Doc/library/pathlib.rst
!pathlib --- Object-oriented filesystem paths.. module:: pathlib :synopsis: Object-oriented filesystem paths
.. versionadded:: 3.4
Source code: :source:Lib/pathlib/
.. index:: single: path; operations
This module offers classes representing filesystem paths with semantics
appropriate for different operating systems. Path classes are divided
between :ref:pure paths <pure-paths>, which provide purely computational
operations without I/O, and :ref:concrete paths <concrete-paths>, which
inherit from pure paths but also provide I/O operations.
.. image:: pathlib-inheritance.png :align: center :class: invert-in-dark-mode :alt: Inheritance diagram showing the classes available in pathlib. The most basic class is PurePath, which has three direct subclasses: PurePosixPath, PureWindowsPath, and Path. Further to these four classes, there are two classes that use multiple inheritance: PosixPath subclasses PurePosixPath and Path, and WindowsPath subclasses PureWindowsPath and Path.
If you've never used this module before or just aren't sure which class is
right for your task, :class:Path is most likely what you need. It instantiates
a :ref:concrete path <concrete-paths> 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 :class:WindowsPath when running on Unix, but you
can instantiate :class:PureWindowsPath.
#. 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.
.. seealso::
:pep:428: The pathlib module -- object-oriented filesystem paths.
.. seealso::
For low-level path manipulation on strings, you can also use the
:mod:os.path module.
Importing the main class::
from pathlib import Path
Listing subdirectories::
p = Path('.') [x for x in p.iterdir() if x.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' q PosixPath('/etc/init.d/reboot') q.resolve() PosixPath('/etc/rc.d/init.d/halt')
Querying path properties::
q.exists() True q.is_dir() False
Opening a file::
with q.open() as f: f.readline() ... '#!/bin/bash\n'
.. exception:: UnsupportedOperation
An exception inheriting :exc:NotImplementedError that is raised when an
unsupported operation is called on a path object.
.. versionadded:: 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:
.. class:: PurePath(*pathsegments)
A generic class that represents the system's path flavour (instantiating
it creates either a :class:PurePosixPath or a :class:PureWindowsPath)::
>>> PurePath('setup.py') # Running on a Unix machine
PurePosixPath('setup.py')
Each element of pathsegments can be either a string representing a
path segment, or an object implementing the :class:os.PathLike interface
where the :meth:~os.PathLike.__fspath__ 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 :func:os.path.join)::
>>> 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 :class:os.PathLike interface, allowing them
to be used anywhere the interface is accepted.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Added support for the :class:os.PathLike interface.
.. class:: PurePosixPath(*pathsegments)
A subclass of :class:PurePath, this path flavour represents non-Windows
filesystem paths::
>>> PurePosixPath('/etc/hosts')
PurePosixPath('/etc/hosts')
pathsegments is specified similarly to :class:PurePath.
.. class:: PureWindowsPath(*pathsegments)
A subclass of :class:PurePath, this path flavour represents Windows
filesystem paths, including UNC paths_::
>>> PureWindowsPath('c:/', 'Users', 'Ximénez')
PureWindowsPath('c:/Users/Ximénez')
>>> PureWindowsPath('//server/share/file')
PureWindowsPath('//server/share/file')
pathsegments is specified similarly to :class:PurePath.
.. _unc paths: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_(computing)#UNC
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 :term:hashable. 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:') True
Paths 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 :func:os.path.join.
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') p PurePosixPath('/etc') p / 'init.d' / 'apache2' PurePosixPath('/etc/init.d/apache2') q = PurePath('bin') '/usr' / q PurePosixPath('/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 :class:os.PathLike
is accepted::
import os 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 :class:bytes on a path gives the raw filesystem path as a
bytes object, as encoded by :func:os.fsencode::
bytes(p) b'/etc'
.. note::
Calling :class:bytes 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:
.. attribute:: 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 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
.. testsetup::
from pathlib import PurePath, PurePosixPath, PureWindowsPath
Pure paths provide the following methods and properties:
.. attribute:: PurePath.parser
The implementation of the :mod:os.path module used for low-level path
parsing and joining: either :mod:!posixpath or :mod:!ntpath.
.. versionadded:: 3.13
.. attribute:: 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'
.. attribute:: 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,
:class:~pathlib.PurePosixPath collapses them::
>>> PurePosixPath('//etc').root
'//'
>>> PurePosixPath('///etc').root
'/'
>>> PurePosixPath('////etc').root
'/'
.. note::
This behavior conforms to *The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6*,
paragraph `4.11 Pathname Resolution
<https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/basedefs/xbd_chap04.html#tag_04_11>`_:
*"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."*
.. attribute:: 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\\'
.. attribute:: 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:/')
.. versionchanged:: 3.10
The parents sequence now supports :term:slices <slice> and negative index values.
.. attribute:: PurePath.parent
The logical parent of the path::
>>> p = PurePosixPath('/a/b/c/d')
>>> p.parent
PurePosixPath('/a/b/c')
You cannot go past an anchor, or empty path::
>>> p = PurePosixPath('/')
>>> p.parent
PurePosixPath('/')
>>> p = PurePosixPath('.')
>>> p.parent
PurePosixPath('.')
.. note:: This is a purely lexical operation, hence the following behaviour::
>>> p = PurePosixPath('foo/..')
>>> p.parent
PurePosixPath('foo')
If you want to walk an arbitrary filesystem path upwards, it is
recommended to first call :meth:`Path.resolve` so as to resolve
symlinks and eliminate ``".."`` components.
.. attribute:: 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
''
.. attribute:: 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.
.. versionchanged:: 3.14
A single dot ("``.``") is considered a valid suffix.
.. attribute:: 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
[]
.. versionchanged:: 3.14
A single dot ("``.``") is considered a valid suffix.
.. attribute:: 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'
.. versionchanged:: 3.14
A single dot ("``.``") is considered a valid suffix.
.. method:: 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'
.. method:: 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()
True
.. method:: PurePath.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')
False
This method is string-based; it neither accesses the filesystem nor treats
".." segments specially. The following code is equivalent:
>>> u = PurePath('/usr')
>>> u == p or u in p.parents
False
.. versionadded:: 3.9
.. deprecated-removed:: 3.12 3.14
Passing additional arguments is deprecated; if supplied, they are joined
with *other*.
.. method:: 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')
.. method:: 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')
True
.. seealso::
:ref:pathlib-pattern-language documentation.
As with other methods, case-sensitivity follows platform defaults::
>>> PurePosixPath('b.py').full_match('*.PY')
False
>>> PureWindowsPath('b.py').full_match('*.PY')
True
Set case_sensitive to True or False to override this behaviour.
.. versionadded:: 3.13
.. method:: 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 :meth:~PurePath.full_match, but empty patterns
aren't allowed (:exc:ValueError 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')
False
.. versionchanged:: 3.12
The pattern parameter accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. versionchanged:: 3.12 The case_sensitive parameter was added.
.. method:: PurePath.relative_to(other, walk_up=False)
Compute a version of this path relative to the path represented by
other. If it's impossible, :exc:ValueError 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_to
raise ValueError(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, :exc:ValueError 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_to
raise ValueError(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 :class:PurePath 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 :meth:~Path.resolve first if
necessary to resolve symlinks.
.. versionchanged:: 3.12
The walk_up parameter was added (old behavior is the same as walk_up=False).
.. deprecated-removed:: 3.12 3.14
Passing additional positional arguments is deprecated; if supplied,
they are joined with *other*.
.. method:: PurePath.with_name(name)
Return a new path with the :attr:name 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_name
raise ValueError("%r has an empty name" % (self,))
ValueError: PureWindowsPath('c:/') has an empty name
.. method:: PurePath.with_stem(stem)
Return a new path with the :attr:stem 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_stem
return self.with_name(stem + self.suffix)
File "/home/antoine/cpython/default/Lib/pathlib.py", line 851, in with_name
raise ValueError("%r has an empty name" % (self,))
ValueError: PureWindowsPath('c:/') has an empty name
.. versionadded:: 3.9
.. method:: PurePath.with_suffix(suffix)
Return a new path with the :attr:suffix 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')
.. versionchanged:: 3.14
A single dot ("``.``") is considered a valid suffix. In previous
versions, :exc:`ValueError` is raised if a single dot is supplied.
.. method:: 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 :attr:parent and :meth:relative_to. Subclasses may
override this method to pass information to derivative paths, for example::
from pathlib import PurePosixPath
class MyPath(PurePosixPath):
def __init__(self, *pathsegments, session_id):
super().__init__(*pathsegments)
self.session_id = session_id
def with_segments(self, *pathsegments):
return type(self)(*pathsegments, session_id=self.session_id)
etc = MyPath('/etc', session_id=42)
hosts = etc / 'hosts'
print(hosts.session_id) # 42
.. versionadded:: 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:
.. class:: Path(*pathsegments)
A subclass of :class:PurePath, this class represents concrete paths of
the system's path flavour (instantiating it creates either a
:class:PosixPath or a :class:WindowsPath)::
>>> Path('setup.py')
PosixPath('setup.py')
pathsegments is specified similarly to :class:PurePath.
.. class:: PosixPath(*pathsegments)
A subclass of :class:Path and :class:PurePosixPath, this class
represents concrete non-Windows filesystem paths::
>>> PosixPath('/etc/hosts')
PosixPath('/etc/hosts')
pathsegments is specified similarly to :class:PurePath.
.. versionchanged:: 3.13
Raises :exc:UnsupportedOperation on Windows. In previous versions,
:exc:NotImplementedError was raised instead.
.. class:: WindowsPath(*pathsegments)
A subclass of :class:Path and :class:PureWindowsPath, this class
represents concrete Windows filesystem paths::
>>> WindowsPath('c:/', 'Users', 'Ximénez')
WindowsPath('c:/Users/Ximénez')
pathsegments is specified similarly to :class:PurePath.
.. versionchanged:: 3.13
Raises :exc:UnsupportedOperation on non-Windows platforms. In previous
versions, :exc:NotImplementedError 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)::
import os 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 system
Some concrete path methods can raise an :exc:OSError 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 :rfc:8089.
.. note::
File URIs are not portable across machines with different
:ref:filesystem encodings <filesystem-encoding>.
.. classmethod:: Path.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')
:exc:ValueError is raised if the URI does not start with file:, or
the parsed path isn't absolute.
.. versionadded:: 3.13
.. versionchanged:: 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
:exc:ValueError is raised.
.. method:: Path.as_uri()
Represent the path as a 'file' URI. :exc:ValueError is raised if
the path isn't absolute.
.. code-block:: pycon
>>> p = PosixPath('/etc/passwd')
>>> p.as_uri()
'file:///etc/passwd'
>>> p = WindowsPath('c:/Windows')
>>> p.as_uri()
'file:///c:/Windows'
.. deprecated-removed:: 3.14 3.19
Calling this method from :class:`PurePath` rather than :class:`Path` is
possible but deprecated. The method's use of :func:`os.fsencode` makes
it strictly impure.
Expanding and resolving paths ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
.. classmethod:: Path.home()
Return a new path object representing the user's home directory (as
returned by :func:os.path.expanduser with ~ construct). If the home
directory can't be resolved, :exc:RuntimeError is raised.
::
>>> Path.home()
PosixPath('/home/antoine')
.. versionadded:: 3.5
.. method:: Path.expanduser()
Return a new path with expanded ~ and ~user constructs,
as returned by :meth:os.path.expanduser. If a home directory can't be
resolved, :exc:RuntimeError is raised.
::
>>> p = PosixPath('~/films/Monty Python')
>>> p.expanduser()
PosixPath('/home/eric/films/Monty Python')
.. versionadded:: 3.5
.. classmethod:: Path.cwd()
Return a new path object representing the current directory (as returned
by :func:os.getcwd)::
>>> Path.cwd()
PosixPath('/home/antoine/pathlib')
.. method:: Path.absolute()
Make the path absolute, without normalization or resolving symlinks. Returns a new path object::
>>> p = Path('tests')
>>> p
PosixPath('tests')
>>> p.absolute()
PosixPath('/home/antoine/pathlib/tests')
.. method:: Path.resolve(strict=False)
Make the path absolute, resolving any symlinks. A new path object is returned::
>>> p = Path()
>>> p
PosixPath('.')
>>> 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, :exc:OSError is raised. If strict is False, the path is
resolved as far as possible and any remainder is appended without checking
whether it exists.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6 The strict parameter was added (pre-3.6 behavior is strict).
.. versionchanged:: 3.13
Symlink loops are treated like other errors: :exc:OSError is raised in
strict mode, and no exception is raised in non-strict mode. In previous
versions, :exc:RuntimeError is raised no matter the value of strict.
.. method:: Path.readlink()
Return the path to which the symbolic link points (as returned by
:func:os.readlink)::
>>> p = Path('mylink')
>>> p.symlink_to('setup.py')
>>> p.readlink()
PosixPath('setup.py')
.. versionadded:: 3.9
.. versionchanged:: 3.13
Raises :exc:UnsupportedOperation if :func:os.readlink is not
available. In previous versions, :exc:NotImplementedError was raised.
Querying file type and status ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
.. versionchanged:: 3.8
:meth:~Path.exists, :meth:~Path.is_dir, :meth:~Path.is_file,
:meth:~Path.is_mount, :meth:~Path.is_symlink,
:meth:~Path.is_block_device, :meth:~Path.is_char_device,
:meth:~Path.is_fifo, :meth:~Path.is_socket now return False
instead of raising an exception for paths that contain characters
unrepresentable at the OS level.
.. versionchanged:: 3.14
The methods given above now return False instead of raising any
:exc:OSError exception from the operating system. In previous versions,
some kinds of :exc:OSError exception are raised, and others suppressed.
The new behaviour is consistent with :func:os.path.exists,
:func:os.path.isdir, etc. Use :meth:~Path.stat to retrieve the file
status without suppressing exceptions.
.. method:: Path.stat(*, follow_symlinks=True)
Return an :class:os.stat_result object containing information about this path, like :func:os.stat.
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 :meth:~Path.lstat.
::
>>> p = Path('setup.py')
>>> p.stat().st_size
956
>>> p.stat().st_mtime
1327883547.852554
.. versionchanged:: 3.10 The follow_symlinks parameter was added.
.. method:: Path.lstat()
Like :meth:Path.stat but, if the path points to a symbolic link, return
the symbolic link's information rather than its target's.
.. method:: 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 :meth:Path.stat 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()
False
.. versionchanged:: 3.12 The follow_symlinks parameter was added.
.. method:: 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 :meth:Path.stat to
distinguish between these cases.
This method normally follows symlinks; to exclude symlinks, add the
argument follow_symlinks=False.
.. versionchanged:: 3.13 The follow_symlinks parameter was added.
.. method:: 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 :meth:Path.stat to distinguish
between these cases.
This method normally follows symlinks; to exclude symlinks to directories,
add the argument follow_symlinks=False.
.. versionchanged:: 3.13 The follow_symlinks parameter was added.
.. method:: 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
:meth:Path.stat to distinguish between these cases.
.. method:: 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.
.. versionadded:: 3.12
.. method:: Path.is_mount()
Return True if the path is a :dfn: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, :file:path/.., is on a different
device than path, or whether :file: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.
.. versionadded:: 3.7
.. versionchanged:: 3.12 Windows support was added.
.. method:: 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 :meth:Path.stat to
distinguish between these cases.
.. method:: 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 :meth:Path.stat to distinguish between these
cases.
.. method:: 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 :meth:Path.stat to
distinguish between these cases.
.. method:: 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 :meth:Path.stat to
distinguish between these cases.
.. method:: 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 :func:os.path.samefile and :func:os.path.samestat.
An :exc:OSError 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')
True
.. versionadded:: 3.5
.. attribute:: Path.info
A :class:~pathlib.types.PathInfo 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')
>>> if p.info.is_symlink():
... print('symlink')
... elif p.info.is_dir():
... print('directory')
... elif p.info.exists():
... print('something else')
... else:
... print('not found')
...
directory
If the path was generated from :meth:Path.iterdir then this attribute is
initialized with some information about the file type gleaned from scanning
the parent directory. Merely accessing :attr:Path.info does not perform
any filesystem queries.
To fetch up-to-date information, it's best to call :meth:Path.is_dir,
:meth:~Path.is_file and :meth:~Path.is_symlink 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).
.. versionadded:: 3.14
Reading and writing files ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
.. method:: Path.open(mode='r', buffering=-1, encoding=None, errors=None, newline=None)
Open the file pointed to by the path, like the built-in :func:open
function does::
>>> p = Path('setup.py')
>>> with p.open() as f:
... f.readline()
...
'#!/usr/bin/env python3\n'
.. method:: 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 :func:open.
.. versionadded:: 3.5
.. versionchanged:: 3.13 The newline parameter was added.
.. method:: 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'
.. versionadded:: 3.5
.. method:: 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'
An existing file of the same name is overwritten. The optional parameters
have the same meaning as in :func:open.
.. versionadded:: 3.5
.. versionchanged:: 3.10 The newline parameter was added.
.. method:: 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'
An existing file of the same name is overwritten.
.. versionadded:: 3.5
Reading directories ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
.. method:: Path.iterdir()
When the path points to a directory, yield path objects of the directory contents::
>>> p = Path('docs')
>>> for child in p.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, :exc:OSError is
raised.
.. method:: 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.
.. seealso::
:ref:pathlib-pattern-language 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.
.. audit-event:: pathlib.Path.glob self,pattern pathlib.Path.glob
.. versionchanged:: 3.12 The case_sensitive parameter was added.
.. versionchanged:: 3.13 The recurse_symlinks parameter was added.
.. versionchanged:: 3.13
The pattern parameter accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. versionchanged:: 3.13
Any :exc:OSError exceptions raised from scanning the filesystem are
suppressed. In previous versions, such exceptions are suppressed in many
cases, but not all.
.. method:: Path.rglob(pattern, *, case_sensitive=None, recurse_symlinks=False)
Glob the given relative pattern recursively. This is like calling
:func:Path.glob 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.
.. seealso::
:ref:pathlib-pattern-language and :meth:Path.glob documentation.
.. audit-event:: pathlib.Path.rglob self,pattern pathlib.Path.rglob
.. versionchanged:: 3.12 The case_sensitive parameter was added.
.. versionchanged:: 3.13 The recurse_symlinks parameter was added.
.. versionchanged:: 3.13
The pattern parameter accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. method:: 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 :class:Path 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 :keyword:del or slice assignment), and :meth: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 :meth:Path.walk about directories the caller creates or
renames before it resumes :meth:Path.walk again. Modifying dirnames when
top_down is false has no effect on the behavior of :meth:Path.walk since the
directories in dirnames have already been generated by the time dirnames
is yielded to the caller.
By default, errors from :func:os.scandir are ignored. If the optional
argument on_error is specified, it should be a callable; it will be
called with one argument, an :exc:OSError 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, :meth: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. :meth:`Path.walk`
does not keep track of the directories it has already visited.
.. note::
:meth: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, :meth:Path.walk will
still try to descend into it. To prevent such behavior, remove directories
from dirnames as appropriate.
.. note::
Unlike :func:`os.walk`, :meth:`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::
from pathlib import Path
for root, dirs, files in Path("cpython/Lib/concurrent").walk(on_error=print):
print(
root,
"consumes",
sum((root / file).stat().st_size for file in files),
"bytes in",
len(files),
"non-directory files"
)
if '__pycache__' in dirs:
dirs.remove('__pycache__')
This next example is a simple implementation of :func:shutil.rmtree.
Walking the tree bottom-up is essential as :func:rmdir 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.
for root, dirs, files in top.walk(top_down=False):
for name in files:
(root / name).unlink()
for name in dirs:
(root / name).rmdir()
.. versionadded:: 3.12
Creating files and directories ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
.. method:: 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 :exc:FileExistsError is raised.
.. seealso::
The :meth:~Path.open, :meth:~Path.write_text and
:meth:~Path.write_bytes methods are often used to create files.
.. method:: Path.mkdir(mode=0o777, parents=False, exist_ok=False)
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, :exc:FileExistsError
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 parents is false (the default), a missing parent raises
:exc:FileNotFoundError.
If exist_ok is false (the default), :exc:FileExistsError is
raised if the target directory already exists.
If exist_ok is true, :exc:FileExistsError 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).
.. versionchanged:: 3.5 The exist_ok parameter was added.
.. method:: 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_size
956
>>> p.lstat().st_size
8
.. note::
The order of arguments (link, target) is the reverse
of :func:os.symlink's.
.. versionchanged:: 3.13
Raises :exc:UnsupportedOperation if :func:os.symlink is not
available. In previous versions, :exc:NotImplementedError was raised.
.. method:: 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 :func:os.link's.
.. versionadded:: 3.10
.. versionchanged:: 3.13
Raises :exc:UnsupportedOperation if :func:os.link is not
available. In previous versions, :exc:NotImplementedError was raised.
Copying, moving and deleting ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
.. method:: Path.copy(target, *, follow_symlinks=True, preserve_metadata=False)
Copy this file or directory tree to the given target, and return a new
:class:!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.
.. versionadded:: 3.14
.. method:: 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
:meth:Path.copy. Returns a new :class:!Path instance pointing to the
copy.
.. versionadded:: 3.14
.. method:: Path.rename(target)
Rename this file or directory to the given target, and return a new
:class:!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, :exc:FileExistsError 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
:class:!Path object.
It is implemented in terms of :func:os.rename and gives the same guarantees.
.. versionchanged:: 3.8
Added return value, return the new :class:!Path instance.
.. method:: Path.replace(target)
Rename this file or directory to the given target, and return a new
:class:!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
:class:!Path object.
.. versionchanged:: 3.8
Added return value, return the new :class:!Path instance.
.. method:: Path.move(target)
Move this file or directory tree to the given target, and return a new
:class:!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 :exc:OSError is raised.
If both paths are on the same filesystem, the move is performed with
:func:os.replace. Otherwise, this path is copied (preserving metadata and
symlinks) and then deleted.
.. versionadded:: 3.14
.. method:: 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 :class:!Path instance pointing to
the moved path.
.. versionadded:: 3.14
.. method:: Path.unlink(missing_ok=False)
Remove this file or symbolic link. If the path points to a directory,
use :func:Path.rmdir instead.
If missing_ok is false (the default), :exc:FileNotFoundError is
raised if the path does not exist.
If missing_ok is true, :exc:FileNotFoundError exceptions will be
ignored (same behavior as the POSIX rm -f command).
.. versionchanged:: 3.8 The missing_ok parameter was added.
.. method:: Path.rmdir()
Remove this directory. The directory must be empty.
Permissions and ownership ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
.. method:: Path.owner(*, follow_symlinks=True)
Return the name of the user owning the file. :exc:KeyError 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.
.. versionchanged:: 3.13
Raises :exc:UnsupportedOperation if the :mod:pwd module is not
available. In earlier versions, :exc:NotImplementedError was raised.
.. versionchanged:: 3.13 The follow_symlinks parameter was added.
.. method:: Path.group(*, follow_symlinks=True)
Return the name of the group owning the file. :exc:KeyError 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.
.. versionchanged:: 3.13
Raises :exc:UnsupportedOperation if the :mod:grp module is not
available. In earlier versions, :exc:NotImplementedError was raised.
.. versionchanged:: 3.13 The follow_symlinks parameter was added.
.. method:: Path.chmod(mode, *, follow_symlinks=True)
Change the file mode and permissions, like :func:os.chmod.
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 :meth:~Path.lchmod.
::
>>> p = Path('setup.py')
>>> p.stat().st_mode
33277
>>> p.chmod(0o444)
>>> p.stat().st_mode
33060
.. versionchanged:: 3.10 The follow_symlinks parameter was added.
.. method:: Path.lchmod(mode)
Like :meth:Path.chmod but, if the path points to a symbolic link, the
symbolic link's mode is changed rather than its target's.
.. _pathlib-pattern-language:
The following wildcards are supported in patterns for
:meth:~PurePath.full_match, :meth:~Path.glob and :meth:~Path.rglob:
** (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.
.. versionchanged:: 3.13
Globbing with a pattern that ends with "**" returns both files and
directories. In previous versions, only directories were returned.
In :meth:Path.glob and :meth:~Path.rglob, a trailing slash may be added to
the pattern to match only directories.
.. versionchanged:: 3.11
Globbing with a pattern that ends with a pathname components separator
(:data:~os.sep or :data:~os.altsep) returns only directories.
glob moduleThe patterns accepted and results generated by :meth:Path.glob and
:meth:Path.rglob differ slightly from those by the :mod:glob module:
include_hidden=True to :func:glob.glob.**" pattern components are always recursive in pathlib. This is like
passing recursive=True to :func:glob.glob.**" pattern components do not follow symlinks by default in pathlib.
This behaviour has no equivalent in :func:glob.glob, but you can pass
recurse_symlinks=True to :meth:Path.glob for compatible behaviour.PurePath and :class:Path objects, the values returned
from :meth:Path.glob and :meth:Path.rglob don't include trailing
slashes.path.glob() and path.rglob()
include the path as a prefix, unlike the results of
glob.glob(root_dir=path).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.os and :mod:os.path modulespathlib implements path operations using :class:PurePath and :class:Path
objects, and so it's said to be object-oriented. On the other hand, the
:mod:os and :mod:os.path 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 :mod:os and :mod:os.path support bytes paths and
:ref:paths relative to directory descriptors <dir_fd>. These features aren't
available in pathlib.
Python's str and bytes types, and portions of the :mod:os and
:mod:os.path 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
:mod:os.path. For example, whereas :func:os.path.abspath eliminates
".." segments from a path, which may change its meaning if symlinks are
involved, :meth:Path.absolute preserves these segments for greater safety.
pathlib's path normalization may render it unsuitable for some applications:
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.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 :envvar:PATH
rather than the current directory.As a consequence of these differences, pathlib is not a drop-in replacement
for :mod:os.path.
Corresponding tools ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Below is a table mapping various :mod:os functions to their corresponding
:class:PurePath/:class:Path equivalent.
===================================== ==============================================
:mod:os and :mod:os.path :mod:!pathlib
===================================== ==============================================
:func:os.path.dirname :attr:PurePath.parent
:func:os.path.basename :attr:PurePath.name
:func:os.path.splitext :attr:PurePath.stem, :attr:PurePath.suffix
:func:os.path.join :meth:PurePath.joinpath
:func:os.path.isabs :meth:PurePath.is_absolute
:func:os.path.relpath :meth:PurePath.relative_to [1]_
:func:os.path.expanduser :meth:Path.expanduser [2]_
:func:os.path.realpath :meth:Path.resolve
:func:os.path.abspath :meth:Path.absolute [3]_
:func:os.path.exists :meth:Path.exists
:func:os.path.isfile :meth:Path.is_file
:func:os.path.isdir :meth:Path.is_dir
:func:os.path.islink :meth:Path.is_symlink
:func:os.path.isjunction :meth:Path.is_junction
:func:os.path.ismount :meth:Path.is_mount
:func:os.path.samefile :meth:Path.samefile
:func:os.getcwd :meth:Path.cwd
:func:os.stat :meth:Path.stat
:func:os.lstat :meth:Path.lstat
:func:os.listdir :meth:Path.iterdir
:func:os.walk :meth:Path.walk [4]_
:func:os.mkdir, :func:os.makedirs :meth:Path.mkdir
:func:os.link :meth:Path.hardlink_to
:func:os.symlink :meth:Path.symlink_to
:func:os.readlink :meth:Path.readlink
:func:os.rename :meth:Path.rename
:func:os.replace :meth:Path.replace
:func:os.remove, :func:os.unlink :meth:Path.unlink
:func:os.rmdir :meth:Path.rmdir
:func:os.chmod :meth:Path.chmod
:func:os.lchmod :meth:Path.lchmod
===================================== ==============================================
.. rubric:: Footnotes
.. [1] :func:os.path.relpath calls :func:~os.path.abspath to make paths
absolute and remove ".." parts, whereas :meth:PurePath.relative_to
is a lexical operation that raises :exc:ValueError when its inputs'
anchors differ (e.g. if one path is absolute and the other relative.)
.. [2] :func:os.path.expanduser returns the path unchanged if the home
directory can't be resolved, whereas :meth:Path.expanduser raises
:exc:RuntimeError.
.. [3] :func:os.path.abspath removes ".." components without resolving
symlinks, which may change the meaning of the path, whereas
:meth:Path.absolute leaves any ".." components in the path.
.. [4] :func:os.walk always follows symlinks when categorizing paths into
dirnames and filenames, whereas :meth:Path.walk categorizes all
symlinks into filenames when follow_symlinks is false (the default.)
.. module:: pathlib.types :synopsis: pathlib types for static type checking
The :mod:!pathlib.types module provides types for static type checking.
.. versionadded:: 3.14
.. class:: PathInfo()
A :class:typing.Protocol describing the
:attr:Path.info <pathlib.Path.info> attribute. Implementations may
return cached results from their methods.
.. method:: 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.
.. method:: 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.
.. method:: 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.
.. method:: 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.