13: The follow_symlinks parameter was added.
Path.is_dir(*, follow_symlinks=True)
Return True if the path points to a directory. False will be returned if the path is invalid, inaccessible or missing, or if it points to something other than a directory. Use
to distinguish between these cases.
This method normally follows symlinks; to exclude symlinks to directories, add the argument follow_symlinks=False.
Changed in version 3.13: The follow_symlinks parameter was added.
Path.is_symlink()
Return True if the path points to a symbolic link, even if that symlink is broken. False will be returned if the path is invalid, inaccessible or missing, or if it points to something other than a symbolic link. Use
to distinguish between these cases.
Path.is_junction()
Return True if the path points to a junction, and False for any other type of file. Currently only Windows supports junctions.
Added in version 3.12.
Path.is_mount()
Return True if the path is a mount point: a point in a file system where a different file system has been mounted. On POSIX, the function checks whether path’s parent, path/.., is on a different device than path, or whether path/.. and path point to the same i-node on the same device — this should detect mount points for all Unix and POSIX variants. On Windows, a mount point is considered to be a drive letter root (e.g. c:\), a UNC share (e.g. \\server\share), or a mounted filesystem directory.
Added in version 3.7.
Changed in version 3.12: Windows support was added.
Path.is_socket()
Return True if the path points to a Unix socket. False will be returned if the path is invalid, inaccessible or missing, or if it points to something other than a Unix socket. Use
to distinguish between these cases.
Path.is_fifo()
Return True if the path points to a FIFO. False will be returned if the path is invalid, inaccessible or missing, or if it points to something other than a FIFO. Use
to distinguish between these cases.
Path.is_block_device()
Return True if the path points to a block device. False will be returned if the path is invalid, inaccessible or missing, or if it points to something other than a block device. Use
to distinguish between these cases.
Path.is_char_device()
Return True if the path points to a character device. False will be returned if the path is invalid, inaccessible or missing, or if it points to something other than a character device. Use
to distinguish between these cases.
Path.samefile(other_path)
Return whether this path points to the same file as other_path, which can be either a Path object, or a string. The semantics are similar to
and
.
An
can be raised if either file cannot be accessed for some reason.
>>> p=Path('spam')>>> q=Path('eggs')>>> p.samefile(q)False>>> p.samefile('spam')TrueAdded in version 3.5.
Path.info
A
object that supports querying file type information. The object exposes methods that cache their results, which can help reduce the number of system calls needed when switching on file type. For example:
>>> p=Path('src')>>> ifp.info.is_symlink():... print('symlink')... elifp.info.is_dir():... print('directory')... elifp.info.exists():... print('something else')... else:... print('not found')...directoryIf the path was generated from
then this attribute is initialized with some information about the file type gleaned from scanning the parent directory. Merely accessing Path.info does not perform any filesystem queries.
To fetch up-to-date information, it’s best to call
,
and
rather than methods of this attribute. There is no way to reset the cache; instead you can create a new path object with an empty info cache via p=Path(p).
Added in version 3.14.
Reading and writing files
Path.open(mode='r', buffering=-1, encoding=None, errors=None, newline=None)
Open the file pointed to by the path, like the built-in
function does:
>>> p=Path('setup.py')>>> withp.open()asf:... f.readline()...'#!/usr/bin/env python3\n'Path.read_text(encoding=None, errors=None, newline=None)
Return the decoded contents of the pointed-to file as a string:
>>> p=Path('my_text_file')>>> p.write_text('Text file contents')18>>> p.read_text()'Text file contents'The file is opened and then closed. The optional parameters have the same meaning as in
.
Added in version 3.5.
Changed in version 3.13: The newline parameter was added.
Path.read_bytes()
Return the binary contents of the pointed-to file as a bytes object:
>>> p=Path('my_binary_file')>>> p.write_bytes(b'Binary file contents')20>>> p.read_bytes()b'Binary file contents'Added in version 3.5.
Path.write_text(data, encoding=None, errors=None, newline=None)
Open the file pointed to in text mode, write data to it, and close the file:
>>> p=Path('my_text_file')>>> p.write_text('Text file contents')18>>> p.read_text()'Text file contents'Return the number of characters written.
An existing file of the same name is overwritten. The optional parameters have the same meaning as in
.
Added in version 3.5.
Changed in version 3.10: The newline parameter was added.
Path.write_bytes(data)
Open the file pointed to in bytes mode, write data to it, and close the file:
>>> p=Path('my_binary_file')>>> p.write_bytes(b'Binary file contents')20>>> p.read_bytes()b'Binary file contents'Return the number of bytes written.
An existing file of the same name is overwritten.
Added in version 3.5.
Reading directories
Path.iterdir()
When the path points to a directory, yield path objects of the directory contents:
>>> p=Path('docs')>>> forchildinp.iterdir():child...PosixPath('docs/conf.py')PosixPath('docs/_templates')PosixPath('docs/make.bat')PosixPath('docs/index.rst')PosixPath('docs/_build')PosixPath('docs/_static')PosixPath('docs/Makefile')The children are yielded in arbitrary order, and the special entries '.' and '..' are not included. If a file is removed from or added to the directory after creating the iterator, it is unspecified whether a path object for that file is included.
If the path is not a directory or otherwise inaccessible,
is raised.
Path.glob(pattern, *, case_sensitive=None, recurse_symlinks=False)
Glob the given relative pattern in the directory represented by this path, yielding all matching files (of any kind):
>>> sorted(Path('.').glob('*.py'))[PosixPath('pathlib.py'), PosixPath('setup.py'), PosixPath('test_pathlib.py')]>>> sorted(Path('.').glob('*/*.py'))[PosixPath('docs/conf.py')]>>> sorted(Path('.').glob('**/*.py'))[PosixPath('build/lib/pathlib.py'), PosixPath('docs/conf.py'), PosixPath('pathlib.py'), PosixPath('setup.py'), PosixPath('test_pathlib.py')]Note
The paths are returned in no particular order. If you need a specific order, sort the results.
See also
documentation.
By default, or when the case_sensitive keyword-only argument is set to None, this method matches paths using platform-specific casing rules: typically, case-sensitive on POSIX, and case-insensitive on Windows. Set case_sensitive to True or False to override this behaviour.
By default, or when the recurse_symlinks keyword-only argument is set to False, this method follows symlinks except when expanding “**” wildcards. Set recurse_symlinks to True to always follow symlinks.
Note
Any
exceptions raised from scanning the filesystem are suppressed. This includes
when accessing directories without read permission.
Raises an
pathlib.Path.glob with arguments self, pattern.
Changed in version 3.12: The case_sensitive parameter was added.
Changed in version 3.13: The recurse_symlinks parameter was added.
Changed in version 3.13: The pattern parameter accepts a
.
Changed in version 3.13: Any
exceptions raised from scanning the filesystem are suppressed. In previous versions, such exceptions are suppressed in many cases, but not all.
Path.rglob(pattern, *, case_sensitive=None, recurse_symlinks=False)
Glob the given relative pattern recursively. This is like calling
with “**/” added in front of the pattern.
Note
The paths are returned in no particular order. If you need a specific order, sort the results.
Note
Any
exceptions raised from scanning the filesystem are suppressed. This includes
when accessing directories without read permission.
See also
and
documentation.
Raises an
pathlib.Path.rglob with arguments self, pattern.
Changed in version 3.12: The case_sensitive parameter was added.
Changed in version 3.13: The recurse_symlinks parameter was added.
Changed in version 3.13: The pattern parameter accepts a
.
Path.walk(top_down=True, on_error=None, follow_symlinks=False)
Generate the file names in a directory tree by walking the tree either top-down or bottom-up.
For each directory in the directory tree rooted at self (including self but excluding ‘.’ and ‘..’), the method yields a 3-tuple of (dirpath,dirnames,filenames).
dirpath is a
to the directory currently being walked, dirnames is a list of strings for the names of subdirectories in dirpath (excluding '.' and '..'), and filenames is a list of strings for the names of the non-directory files in dirpath. To get a full path (which begins with self) to a file or directory in dirpath, do dirpath/name. Whether or not the lists are sorted is file system-dependent.
If the optional argument top_down is true (which is the default), the triple for a directory is generated before the triples for any of its subdirectories (directories are walked top-down). If top_down is false, the triple for a directory is generated after the triples for all of its subdirectories (directories are walked bottom-up). No matter the value of top_down, the list of subdirectories is retrieved before the triples for the directory and its subdirectories are walked.
When top_down is true, the caller can modify the dirnames list in-place (for example, using
or slice assignment), and Path.walk() will only recurse into the subdirectories whose names remain in dirnames. This can be used to prune the search, or to impose a specific order of visiting, or even to inform Path.walk() about directories the caller creates or renames before it resumes Path.walk() again. Modifying dirnames when top_down is false has no effect on the behavior of Path.walk() since the directories in dirnames have already been generated by the time dirnames is yielded to the caller.
By default, errors from
are ignored. If the optional argument on_error is specified, it should be a callable; it will be called with one argument, an
instance. The callable can handle the error to continue the walk or re-raise it to stop the walk. Note that the filename is available as the filename attribute of the exception object.
By default, Path.walk() does not follow symbolic links, and instead adds them to the filenames list. Set follow_symlinks to true to resolve symlinks and place them in dirnames and filenames as appropriate for their targets, and consequently visit directories pointed to by symlinks (where supported).
Note
Be aware that setting follow_symlinks to true can lead to infinite recursion if a link points to a parent directory of itself. Path.walk() does not keep track of the directories it has already visited.
Note
Path.walk() assumes the directories it walks are not modified during execution. For example, if a directory from dirnames has been replaced with a symlink and follow_symlinks is false, Path.walk() will still try to descend into it. To prevent such behavior, remove directories from dirnames as appropriate.
Note
Unlike
, Path.walk() lists symlinks to directories in filenames if follow_symlinks is false.
This example displays the number of bytes used by all files in each directory, while ignoring __pycache__ directories:
frompathlibimportPathforroot,dirs,filesinPath("cpython/Lib/concurrent").walk(on_error=print):print(root,"consumes",sum((root/file).stat().st_sizeforfileinfiles),"bytes in",len(files),"non-directory files")if'__pycache__'indirs:dirs.remove('__pycache__')This next example is a simple implementation of
. Walking the tree bottom-up is essential as
doesn’t allow deleting a directory before it is empty:
# Delete everything reachable from the directory "top".# CAUTION: This is dangerous! For example, if top == Path('/'),# it could delete all of your files.forroot,dirs,filesintop.walk(top_down=False):fornameinfiles:(root/name).unlink()fornameindirs:(root/name).rmdir()Added in version 3.12.
Creating files and directories
Path.touch(mode=0o666, exist_ok=True)
Create a file at this given path. If mode is given, it is combined with the process’s umask value to determine the file mode and access flags. If the file already exists, the function succeeds when exist_ok is true (and its modification time is updated to the current time), otherwise
is raised.
See also
The
,
and
methods are often used to create files.
Path.mkdir(mode=0o777, parents=False, exist_ok=False, *, parent_mode=None)
Create a new directory at this given path. If mode is given, it is combined with the process’s umask value to determine the file mode and access flags. If the path already exists,
is raised.
If parents is true, any missing parents of this path are created as needed; they are created with the default permissions without taking mode into account (mimicking the POSIX mkdir-p command).
If parent_mode is not None, it is used as the mode for any newly-created, intermediate-level directories when parents is true. Like mode, it is combined with the process’s umask value. Otherwise, intermediate directories are created with the default permissions (also subject to the umask).
If parents is false (the default), a missing parent raises
.
If exist_ok is false (the default),
is raised if the target directory already exists.
If exist_ok is true,
will not be raised unless the given path already exists in the file system and is not a directory (same behavior as the POSIX mkdir-p command).
Changed in version 3.5: The exist_ok parameter was added.
Added in version 3.15: The parent_mode parameter.
Path.symlink_to(target, target_is_directory=False)
Make this path a symbolic link pointing to target.
On Windows, a symlink represents either a file or a directory, and does not morph to the target dynamically. If the target is present, the type of the symlink will be created to match. Otherwise, the symlink will be created as a directory if target_is_directory is true or a file symlink (the default) otherwise. On non-Windows platforms, target_is_directory is ignored.
>>> p=Path('mylink')>>> p.symlink_to('setup.py')>>> p.resolve()PosixPath('/home/antoine/pathlib/setup.py')>>> p.stat().st_size956>>> p.lstat().st_size8Note
The order of arguments (link, target) is the reverse of
’s.
Path.hardlink_to(target)
Make this path a hard link to the same file as target.
Note
The order of arguments (link, target) is the reverse of
’s.
Added in version 3.10.
Changed in version 3.13: Raises
if
is not available. In previous versions,
was raised.
Copying, moving and deleting
Path.copy(target, *, follow_symlinks=True, preserve_metadata=False)
Copy this file or directory tree to the given target, and return a new Path instance pointing to target.
If the source is a file, the target will be replaced if it is an existing file. If the source is a symlink and follow_symlinks is true (the default), the symlink’s target is copied. Otherwise, the symlink is recreated at the destination.
If preserve_metadata is false (the default), only directory structures and file data are guaranteed to be copied. Set preserve_metadata to true to ensure that file and directory permissions, flags, last access and modification times, and extended attributes are copied where supported. This argument has no effect when copying files on Windows (where metadata is always preserved).
Note
Where supported by the operating system and file system, this method performs a lightweight copy, where data blocks are only copied when modified. This is known as copy-on-write.
Added in version 3.14.
Path.copy_into(target_dir, *, follow_symlinks=True, preserve_metadata=False)
Copy this file or directory tree into the given target_dir, which should be an existing directory. Other arguments are handled identically to
. Returns a new Path instance pointing to the copy.
Added in version 3.14.
Path.rename(target)
Rename this file or directory to the given target, and return a new Path instance pointing to target. On Unix, if target exists and is a file, it will be replaced silently if the user has permission. On Windows, if target exists,
will be raised. target can be either a string or another path object:
>>> p=Path('foo')>>> p.open('w').write('some text')9>>> target=Path('bar')>>> p.rename(target)PosixPath('bar')>>> target.open().read()'some text'The target path may be absolute or relative. Relative paths are interpreted relative to the current working directory, not the directory of the Path object.
It is implemented in terms of
and gives the same guarantees.
Changed in version 3.8: Added return value, return the new Path instance.
Path.replace(target)
Rename this file or directory to the given target, and return a new Path instance pointing to target. If target points to an existing file or empty directory, it will be unconditionally replaced.
The target path may be absolute or relative. Relative paths are interpreted relative to the current working directory, not the directory of the Path object.
Changed in version 3.8: Added return value, return the new Path instance.
Path.move(target)
Move this file or directory tree to the given target, and return a new Path instance pointing to target.
If the target doesn’t exist it will be created. If both this path and the target are existing files, then the target is overwritten. If both paths point to the same file or directory, or the target is a non-empty directory, then
is raised.
If both paths are on the same filesystem, the move is performed with
. Otherwise, this path is copied (preserving metadata and symlinks) and then deleted.
Added in version 3.14.
Path.move_into(target_dir)
Move this file or directory tree into the given target_dir, which should be an existing directory. Returns a new Path instance pointing to the moved path.
Added in version 3.14.
Path.unlink(missing_ok=False)
Remove this file or symbolic link. If the path points to a directory, use
instead.
If missing_ok is false (the default),
is raised if the path does not exist.
If missing_ok is true,
exceptions will be ignored (same behavior as the POSIX rm-f command).
Changed in version 3.8: The missing_ok parameter was added.
Path.rmdir()
Remove this directory. The directory must be empty.
Permissions and ownership
Path.owner(*, follow_symlinks=True)
Return the name of the user owning the file.
is raised if the file’s user identifier (UID) isn’t found in the system database.
This method normally follows symlinks; to get the owner of the symlink, add the argument follow_symlinks=False.
Changed in version 3.13: Raises
if the
module is not available. In earlier versions,
was raised.
Changed in version 3.13: The follow_symlinks parameter was added.
Path.group(*, follow_symlinks=True)
Return the name of the group owning the file.
is raised if the file’s group identifier (GID) isn’t found in the system database.
This method normally follows symlinks; to get the group of the symlink, add the argument follow_symlinks=False.
Changed in version 3.13: Raises
if the
module is not available. In earlier versions,
was raised.
Changed in version 3.13: The follow_symlinks parameter was added.
Path.chmod(mode, *, follow_symlinks=True)
Change the file mode and permissions, like
.
This method normally follows symlinks. Some Unix flavours support changing permissions on the symlink itself; on these platforms you may add the argument follow_symlinks=False, or use
.
>>> p=Path('setup.py')>>> p.stat().st_mode33277>>> p.chmod(0o444)>>> p.stat().st_mode33060Changed in version 3.10: The follow_symlinks parameter was added.
Path.lchmod(mode)
Like
but, if the path points to a symbolic link, the symbolic link’s mode is changed rather than its target’s.
Pattern language
The following wildcards are supported in patterns for
,
and
:
** (entire segment)Matches any number of file or directory segments, including zero.
* (entire segment)Matches one file or directory segment.
* (part of a segment)Matches any number of non-separator characters, including zero.
?Matches one non-separator character.
[seq]Matches one character in seq, where seq is a sequence of characters. Range expressions are supported; for example, [a-z] matches any lowercase ASCII letter. Multiple ranges can be combined: [a-zA-Z0-9_] matches any ASCII letter, digit, or underscore.
[!seq]Matches one character not in seq, where seq follows the same rules as above.
For a literal match, wrap the meta-characters in brackets. For example, "[?]" matches the character "?".
The “**” wildcard enables recursive globbing. A few examples:
Pattern
Meaning
“**/*”
Any path with at least one segment.
“**/*.py”
Any path with a final segment ending “.py”.
“assets/**”
Any path starting with “assets/”.
“assets/**/*”
Any path starting with “assets/”, excluding “assets/” itself.
Note
Globbing with the “**” wildcard visits every directory in the tree. Large directory trees may take a long time to search.
Changed in version 3.13: Globbing with a pattern that ends with “**” returns both files and directories. In previous versions, only directories were returned.
In
and
, a trailing slash may be added to the pattern to match only directories.
Changed in version 3.11: Globbing with a pattern that ends with a pathname components separator (
or
) returns only directories.
Comparison to the
module
The patterns accepted and results generated by
and
differ slightly from those by the
module:
Files beginning with a dot are not special in pathlib. This is like passing include_hidden=True to
.
“**” pattern components are always recursive in pathlib. This is like passing recursive=True to
.
“**” pattern components do not follow symlinks by default in pathlib. This behaviour has no equivalent in
, but you can pass recurse_symlinks=True to
for compatible behaviour.
Like all
and
objects, the values returned from
and
don’t include trailing slashes.
The values returned from pathlib’s path.glob() and path.rglob() include the path as a prefix, unlike the results of glob.glob(root_dir=path).
The values returned from pathlib’s path.glob() and path.rglob() may include path itself, for example when globbing “**”, whereas the results of glob.glob(root_dir=path) never include an empty string that would correspond to path.
Comparison to the
and
modules
pathlib implements path operations using
and
objects, and so it’s said to be object-oriented. On the other hand, the
and
modules supply functions that work with low-level str and bytes objects, which is a more procedural approach. Some users consider the object-oriented style to be more readable.
Many functions in
and
support bytes paths and
paths relative to directory descriptors
. These features aren’t available in pathlib.
Python’s str and bytes types, and portions of the
and
modules, are written in C and are very speedy. pathlib is written in pure Python and is often slower, but rarely slow enough to matter.
pathlib’s path normalization is slightly more opinionated and consistent than
. For example, whereas
eliminates “..” segments from a path, which may change its meaning if symlinks are involved,
preserves these segments for greater safety.
pathlib’s path normalization may render it unsuitable for some applications:
pathlib normalizes Path("my_folder/") to Path("my_folder"), which changes a path’s meaning when supplied to various operating system APIs and command-line utilities. Specifically, the absence of a trailing separator may allow the path to be resolved as either a file or directory, rather than a directory only.
pathlib normalizes Path("./my_program") to Path("my_program"), which changes a path’s meaning when used as an executable search path, such as in a shell or when spawning a child process. Specifically, the absence of a separator in the path may force it to be looked up in PATH rather than the current directory.
As a consequence of these differences, pathlib is not a drop-in replacement for
.
Corresponding tools
Below is a table mapping various
functions to their corresponding
/
equivalent.
and
pathlib
,
,
,
Footnotes
Protocols
The pathlib.types module provides types for static type checking.
Added in version 3.14.
classpathlib.types.PathInfo
A
describing the
attribute. Implementations may return cached results from their methods.
exists(*, follow_symlinks=True)
Return True if the path is an existing file or directory, or any other kind of file; return False if the path doesn’t exist.
If follow_symlinks is False, return True for symlinks without checking if their targets exist.
is_dir(*, follow_symlinks=True)
Return True if the path is a directory, or a symbolic link pointing to a directory; return False if the path is (or points to) any other kind of file, or if it doesn’t exist.
If follow_symlinks is False, return True only if the path is a directory (without following symlinks); return False if the path is any other kind of file, or if it doesn’t exist.
is_file(*, follow_symlinks=True)
Return True if the path is a file, or a symbolic link pointing to a file; return False if the path is (or points to) a directory or other non-file, or if it doesn’t exist.
If follow_symlinks is False, return True only if the path is a file (without following symlinks); return False if the path is a directory or other non-file, or if it doesn’t exist.
is_symlink()
Return True if the path is a symbolic link (even if broken); return False if the path is a directory or any kind of file, or if it doesn’t exist.