kbe/src/lib/python/Doc/library/os.rst
os --- Miscellaneous operating system interfaces.. module:: os :synopsis: Miscellaneous operating system interfaces.
Source code: :source:Lib/os.py
This module provides a portable way of using operating system dependent
functionality. If you just want to read or write a file see :func:open, if
you want to manipulate paths, see the :mod:os.path module, and if you want to
read all the lines in all the files on the command line see the :mod:fileinput
module. For creating temporary files and directories see the :mod:tempfile
module, and for high-level file and directory handling see the :mod:shutil
module.
Notes on the availability of these functions:
The design of all built-in operating system dependent modules of Python is
such that as long as the same functionality is available, it uses the same
interface; for example, the function os.stat(path) returns stat
information about path in the same format (which happens to have originated
with the POSIX interface).
Extensions peculiar to a particular operating system are also available
through the :mod:os module, but using them is of course a threat to
portability.
All functions accepting path or file names accept both bytes and string objects, and result in an object of the same type, if a path or file name is returned.
.. note::
All functions in this module raise :exc:OSError in the case of invalid or
inaccessible file names and paths, or other arguments that have the correct
type, but are not accepted by the operating system.
.. exception:: error
An alias for the built-in :exc:OSError exception.
.. data:: name
The name of the operating system dependent module imported. The following
names have currently been registered: 'posix', 'nt',
'java'.
.. seealso::
:attr:sys.platform has a finer granularity. :func:os.uname gives
system-dependent version information.
The :mod:`platform` module provides detailed checks for the
system's identity.
.. _os-filenames: .. _filesystem-encoding:
In Python, file names, command line arguments, and environment variables are
represented using the string type. On some systems, decoding these strings to
and from bytes is necessary before passing them to the operating system. Python
uses the file system encoding to perform this conversion (see
:func:sys.getfilesystemencoding).
.. versionchanged:: 3.1
On some systems, conversion using the file system encoding may fail. In this
case, Python uses the :ref:surrogateescape encoding error handler <surrogateescape>, which means that undecodable bytes are replaced by a
Unicode character U+DCxx on decoding, and these are again translated to the
original byte on encoding.
The file system encoding must guarantee to successfully decode all bytes below 128. If the file system encoding fails to provide this guarantee, API functions may raise UnicodeErrors.
.. _os-procinfo:
These functions and data items provide information and operate on the current process and user.
.. function:: ctermid()
Return the filename corresponding to the controlling terminal of the process.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. data:: environ
A :term:mapping object representing the string environment. For example,
environ['HOME'] is the pathname of your home directory (on some platforms),
and is equivalent to getenv("HOME") in C.
This mapping is captured the first time the :mod:os module is imported,
typically during Python startup as part of processing :file:site.py. Changes
to the environment made after this time are not reflected in os.environ,
except for changes made by modifying os.environ directly.
If the platform supports the :func:putenv function, this mapping may be used
to modify the environment as well as query the environment. :func:putenv will
be called automatically when the mapping is modified.
On Unix, keys and values use :func:sys.getfilesystemencoding and
'surrogateescape' error handler. Use :data:environb if you would like
to use a different encoding.
.. note::
Calling :func:`putenv` directly does not change ``os.environ``, so it's better
to modify ``os.environ``.
.. note::
On some platforms, including FreeBSD and Mac OS X, setting ``environ`` may
cause memory leaks. Refer to the system documentation for
:c:func:`putenv`.
If :func:putenv is not provided, a modified copy of this mapping may be
passed to the appropriate process-creation functions to cause child processes
to use a modified environment.
If the platform supports the :func:unsetenv function, you can delete items in
this mapping to unset environment variables. :func:unsetenv will be called
automatically when an item is deleted from os.environ, and when
one of the :meth:pop or :meth:clear methods is called.
.. data:: environb
Bytes version of :data:environ: a :term:mapping object representing the
environment as byte strings. :data:environ and :data:environb are
synchronized (modify :data:environb updates :data:environ, and vice
versa).
:data:environb is only available if :data:supports_bytes_environ is
True.
.. versionadded:: 3.2
.. function:: chdir(path) fchdir(fd) getcwd() :noindex:
These functions are described in :ref:os-file-dir.
.. function:: fsencode(filename)
Encode :term:path-like <path-like object> filename to the filesystem
encoding with 'surrogateescape' error handler, or 'strict' on
Windows; return :class:bytes unchanged.
:func:fsdecode is the reverse function.
.. versionadded:: 3.2
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Support added to accept objects implementing the :class:os.PathLike
interface.
.. function:: fsdecode(filename)
Decode the :term:path-like <path-like object> filename from the
filesystem encoding with 'surrogateescape' error handler, or 'strict'
on Windows; return :class:str unchanged.
:func:fsencode is the reverse function.
.. versionadded:: 3.2
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Support added to accept objects implementing the :class:os.PathLike
interface.
.. function:: fspath(path)
Return the file system representation of the path.
If :class:str or :class:bytes is passed in, it is returned unchanged.
Otherwise :meth:~os.PathLike.__fspath__ is called and its value is
returned as long as it is a :class:str or :class:bytes object.
In all other cases, :exc:TypeError is raised.
.. versionadded:: 3.6
.. class:: PathLike
An :term:abstract base class for objects representing a file system path,
e.g. :class:pathlib.PurePath.
.. versionadded:: 3.6
.. abstractmethod:: fspath()
Return the file system path representation of the object.
The method should only return a :class:`str` or :class:`bytes` object,
with the preference being for :class:`str`.
.. function:: getenv(key, default=None)
Return the value of the environment variable key if it exists, or default if it doesn't. key, default and the result are str.
On Unix, keys and values are decoded with :func:sys.getfilesystemencoding
and 'surrogateescape' error handler. Use :func:os.getenvb if you
would like to use a different encoding.
.. availability:: most flavors of Unix, Windows.
.. function:: getenvb(key, default=None)
Return the value of the environment variable key if it exists, or default if it doesn't. key, default and the result are bytes.
:func:getenvb is only available if :data:supports_bytes_environ
is True.
.. availability:: most flavors of Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.2
.. function:: get_exec_path(env=None)
Returns the list of directories that will be searched for a named
executable, similar to a shell, when launching a process.
env, when specified, should be an environment variable dictionary
to lookup the PATH in.
By default, when env is None, :data:environ is used.
.. versionadded:: 3.2
.. function:: getegid()
Return the effective group id of the current process. This corresponds to the "set id" bit on the file being executed in the current process.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: geteuid()
.. index:: single: user; effective id
Return the current process's effective user id.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: getgid()
.. index:: single: process; group
Return the real group id of the current process.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: getgrouplist(user, group)
Return list of group ids that user belongs to. If group is not in the list, it is included; typically, group is specified as the group ID field from the password record for user.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. function:: getgroups()
Return list of supplemental group ids associated with the current process.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. note::
On Mac OS X, :func:`getgroups` behavior differs somewhat from
other Unix platforms. If the Python interpreter was built with a
deployment target of :const:`10.5` or earlier, :func:`getgroups` returns
the list of effective group ids associated with the current user process;
this list is limited to a system-defined number of entries, typically 16,
and may be modified by calls to :func:`setgroups` if suitably privileged.
If built with a deployment target greater than :const:`10.5`,
:func:`getgroups` returns the current group access list for the user
associated with the effective user id of the process; the group access
list may change over the lifetime of the process, it is not affected by
calls to :func:`setgroups`, and its length is not limited to 16. The
deployment target value, :const:`MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET`, can be
obtained with :func:`sysconfig.get_config_var`.
.. function:: getlogin()
Return the name of the user logged in on the controlling terminal of the
process. For most purposes, it is more useful to use
:func:getpass.getuser since the latter checks the environment variables
:envvar:LOGNAME or :envvar:USERNAME to find out who the user is, and
falls back to pwd.getpwuid(os.getuid())[0] to get the login name of the
current real user id.
.. availability:: Unix, Windows.
.. function:: getpgid(pid)
Return the process group id of the process with process id pid. If pid is 0, the process group id of the current process is returned.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: getpgrp()
.. index:: single: process; group
Return the id of the current process group.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: getpid()
.. index:: single: process; id
Return the current process id.
.. function:: getppid()
.. index:: single: process; id of parent
Return the parent's process id. When the parent process has exited, on Unix the id returned is the one of the init process (1), on Windows it is still the same id, which may be already reused by another process.
.. availability:: Unix, Windows.
.. versionchanged:: 3.2 Added support for Windows.
.. function:: getpriority(which, who)
.. index:: single: process; scheduling priority
Get program scheduling priority. The value which is one of
:const:PRIO_PROCESS, :const:PRIO_PGRP, or :const:PRIO_USER, and who
is interpreted relative to which (a process identifier for
:const:PRIO_PROCESS, process group identifier for :const:PRIO_PGRP, and a
user ID for :const:PRIO_USER). A zero value for who denotes
(respectively) the calling process, the process group of the calling process,
or the real user ID of the calling process.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. data:: PRIO_PROCESS PRIO_PGRP PRIO_USER
Parameters for the :func:getpriority and :func:setpriority functions.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. function:: getresuid()
Return a tuple (ruid, euid, suid) denoting the current process's real, effective, and saved user ids.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.2
.. function:: getresgid()
Return a tuple (rgid, egid, sgid) denoting the current process's real, effective, and saved group ids.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.2
.. function:: getuid()
.. index:: single: user; id
Return the current process's real user id.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: initgroups(username, gid)
Call the system initgroups() to initialize the group access list with all of the groups of which the specified username is a member, plus the specified group id.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.2
.. function:: putenv(key, value)
.. index:: single: environment variables; setting
Set the environment variable named key to the string value. Such
changes to the environment affect subprocesses started with :func:os.system,
:func:popen or :func:fork and :func:execv.
.. availability:: most flavors of Unix, Windows.
.. note::
On some platforms, including FreeBSD and Mac OS X, setting ``environ`` may
cause memory leaks. Refer to the system documentation for putenv.
When :func:putenv is supported, assignments to items in os.environ are
automatically translated into corresponding calls to :func:putenv; however,
calls to :func:putenv don't update os.environ, so it is actually
preferable to assign to items of os.environ.
.. function:: setegid(egid)
Set the current process's effective group id.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: seteuid(euid)
Set the current process's effective user id.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: setgid(gid)
Set the current process' group id.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: setgroups(groups)
Set the list of supplemental group ids associated with the current process to groups. groups must be a sequence, and each element must be an integer identifying a group. This operation is typically available only to the superuser.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. note:: On Mac OS X, the length of groups may not exceed the
system-defined maximum number of effective group ids, typically 16.
See the documentation for :func:getgroups for cases where it may not
return the same group list set by calling setgroups().
.. function:: setpgrp()
Call the system call :c:func:setpgrp or setpgrp(0, 0) depending on
which version is implemented (if any). See the Unix manual for the semantics.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: setpgid(pid, pgrp)
Call the system call :c:func:setpgid to set the process group id of the
process with id pid to the process group with id pgrp. See the Unix manual
for the semantics.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: setpriority(which, who, priority)
.. index:: single: process; scheduling priority
Set program scheduling priority. The value which is one of
:const:PRIO_PROCESS, :const:PRIO_PGRP, or :const:PRIO_USER, and who
is interpreted relative to which (a process identifier for
:const:PRIO_PROCESS, process group identifier for :const:PRIO_PGRP, and a
user ID for :const:PRIO_USER). A zero value for who denotes
(respectively) the calling process, the process group of the calling process,
or the real user ID of the calling process.
priority is a value in the range -20 to 19. The default priority is 0;
lower priorities cause more favorable scheduling.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. function:: setregid(rgid, egid)
Set the current process's real and effective group ids.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: setresgid(rgid, egid, sgid)
Set the current process's real, effective, and saved group ids.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.2
.. function:: setresuid(ruid, euid, suid)
Set the current process's real, effective, and saved user ids.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.2
.. function:: setreuid(ruid, euid)
Set the current process's real and effective user ids.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: getsid(pid)
Call the system call :c:func:getsid. See the Unix manual for the semantics.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: setsid()
Call the system call :c:func:setsid. See the Unix manual for the semantics.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: setuid(uid)
.. index:: single: user; id, setting
Set the current process's user id.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. placed in this section since it relates to errno.... a little weak .. function:: strerror(code)
Return the error message corresponding to the error code in code.
On platforms where :c:func:strerror returns NULL when given an unknown
error number, :exc:ValueError is raised.
.. data:: supports_bytes_environ
True if the native OS type of the environment is bytes (eg. False on
Windows).
.. versionadded:: 3.2
.. function:: umask(mask)
Set the current numeric umask and return the previous umask.
.. function:: uname()
.. index:: single: gethostname() (in module socket) single: gethostbyaddr() (in module socket)
Returns information identifying the current operating system. The return value is an object with five attributes:
sysname - operating system namenodename - name of machine on network (implementation-defined)release - operating system releaseversion - operating system versionmachine - hardware identifierFor backwards compatibility, this object is also iterable, behaving
like a five-tuple containing :attr:sysname, :attr:nodename,
:attr:release, :attr:version, and :attr:machine
in that order.
Some systems truncate :attr:nodename to 8 characters or to the
leading component; a better way to get the hostname is
:func:socket.gethostname or even
socket.gethostbyaddr(socket.gethostname()).
.. availability:: recent flavors of Unix.
.. versionchanged:: 3.3 Return type changed from a tuple to a tuple-like object with named attributes.
.. function:: unsetenv(key)
.. index:: single: environment variables; deleting
Unset (delete) the environment variable named key. Such changes to the
environment affect subprocesses started with :func:os.system, :func:popen or
:func:fork and :func:execv.
When :func:unsetenv is supported, deletion of items in os.environ is
automatically translated into a corresponding call to :func:unsetenv; however,
calls to :func:unsetenv don't update os.environ, so it is actually
preferable to delete items of os.environ.
.. availability:: most flavors of Unix, Windows.
.. _os-newstreams:
This function creates new :term:file objects <file object>. (See also
:func:~os.open for opening file descriptors.)
.. function:: fdopen(fd, *args, **kwargs)
Return an open file object connected to the file descriptor fd. This is an
alias of the :func:open built-in function and accepts the same arguments.
The only difference is that the first argument of :func:fdopen must always
be an integer.
.. _os-fd-ops:
These functions operate on I/O streams referenced using file descriptors.
File descriptors are small integers corresponding to a file that has been opened by the current process. For example, standard input is usually file descriptor 0, standard output is 1, and standard error is 2. Further files opened by a process will then be assigned 3, 4, 5, and so forth. The name "file descriptor" is slightly deceptive; on Unix platforms, sockets and pipes are also referenced by file descriptors.
The :meth:~io.IOBase.fileno method can be used to obtain the file descriptor
associated with a :term:file object when required. Note that using the file
descriptor directly will bypass the file object methods, ignoring aspects such
as internal buffering of data.
.. function:: close(fd)
Close file descriptor fd.
.. note::
This function is intended for low-level I/O and must be applied to a file
descriptor as returned by :func:`os.open` or :func:`pipe`. To close a "file
object" returned by the built-in function :func:`open` or by :func:`popen` or
:func:`fdopen`, use its :meth:`~io.IOBase.close` method.
.. function:: closerange(fd_low, fd_high)
Close all file descriptors from fd_low (inclusive) to fd_high (exclusive), ignoring errors. Equivalent to (but much faster than)::
for fd in range(fd_low, fd_high):
try:
os.close(fd)
except OSError:
pass
.. function:: device_encoding(fd)
Return a string describing the encoding of the device associated with fd
if it is connected to a terminal; else return :const:None.
.. function:: dup(fd)
Return a duplicate of file descriptor fd. The new file descriptor is
:ref:non-inheritable <fd_inheritance>.
On Windows, when duplicating a standard stream (0: stdin, 1: stdout,
2: stderr), the new file descriptor is :ref:inheritable <fd_inheritance>.
.. versionchanged:: 3.4 The new file descriptor is now non-inheritable.
.. function:: dup2(fd, fd2, inheritable=True)
Duplicate file descriptor fd to fd2, closing the latter first if
necessary. Return fd2. The new file descriptor is :ref:inheritable <fd_inheritance> by default or non-inheritable if inheritable
is False.
.. versionchanged:: 3.4 Add the optional inheritable parameter.
.. versionchanged:: 3.7
Return fd2 on success. Previously, None was always returned.
.. function:: fchmod(fd, mode)
Change the mode of the file given by fd to the numeric mode. See the
docs for :func:chmod for possible values of mode. As of Python 3.3, this
is equivalent to os.chmod(fd, mode).
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: fchown(fd, uid, gid)
Change the owner and group id of the file given by fd to the numeric uid
and gid. To leave one of the ids unchanged, set it to -1. See
:func:chown. As of Python 3.3, this is equivalent to os.chown(fd, uid, gid).
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: fdatasync(fd)
Force write of file with filedescriptor fd to disk. Does not force update of metadata.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. note:: This function is not available on MacOS.
.. function:: fpathconf(fd, name)
Return system configuration information relevant to an open file. name
specifies the configuration value to retrieve; it may be a string which is the
name of a defined system value; these names are specified in a number of
standards (POSIX.1, Unix 95, Unix 98, and others). Some platforms define
additional names as well. The names known to the host operating system are
given in the pathconf_names dictionary. For configuration variables not
included in that mapping, passing an integer for name is also accepted.
If name is a string and is not known, :exc:ValueError is raised. If a
specific value for name is not supported by the host system, even if it is
included in pathconf_names, an :exc:OSError is raised with
:const:errno.EINVAL for the error number.
As of Python 3.3, this is equivalent to os.pathconf(fd, name).
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: fstat(fd)
Get the status of the file descriptor fd. Return a :class:stat_result
object.
As of Python 3.3, this is equivalent to os.stat(fd).
.. seealso::
The :func:`.stat` function.
.. function:: fstatvfs(fd)
Return information about the filesystem containing the file associated with
file descriptor fd, like :func:statvfs. As of Python 3.3, this is
equivalent to os.statvfs(fd).
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: fsync(fd)
Force write of file with filedescriptor fd to disk. On Unix, this calls the
native :c:func:fsync function; on Windows, the MS :c:func:_commit function.
If you're starting with a buffered Python :term:file object f, first do
f.flush(), and then do os.fsync(f.fileno()), to ensure that all internal
buffers associated with f are written to disk.
.. availability:: Unix, Windows.
.. function:: ftruncate(fd, length)
Truncate the file corresponding to file descriptor fd, so that it is at
most length bytes in size. As of Python 3.3, this is equivalent to
os.truncate(fd, length).
.. availability:: Unix, Windows.
.. versionchanged:: 3.5 Added support for Windows
.. function:: get_blocking(fd)
Get the blocking mode of the file descriptor: False if the
:data:O_NONBLOCK flag is set, True if the flag is cleared.
See also :func:set_blocking and :meth:socket.socket.setblocking.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.5
.. function:: isatty(fd)
Return True if the file descriptor fd is open and connected to a
tty(-like) device, else False.
.. function:: lockf(fd, cmd, len)
Apply, test or remove a POSIX lock on an open file descriptor.
fd is an open file descriptor.
cmd specifies the command to use - one of :data:F_LOCK, :data:F_TLOCK,
:data:F_ULOCK or :data:F_TEST.
len specifies the section of the file to lock.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. data:: F_LOCK F_TLOCK F_ULOCK F_TEST
Flags that specify what action :func:lockf will take.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. function:: lseek(fd, pos, how)
Set the current position of file descriptor fd to position pos, modified
by how: :const:SEEK_SET or 0 to set the position relative to the
beginning of the file; :const:SEEK_CUR or 1 to set it relative to the
current position; :const:SEEK_END or 2 to set it relative to the end of
the file. Return the new cursor position in bytes, starting from the beginning.
.. data:: SEEK_SET SEEK_CUR SEEK_END
Parameters to the :func:lseek function. Their values are 0, 1, and 2,
respectively.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
Some operating systems could support additional values, like
:data:os.SEEK_HOLE or :data:os.SEEK_DATA.
.. function:: open(path, flags, mode=0o777, *, dir_fd=None)
Open the file path and set various flags according to flags and possibly
its mode according to mode. When computing mode, the current umask value
is first masked out. Return the file descriptor for the newly opened file.
The new file descriptor is :ref:non-inheritable <fd_inheritance>.
For a description of the flag and mode values, see the C run-time documentation;
flag constants (like :const:O_RDONLY and :const:O_WRONLY) are defined in
the :mod:os module. In particular, on Windows adding
:const:O_BINARY is needed to open files in binary mode.
This function can support :ref:paths relative to directory descriptors <dir_fd> with the dir_fd parameter.
.. versionchanged:: 3.4 The new file descriptor is now non-inheritable.
.. note::
This function is intended for low-level I/O. For normal usage, use the
built-in function :func:`open`, which returns a :term:`file object` with
:meth:`~file.read` and :meth:`~file.write` methods (and many more). To
wrap a file descriptor in a file object, use :func:`fdopen`.
.. versionadded:: 3.3 The dir_fd argument.
.. versionchanged:: 3.5
If the system call is interrupted and the signal handler does not raise an
exception, the function now retries the system call instead of raising an
:exc:InterruptedError exception (see :pep:475 for the rationale).
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object.
The following constants are options for the flags parameter to the
:func:~os.open function. They can be combined using the bitwise OR operator
|. Some of them are not available on all platforms. For descriptions of
their availability and use, consult the :manpage:open(2) manual page on Unix
or the MSDN <https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/z0kc8e3z.aspx>_ on Windows.
.. data:: O_RDONLY O_WRONLY O_RDWR O_APPEND O_CREAT O_EXCL O_TRUNC
The above constants are available on Unix and Windows.
.. data:: O_DSYNC O_RSYNC O_SYNC O_NDELAY O_NONBLOCK O_NOCTTY O_CLOEXEC
The above constants are only available on Unix.
.. versionchanged:: 3.3
Add :data:O_CLOEXEC constant.
.. data:: O_BINARY O_NOINHERIT O_SHORT_LIVED O_TEMPORARY O_RANDOM O_SEQUENTIAL O_TEXT
The above constants are only available on Windows.
.. data:: O_ASYNC O_DIRECT O_DIRECTORY O_NOFOLLOW O_NOATIME O_PATH O_TMPFILE O_SHLOCK O_EXLOCK
The above constants are extensions and not present if they are not defined by the C library.
.. versionchanged:: 3.4
Add :data:O_PATH on systems that support it.
Add :data:O_TMPFILE, only available on Linux Kernel 3.11
or newer.
.. function:: openpty()
.. index:: module: pty
Open a new pseudo-terminal pair. Return a pair of file descriptors
(master, slave) for the pty and the tty, respectively. The new file
descriptors are :ref:non-inheritable <fd_inheritance>. For a (slightly) more
portable approach, use the :mod:pty module.
.. availability:: some flavors of Unix.
.. versionchanged:: 3.4 The new file descriptors are now non-inheritable.
.. function:: pipe()
Create a pipe. Return a pair of file descriptors (r, w) usable for
reading and writing, respectively. The new file descriptor is
:ref:non-inheritable <fd_inheritance>.
.. availability:: Unix, Windows.
.. versionchanged:: 3.4 The new file descriptors are now non-inheritable.
.. function:: pipe2(flags)
Create a pipe with flags set atomically.
flags can be constructed by ORing together one or more of these values:
:data:O_NONBLOCK, :data:O_CLOEXEC.
Return a pair of file descriptors (r, w) usable for reading and writing,
respectively.
.. availability:: some flavors of Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. function:: posix_fallocate(fd, offset, len)
Ensures that enough disk space is allocated for the file specified by fd starting from offset and continuing for len bytes.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. function:: posix_fadvise(fd, offset, len, advice)
Announces an intention to access data in a specific pattern thus allowing
the kernel to make optimizations.
The advice applies to the region of the file specified by fd starting at
offset and continuing for len bytes.
advice is one of :data:POSIX_FADV_NORMAL, :data:POSIX_FADV_SEQUENTIAL,
:data:POSIX_FADV_RANDOM, :data:POSIX_FADV_NOREUSE,
:data:POSIX_FADV_WILLNEED or :data:POSIX_FADV_DONTNEED.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. data:: POSIX_FADV_NORMAL POSIX_FADV_SEQUENTIAL POSIX_FADV_RANDOM POSIX_FADV_NOREUSE POSIX_FADV_WILLNEED POSIX_FADV_DONTNEED
Flags that can be used in advice in :func:posix_fadvise that specify
the access pattern that is likely to be used.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. function:: pread(fd, n, offset)
Read at most n bytes from file descriptor fd at a position of offset, leaving the file offset unchanged.
Return a bytestring containing the bytes read. If the end of the file referred to by fd has been reached, an empty bytes object is returned.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. function:: preadv(fd, buffers, offset, flags=0)
Read from a file descriptor fd at a position of offset into mutable
:term:bytes-like objects <bytes-like object> buffers, leaving the file
offset unchanged. Transfer data into each buffer until it is full and then
move on to the next buffer in the sequence to hold the rest of the data.
The flags argument contains a bitwise OR of zero or more of the following flags:
RWF_HIPRIRWF_NOWAITReturn the total number of bytes actually read which can be less than the total capacity of all the objects.
The operating system may set a limit (:func:sysconf value
'SC_IOV_MAX') on the number of buffers that can be used.
Combine the functionality of :func:os.readv and :func:os.pread.
.. availability:: Linux 2.6.30 and newer, FreeBSD 6.0 and newer, OpenBSD 2.7 and newer. Using flags requires Linux 4.6 or newer.
.. versionadded:: 3.7
.. data:: RWF_NOWAIT
Do not wait for data which is not immediately available. If this flag is specified, the system call will return instantly if it would have to read data from the backing storage or wait for a lock.
If some data was successfully read, it will return the number of bytes read.
If no bytes were read, it will return -1 and set errno to
:data:errno.EAGAIN.
.. availability:: Linux 4.14 and newer.
.. versionadded:: 3.7
.. data:: RWF_HIPRI
High priority read/write. Allows block-based filesystems to use polling of the device, which provides lower latency, but may use additional resources.
Currently, on Linux, this feature is usable only on a file descriptor opened
using the :data:O_DIRECT flag.
.. availability:: Linux 4.6 and newer.
.. versionadded:: 3.7
.. function:: pwrite(fd, str, offset)
Write the bytestring in str to file descriptor fd at position of offset, leaving the file offset unchanged.
Return the number of bytes actually written.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. function:: pwritev(fd, buffers, offset, flags=0)
Write the buffers contents to file descriptor fd at a offset offset,
leaving the file offset unchanged. buffers must be a sequence of
:term:bytes-like objects <bytes-like object>. Buffers are processed in
array order. Entire contents of the first buffer is written before
proceeding to the second, and so on.
The flags argument contains a bitwise OR of zero or more of the following flags:
RWF_DSYNCRWF_SYNCReturn the total number of bytes actually written.
The operating system may set a limit (:func:sysconf value
'SC_IOV_MAX') on the number of buffers that can be used.
Combine the functionality of :func:os.writev and :func:os.pwrite.
.. availability:: Linux 2.6.30 and newer, FreeBSD 6.0 and newer, OpenBSD 2.7 and newer. Using flags requires Linux 4.7 or newer.
.. versionadded:: 3.7
.. data:: RWF_DSYNC
Provide a per-write equivalent of the :data:O_DSYNC open(2) flag. This
flag effect applies only to the data range written by the system call.
.. availability:: Linux 4.7 and newer.
.. versionadded:: 3.7
.. data:: RWF_SYNC
Provide a per-write equivalent of the :data:O_SYNC open(2) flag. This
flag effect applies only to the data range written by the system call.
.. availability:: Linux 4.7 and newer.
.. versionadded:: 3.7
.. function:: read(fd, n)
Read at most n bytes from file descriptor fd.
Return a bytestring containing the bytes read. If the end of the file referred to by fd has been reached, an empty bytes object is returned.
.. note::
This function is intended for low-level I/O and must be applied to a file
descriptor as returned by :func:`os.open` or :func:`pipe`. To read a
"file object" returned by the built-in function :func:`open` or by
:func:`popen` or :func:`fdopen`, or :data:`sys.stdin`, use its
:meth:`~file.read` or :meth:`~file.readline` methods.
.. versionchanged:: 3.5
If the system call is interrupted and the signal handler does not raise an
exception, the function now retries the system call instead of raising an
:exc:InterruptedError exception (see :pep:475 for the rationale).
.. function:: sendfile(out, in, offset, count) sendfile(out, in, offset, count, [headers], [trailers], flags=0)
Copy count bytes from file descriptor in to file descriptor out starting at offset. Return the number of bytes sent. When EOF is reached return 0.
The first function notation is supported by all platforms that define
:func:sendfile.
On Linux, if offset is given as None, the bytes are read from the
current position of in and the position of in is updated.
The second case may be used on Mac OS X and FreeBSD where headers and trailers are arbitrary sequences of buffers that are written before and after the data from in is written. It returns the same as the first case.
On Mac OS X and FreeBSD, a value of 0 for count specifies to send until the end of in is reached.
All platforms support sockets as out file descriptor, and some platforms allow other types (e.g. regular file, pipe) as well.
Cross-platform applications should not use headers, trailers and flags arguments.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. note::
For a higher-level wrapper of :func:`sendfile`, see
:meth:`socket.socket.sendfile`.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. function:: set_blocking(fd, blocking)
Set the blocking mode of the specified file descriptor. Set the
:data:O_NONBLOCK flag if blocking is False, clear the flag otherwise.
See also :func:get_blocking and :meth:socket.socket.setblocking.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.5
.. data:: SF_NODISKIO SF_MNOWAIT SF_SYNC
Parameters to the :func:sendfile function, if the implementation supports
them.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. function:: readv(fd, buffers)
Read from a file descriptor fd into a number of mutable :term:bytes-like objects <bytes-like object> buffers. Transfer data into each buffer until
it is full and then move on to the next buffer in the sequence to hold the
rest of the data.
Return the total number of bytes actually read which can be less than the total capacity of all the objects.
The operating system may set a limit (:func:sysconf value
'SC_IOV_MAX') on the number of buffers that can be used.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. function:: tcgetpgrp(fd)
Return the process group associated with the terminal given by fd (an open
file descriptor as returned by :func:os.open).
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: tcsetpgrp(fd, pg)
Set the process group associated with the terminal given by fd (an open file
descriptor as returned by :func:os.open) to pg.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: ttyname(fd)
Return a string which specifies the terminal device associated with file descriptor fd. If fd is not associated with a terminal device, an exception is raised.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: write(fd, str)
Write the bytestring in str to file descriptor fd.
Return the number of bytes actually written.
.. note::
This function is intended for low-level I/O and must be applied to a file
descriptor as returned by :func:`os.open` or :func:`pipe`. To write a "file
object" returned by the built-in function :func:`open` or by :func:`popen` or
:func:`fdopen`, or :data:`sys.stdout` or :data:`sys.stderr`, use its
:meth:`~file.write` method.
.. versionchanged:: 3.5
If the system call is interrupted and the signal handler does not raise an
exception, the function now retries the system call instead of raising an
:exc:InterruptedError exception (see :pep:475 for the rationale).
.. function:: writev(fd, buffers)
Write the contents of buffers to file descriptor fd. buffers must be
a sequence of :term:bytes-like objects <bytes-like object>. Buffers are
processed in array order. Entire contents of the first buffer is written
before proceeding to the second, and so on.
Returns the total number of bytes actually written.
The operating system may set a limit (:func:sysconf value
'SC_IOV_MAX') on the number of buffers that can be used.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. _terminal-size:
Querying the size of a terminal
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. function:: get_terminal_size(fd=STDOUT_FILENO)
Return the size of the terminal window as ``(columns, lines)``,
tuple of type :class:`terminal_size`.
The optional argument ``fd`` (default ``STDOUT_FILENO``, or standard
output) specifies which file descriptor should be queried.
If the file descriptor is not connected to a terminal, an :exc:`OSError`
is raised.
:func:`shutil.get_terminal_size` is the high-level function which
should normally be used, ``os.get_terminal_size`` is the low-level
implementation.
.. availability:: Unix, Windows.
.. class:: terminal_size
A subclass of tuple, holding ``(columns, lines)`` of the terminal window size.
.. attribute:: columns
Width of the terminal window in characters.
.. attribute:: lines
Height of the terminal window in characters.
.. _fd_inheritance:
Inheritance of File Descriptors
.. versionadded:: 3.4
A file descriptor has an "inheritable" flag which indicates if the file descriptor can be inherited by child processes. Since Python 3.4, file descriptors created by Python are non-inheritable by default.
On UNIX, non-inheritable file descriptors are closed in child processes at the execution of a new program, other file descriptors are inherited.
On Windows, non-inheritable handles and file descriptors are closed in child
processes, except for standard streams (file descriptors 0, 1 and 2: stdin, stdout
and stderr), which are always inherited. Using :func:spawn\* <spawnl> functions,
all inheritable handles and all inheritable file descriptors are inherited.
Using the :mod:subprocess module, all file descriptors except standard
streams are closed, and inheritable handles are only inherited if the
close_fds parameter is False.
.. function:: get_inheritable(fd)
Get the "inheritable" flag of the specified file descriptor (a boolean).
.. function:: set_inheritable(fd, inheritable)
Set the "inheritable" flag of the specified file descriptor.
.. function:: get_handle_inheritable(handle)
Get the "inheritable" flag of the specified handle (a boolean).
.. availability:: Windows.
.. function:: set_handle_inheritable(handle, inheritable)
Set the "inheritable" flag of the specified handle.
.. availability:: Windows.
.. _os-file-dir:
On some Unix platforms, many of these functions support one or more of these features:
.. _path_fd:
specifying a file descriptor:
For some functions, the path argument can be not only a string giving a path
name, but also a file descriptor. The function will then operate on the file
referred to by the descriptor. (For POSIX systems, Python will call the
f... version of the function.)
You can check whether or not path can be specified as a file descriptor on
your platform using :data:os.supports_fd. If it is unavailable, using it
will raise a :exc:NotImplementedError.
If the function also supports dir_fd or follow_symlinks arguments, it is an error to specify one of those when supplying path as a file descriptor.
.. _dir_fd:
paths relative to directory descriptors: If dir_fd is not None, it
should be a file descriptor referring to a directory, and the path to operate
on should be relative; path will then be relative to that directory. If the
path is absolute, dir_fd is ignored. (For POSIX systems, Python will call
the ...at or f...at version of the function.)
You can check whether or not dir_fd is supported on your platform using
:data:os.supports_dir_fd. If it is unavailable, using it will raise a
:exc:NotImplementedError.
.. _follow_symlinks:
not following symlinks: If follow_symlinks is
False, and the last element of the path to operate on is a symbolic link,
the function will operate on the symbolic link itself instead of the file the
link points to. (For POSIX systems, Python will call the l... version of
the function.)
You can check whether or not follow_symlinks is supported on your platform
using :data:os.supports_follow_symlinks. If it is unavailable, using it
will raise a :exc:NotImplementedError.
.. function:: access(path, mode, *, dir_fd=None, effective_ids=False, follow_symlinks=True)
Use the real uid/gid to test for access to path. Note that most operations
will use the effective uid/gid, therefore this routine can be used in a
suid/sgid environment to test if the invoking user has the specified access to
path. mode should be :const:F_OK to test the existence of path, or it
can be the inclusive OR of one or more of :const:R_OK, :const:W_OK, and
:const:X_OK to test permissions. Return :const:True if access is allowed,
:const:False if not. See the Unix man page :manpage:access(2) for more
information.
This function can support specifying :ref:paths relative to directory descriptors <dir_fd> and :ref:not following symlinks <follow_symlinks>.
If effective_ids is True, :func:access will perform its access
checks using the effective uid/gid instead of the real uid/gid.
effective_ids may not be supported on your platform; you can check whether
or not it is available using :data:os.supports_effective_ids. If it is
unavailable, using it will raise a :exc:NotImplementedError.
.. note::
Using :func:`access` to check if a user is authorized to e.g. open a file
before actually doing so using :func:`open` creates a security hole,
because the user might exploit the short time interval between checking
and opening the file to manipulate it. It's preferable to use :term:`EAFP`
techniques. For example::
if os.access("myfile", os.R_OK):
with open("myfile") as fp:
return fp.read()
return "some default data"
is better written as::
try:
fp = open("myfile")
except PermissionError:
return "some default data"
else:
with fp:
return fp.read()
.. note::
I/O operations may fail even when :func:`access` indicates that they would
succeed, particularly for operations on network filesystems which may have
permissions semantics beyond the usual POSIX permission-bit model.
.. versionchanged:: 3.3 Added the dir_fd, effective_ids, and follow_symlinks parameters.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. data:: F_OK R_OK W_OK X_OK
Values to pass as the mode parameter of :func:access to test the
existence, readability, writability and executability of path,
respectively.
.. function:: chdir(path)
.. index:: single: directory; changing
Change the current working directory to path.
This function can support :ref:specifying a file descriptor <path_fd>. The
descriptor must refer to an opened directory, not an open file.
.. versionadded:: 3.3 Added support for specifying path as a file descriptor on some platforms.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. function:: chflags(path, flags, *, follow_symlinks=True)
Set the flags of path to the numeric flags. flags may take a combination
(bitwise OR) of the following values (as defined in the :mod:stat module):
stat.UF_NODUMPstat.UF_IMMUTABLEstat.UF_APPENDstat.UF_OPAQUEstat.UF_NOUNLINKstat.UF_COMPRESSEDstat.UF_HIDDENstat.SF_ARCHIVEDstat.SF_IMMUTABLEstat.SF_APPENDstat.SF_NOUNLINKstat.SF_SNAPSHOTThis function can support :ref:not following symlinks <follow_symlinks>.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.3 The follow_symlinks argument.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. function:: chmod(path, mode, *, dir_fd=None, follow_symlinks=True)
Change the mode of path to the numeric mode. mode may take one of the
following values (as defined in the :mod:stat module) or bitwise ORed
combinations of them:
stat.S_ISUIDstat.S_ISGIDstat.S_ENFMTstat.S_ISVTXstat.S_IREADstat.S_IWRITEstat.S_IEXECstat.S_IRWXUstat.S_IRUSRstat.S_IWUSRstat.S_IXUSRstat.S_IRWXGstat.S_IRGRPstat.S_IWGRPstat.S_IXGRPstat.S_IRWXOstat.S_IROTHstat.S_IWOTHstat.S_IXOTHThis function can support :ref:specifying a file descriptor <path_fd>,
:ref:paths relative to directory descriptors <dir_fd> and :ref:not following symlinks <follow_symlinks>.
.. note::
Although Windows supports :func:`chmod`, you can only set the file's
read-only flag with it (via the ``stat.S_IWRITE`` and ``stat.S_IREAD``
constants or a corresponding integer value). All other bits are ignored.
.. versionadded:: 3.3 Added support for specifying path as an open file descriptor, and the dir_fd and follow_symlinks arguments.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. function:: chown(path, uid, gid, *, dir_fd=None, follow_symlinks=True)
Change the owner and group id of path to the numeric uid and gid. To leave one of the ids unchanged, set it to -1.
This function can support :ref:specifying a file descriptor <path_fd>,
:ref:paths relative to directory descriptors <dir_fd> and :ref:not following symlinks <follow_symlinks>.
See :func:shutil.chown for a higher-level function that accepts names in
addition to numeric ids.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.3 Added support for specifying an open file descriptor for path, and the dir_fd and follow_symlinks arguments.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Supports a :term:path-like object.
.. function:: chroot(path)
Change the root directory of the current process to path.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. function:: fchdir(fd)
Change the current working directory to the directory represented by the file
descriptor fd. The descriptor must refer to an opened directory, not an
open file. As of Python 3.3, this is equivalent to os.chdir(fd).
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: getcwd()
Return a string representing the current working directory.
.. function:: getcwdb()
Return a bytestring representing the current working directory.
.. function:: lchflags(path, flags)
Set the flags of path to the numeric flags, like :func:chflags, but do
not follow symbolic links. As of Python 3.3, this is equivalent to
os.chflags(path, flags, follow_symlinks=False).
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. function:: lchmod(path, mode)
Change the mode of path to the numeric mode. If path is a symlink, this
affects the symlink rather than the target. See the docs for :func:chmod
for possible values of mode. As of Python 3.3, this is equivalent to
os.chmod(path, mode, follow_symlinks=False).
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. function:: lchown(path, uid, gid)
Change the owner and group id of path to the numeric uid and gid. This
function will not follow symbolic links. As of Python 3.3, this is equivalent
to os.chown(path, uid, gid, follow_symlinks=False).
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. function:: link(src, dst, *, src_dir_fd=None, dst_dir_fd=None, follow_symlinks=True)
Create a hard link pointing to src named dst.
This function can support specifying src_dir_fd and/or dst_dir_fd to
supply :ref:paths relative to directory descriptors <dir_fd>, and :ref:not following symlinks <follow_symlinks>.
.. availability:: Unix, Windows.
.. versionchanged:: 3.2 Added Windows support.
.. versionadded:: 3.3 Added the src_dir_fd, dst_dir_fd, and follow_symlinks arguments.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object for src and dst.
.. function:: listdir(path='.')
Return a list containing the names of the entries in the directory given by
path. The list is in arbitrary order, and does not include the special
entries '.' and '..' even if they are present in the directory.
path may be a :term:path-like object. If path is of type bytes
(directly or indirectly through the :class:PathLike interface),
the filenames returned will also be of type bytes;
in all other circumstances, they will be of type str.
This function can also support :ref:specifying a file descriptor <path_fd>; the file descriptor must refer to a directory.
.. note::
To encode str filenames to bytes, use :func:~os.fsencode.
.. seealso::
The :func:`scandir` function returns directory entries along with
file attribute information, giving better performance for many
common use cases.
.. versionchanged:: 3.2 The path parameter became optional.
.. versionadded:: 3.3 Added support for specifying an open file descriptor for path.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. function:: lstat(path, *, dir_fd=None)
Perform the equivalent of an :c:func:lstat system call on the given path.
Similar to :func:~os.stat, but does not follow symbolic links. Return a
:class:stat_result object.
On platforms that do not support symbolic links, this is an alias for
:func:~os.stat.
As of Python 3.3, this is equivalent to os.stat(path, dir_fd=dir_fd, follow_symlinks=False).
This function can also support :ref:paths relative to directory descriptors <dir_fd>.
.. seealso::
The :func:`.stat` function.
.. versionchanged:: 3.2 Added support for Windows 6.0 (Vista) symbolic links.
.. versionchanged:: 3.3 Added the dir_fd parameter.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object for src and dst.
.. function:: mkdir(path, mode=0o777, *, dir_fd=None)
Create a directory named path with numeric mode mode.
If the directory already exists, :exc:FileExistsError is raised.
.. _mkdir_modebits:
On some systems, mode is ignored. Where it is used, the current umask
value is first masked out. If bits other than the last 9 (i.e. the last 3
digits of the octal representation of the mode) are set, their meaning is
platform-dependent. On some platforms, they are ignored and you should call
:func:chmod explicitly to set them.
This function can also support :ref:paths relative to directory descriptors <dir_fd>.
It is also possible to create temporary directories; see the
:mod:tempfile module's :func:tempfile.mkdtemp function.
.. versionadded:: 3.3 The dir_fd argument.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. function:: makedirs(name, mode=0o777, exist_ok=False)
.. index:: single: directory; creating single: UNC paths; and os.makedirs()
Recursive directory creation function. Like :func:mkdir, but makes all
intermediate-level directories needed to contain the leaf directory.
The mode parameter is passed to :func:mkdir for creating the leaf
directory; see :ref:the mkdir() description <mkdir_modebits> for how it
is interpreted. To set the file permission bits of any newly-created parent
directories you can set the umask before invoking :func:makedirs. The
file permission bits of existing parent directories are not changed.
If exist_ok is False (the default), an :exc:OSError is raised if the
target directory already exists.
.. note::
:func:`makedirs` will become confused if the path elements to create
include :data:`pardir` (eg. ".." on UNIX systems).
This function handles UNC paths correctly.
.. versionadded:: 3.2 The exist_ok parameter.
.. versionchanged:: 3.4.1
Before Python 3.4.1, if *exist_ok* was ``True`` and the directory existed,
:func:`makedirs` would still raise an error if *mode* did not match the
mode of the existing directory. Since this behavior was impossible to
implement safely, it was removed in Python 3.4.1. See :issue:`21082`.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. versionchanged:: 3.7 The mode argument no longer affects the file permission bits of newly-created intermediate-level directories.
.. function:: mkfifo(path, mode=0o666, *, dir_fd=None)
Create a FIFO (a named pipe) named path with numeric mode mode. The current umask value is first masked out from the mode.
This function can also support :ref:paths relative to directory descriptors <dir_fd>.
FIFOs are pipes that can be accessed like regular files. FIFOs exist until they
are deleted (for example with :func:os.unlink). Generally, FIFOs are used as
rendezvous between "client" and "server" type processes: the server opens the
FIFO for reading, and the client opens it for writing. Note that :func:mkfifo
doesn't open the FIFO --- it just creates the rendezvous point.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.3 The dir_fd argument.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. function:: mknod(path, mode=0o600, device=0, *, dir_fd=None)
Create a filesystem node (file, device special file or named pipe) named
path. mode specifies both the permissions to use and the type of node
to be created, being combined (bitwise OR) with one of stat.S_IFREG,
stat.S_IFCHR, stat.S_IFBLK, and stat.S_IFIFO (those constants are
available in :mod:stat). For stat.S_IFCHR and stat.S_IFBLK,
device defines the newly created device special file (probably using
:func:os.makedev), otherwise it is ignored.
This function can also support :ref:paths relative to directory descriptors <dir_fd>.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.3 The dir_fd argument.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. function:: major(device)
Extract the device major number from a raw device number (usually the
:attr:st_dev or :attr:st_rdev field from :c:type:stat).
.. function:: minor(device)
Extract the device minor number from a raw device number (usually the
:attr:st_dev or :attr:st_rdev field from :c:type:stat).
.. function:: makedev(major, minor)
Compose a raw device number from the major and minor device numbers.
.. function:: pathconf(path, name)
Return system configuration information relevant to a named file. name
specifies the configuration value to retrieve; it may be a string which is the
name of a defined system value; these names are specified in a number of
standards (POSIX.1, Unix 95, Unix 98, and others). Some platforms define
additional names as well. The names known to the host operating system are
given in the pathconf_names dictionary. For configuration variables not
included in that mapping, passing an integer for name is also accepted.
If name is a string and is not known, :exc:ValueError is raised. If a
specific value for name is not supported by the host system, even if it is
included in pathconf_names, an :exc:OSError is raised with
:const:errno.EINVAL for the error number.
This function can support :ref:specifying a file descriptor <path_fd>.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. data:: pathconf_names
Dictionary mapping names accepted by :func:pathconf and :func:fpathconf to
the integer values defined for those names by the host operating system. This
can be used to determine the set of names known to the system.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: readlink(path, *, dir_fd=None)
Return a string representing the path to which the symbolic link points. The
result may be either an absolute or relative pathname; if it is relative, it
may be converted to an absolute pathname using
os.path.join(os.path.dirname(path), result).
If the path is a string object (directly or indirectly through a
:class:PathLike interface), the result will also be a string object,
and the call may raise a UnicodeDecodeError. If the path is a bytes
object (direct or indirectly), the result will be a bytes object.
This function can also support :ref:paths relative to directory descriptors <dir_fd>.
.. availability:: Unix, Windows.
.. versionchanged:: 3.2 Added support for Windows 6.0 (Vista) symbolic links.
.. versionadded:: 3.3 The dir_fd argument.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. function:: remove(path, *, dir_fd=None)
Remove (delete) the file path. If path is a directory, :exc:OSError is
raised. Use :func:rmdir to remove directories.
This function can support :ref:paths relative to directory descriptors <dir_fd>.
On Windows, attempting to remove a file that is in use causes an exception to be raised; on Unix, the directory entry is removed but the storage allocated to the file is not made available until the original file is no longer in use.
This function is semantically identical to :func:unlink.
.. versionadded:: 3.3 The dir_fd argument.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. function:: removedirs(name)
.. index:: single: directory; deleting
Remove directories recursively. Works like :func:rmdir except that, if the
leaf directory is successfully removed, :func:removedirs tries to
successively remove every parent directory mentioned in path until an error
is raised (which is ignored, because it generally means that a parent directory
is not empty). For example, os.removedirs('foo/bar/baz') will first remove
the directory 'foo/bar/baz', and then remove 'foo/bar' and 'foo' if
they are empty. Raises :exc:OSError if the leaf directory could not be
successfully removed.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. function:: rename(src, dst, *, src_dir_fd=None, dst_dir_fd=None)
Rename the file or directory src to dst. If dst is a directory,
:exc:OSError will be raised. On Unix, if dst exists and is a file, it will
be replaced silently if the user has permission. The operation may fail on some
Unix flavors if src and dst are on different filesystems. If successful,
the renaming will be an atomic operation (this is a POSIX requirement). On
Windows, if dst already exists, :exc:OSError will be raised even if it is a
file.
This function can support specifying src_dir_fd and/or dst_dir_fd to
supply :ref:paths relative to directory descriptors <dir_fd>.
If you want cross-platform overwriting of the destination, use :func:replace.
.. versionadded:: 3.3 The src_dir_fd and dst_dir_fd arguments.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object for src and dst.
.. function:: renames(old, new)
Recursive directory or file renaming function. Works like :func:rename, except
creation of any intermediate directories needed to make the new pathname good is
attempted first. After the rename, directories corresponding to rightmost path
segments of the old name will be pruned away using :func:removedirs.
.. note::
This function can fail with the new directory structure made if you lack
permissions needed to remove the leaf directory or file.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object for old and new.
.. function:: replace(src, dst, *, src_dir_fd=None, dst_dir_fd=None)
Rename the file or directory src to dst. If dst is a directory,
:exc:OSError will be raised. If dst exists and is a file, it will
be replaced silently if the user has permission. The operation may fail
if src and dst are on different filesystems. If successful,
the renaming will be an atomic operation (this is a POSIX requirement).
This function can support specifying src_dir_fd and/or dst_dir_fd to
supply :ref:paths relative to directory descriptors <dir_fd>.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object for src and dst.
.. function:: rmdir(path, *, dir_fd=None)
Remove (delete) the directory path. Only works when the directory is
empty, otherwise, :exc:OSError is raised. In order to remove whole
directory trees, :func:shutil.rmtree can be used.
This function can support :ref:paths relative to directory descriptors <dir_fd>.
.. versionadded:: 3.3 The dir_fd parameter.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. function:: scandir(path='.')
Return an iterator of :class:os.DirEntry objects corresponding to the
entries in the directory given by path. The entries are yielded in
arbitrary order, and the special entries '.' and '..' are not
included.
Using :func:scandir instead of :func:listdir can significantly
increase the performance of code that also needs file type or file
attribute information, because :class:os.DirEntry objects expose this
information if the operating system provides it when scanning a directory.
All :class:os.DirEntry methods may perform a system call, but
:func:~os.DirEntry.is_dir and :func:~os.DirEntry.is_file usually only
require a system call for symbolic links; :func:os.DirEntry.stat
always requires a system call on Unix but only requires one for
symbolic links on Windows.
path may be a :term:path-like object. If path is of type bytes
(directly or indirectly through the :class:PathLike interface),
the type of the :attr:~os.DirEntry.name and :attr:~os.DirEntry.path
attributes of each :class:os.DirEntry will be bytes; in all other
circumstances, they will be of type str.
This function can also support :ref:specifying a file descriptor <path_fd>; the file descriptor must refer to a directory.
The :func:scandir iterator supports the :term:context manager protocol
and has the following method:
.. method:: scandir.close()
Close the iterator and free acquired resources.
This is called automatically when the iterator is exhausted or garbage
collected, or when an error happens during iterating. However it
is advisable to call it explicitly or use the :keyword:`with`
statement.
.. versionadded:: 3.6
The following example shows a simple use of :func:scandir to display all
the files (excluding directories) in the given path that don't start with
'.'. The entry.is_file() call will generally not make an additional
system call::
with os.scandir(path) as it:
for entry in it:
if not entry.name.startswith('.') and entry.is_file():
print(entry.name)
.. note::
On Unix-based systems, :func:`scandir` uses the system's
`opendir() <http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/opendir.html>`_
and
`readdir() <http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/readdir_r.html>`_
functions. On Windows, it uses the Win32
`FindFirstFileW <https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa364418(v=vs.85).aspx>`_
and
`FindNextFileW <https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa364428(v=vs.85).aspx>`_
functions.
.. versionadded:: 3.5
.. versionadded:: 3.6
Added support for the :term:context manager protocol and the
:func:~scandir.close() method. If a :func:scandir iterator is neither
exhausted nor explicitly closed a :exc:ResourceWarning will be emitted
in its destructor.
The function accepts a :term:`path-like object`.
.. versionchanged:: 3.7
Added support for :ref:file descriptors <path_fd> on Unix.
.. class:: DirEntry
Object yielded by :func:scandir to expose the file path and other file
attributes of a directory entry.
:func:scandir will provide as much of this information as possible without
making additional system calls. When a stat() or lstat() system call
is made, the os.DirEntry object will cache the result.
os.DirEntry instances are not intended to be stored in long-lived data
structures; if you know the file metadata has changed or if a long time has
elapsed since calling :func:scandir, call os.stat(entry.path) to fetch
up-to-date information.
Because the os.DirEntry methods can make operating system calls, they may
also raise :exc:OSError. If you need very fine-grained
control over errors, you can catch :exc:OSError when calling one of the
os.DirEntry methods and handle as appropriate.
To be directly usable as a :term:path-like object, os.DirEntry
implements the :class:PathLike interface.
Attributes and methods on a os.DirEntry instance are as follows:
.. attribute:: name
The entry's base filename, relative to the :func:`scandir` *path*
argument.
The :attr:`name` attribute will be ``bytes`` if the :func:`scandir`
*path* argument is of type ``bytes`` and ``str`` otherwise. Use
:func:`~os.fsdecode` to decode byte filenames.
.. attribute:: path
The entry's full path name: equivalent to ``os.path.join(scandir_path,
entry.name)`` where *scandir_path* is the :func:`scandir` *path*
argument. The path is only absolute if the :func:`scandir` *path*
argument was absolute. If the :func:`scandir` *path*
argument was a :ref:`file descriptor <path_fd>`, the :attr:`path`
attribute is the same as the :attr:`name` attribute.
The :attr:`path` attribute will be ``bytes`` if the :func:`scandir`
*path* argument is of type ``bytes`` and ``str`` otherwise. Use
:func:`~os.fsdecode` to decode byte filenames.
.. method:: inode()
Return the inode number of the entry.
The result is cached on the ``os.DirEntry`` object. Use
``os.stat(entry.path, follow_symlinks=False).st_ino`` to fetch up-to-date
information.
On the first, uncached call, a system call is required on Windows but
not on Unix.
.. method:: is_dir(*, follow_symlinks=True)
Return ``True`` if this entry is a directory or a symbolic link pointing
to a directory; return ``False`` if the entry is or points to any other
kind of file, or if it doesn't exist anymore.
If *follow_symlinks* is ``False``, return ``True`` only if this entry
is a directory (without following symlinks); return ``False`` if the
entry is any other kind of file or if it doesn't exist anymore.
The result is cached on the ``os.DirEntry`` object, with a separate cache
for *follow_symlinks* ``True`` and ``False``. Call :func:`os.stat` along
with :func:`stat.S_ISDIR` to fetch up-to-date information.
On the first, uncached call, no system call is required in most cases.
Specifically, for non-symlinks, neither Windows or Unix require a system
call, except on certain Unix file systems, such as network file systems,
that return ``dirent.d_type == DT_UNKNOWN``. If the entry is a symlink,
a system call will be required to follow the symlink unless
*follow_symlinks* is ``False``.
This method can raise :exc:`OSError`, such as :exc:`PermissionError`,
but :exc:`FileNotFoundError` is caught and not raised.
.. method:: is_file(*, follow_symlinks=True)
Return ``True`` if this entry is a file or a symbolic link pointing to a
file; return ``False`` if the entry is or points to a directory or other
non-file entry, or if it doesn't exist anymore.
If *follow_symlinks* is ``False``, return ``True`` only if this entry
is a file (without following symlinks); return ``False`` if the entry is
a directory or other non-file entry, or if it doesn't exist anymore.
The result is cached on the ``os.DirEntry`` object. Caching, system calls
made, and exceptions raised are as per :func:`~os.DirEntry.is_dir`.
.. method:: is_symlink()
Return ``True`` if this entry is a symbolic link (even if broken);
return ``False`` if the entry points to a directory or any kind of file,
or if it doesn't exist anymore.
The result is cached on the ``os.DirEntry`` object. Call
:func:`os.path.islink` to fetch up-to-date information.
On the first, uncached call, no system call is required in most cases.
Specifically, neither Windows or Unix require a system call, except on
certain Unix file systems, such as network file systems, that return
``dirent.d_type == DT_UNKNOWN``.
This method can raise :exc:`OSError`, such as :exc:`PermissionError`,
but :exc:`FileNotFoundError` is caught and not raised.
.. method:: stat(*, follow_symlinks=True)
Return a :class:`stat_result` object for this entry. This method
follows symbolic links by default; to stat a symbolic link add the
``follow_symlinks=False`` argument.
On Unix, this method always requires a system call. On Windows, it
only requires a system call if *follow_symlinks* is ``True`` and the
entry is a symbolic link.
On Windows, the ``st_ino``, ``st_dev`` and ``st_nlink`` attributes of the
:class:`stat_result` are always set to zero. Call :func:`os.stat` to
get these attributes.
The result is cached on the ``os.DirEntry`` object, with a separate cache
for *follow_symlinks* ``True`` and ``False``. Call :func:`os.stat` to
fetch up-to-date information.
Note that there is a nice correspondence between several attributes
and methods of os.DirEntry and of :class:pathlib.Path. In
particular, the name attribute has the same
meaning, as do the is_dir(), is_file(), is_symlink()
and stat() methods.
.. versionadded:: 3.5
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Added support for the :class:~os.PathLike interface. Added support
for :class:bytes paths on Windows.
.. function:: stat(path, *, dir_fd=None, follow_symlinks=True)
Get the status of a file or a file descriptor. Perform the equivalent of a
:c:func:stat system call on the given path. path may be specified as
either a string or bytes -- directly or indirectly through the :class:PathLike
interface -- or as an open file descriptor. Return a :class:stat_result
object.
This function normally follows symlinks; to stat a symlink add the argument
follow_symlinks=False, or use :func:lstat.
This function can support :ref:specifying a file descriptor <path_fd> and
:ref:not following symlinks <follow_symlinks>.
.. index:: module: stat
Example::
>>> import os
>>> statinfo = os.stat('somefile.txt')
>>> statinfo
os.stat_result(st_mode=33188, st_ino=7876932, st_dev=234881026,
st_nlink=1, st_uid=501, st_gid=501, st_size=264, st_atime=1297230295,
st_mtime=1297230027, st_ctime=1297230027)
>>> statinfo.st_size
264
.. seealso::
:func:`fstat` and :func:`lstat` functions.
.. versionadded:: 3.3 Added the dir_fd and follow_symlinks arguments, specifying a file descriptor instead of a path.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. class:: stat_result
Object whose attributes correspond roughly to the members of the
:c:type:stat structure. It is used for the result of :func:os.stat,
:func:os.fstat and :func:os.lstat.
Attributes:
.. attribute:: st_mode
File mode: file type and file mode bits (permissions).
.. attribute:: st_ino
Platform dependent, but if non-zero, uniquely identifies the
file for a given value of ``st_dev``. Typically:
* the inode number on Unix,
* the `file index
<https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa363788>`_ on
Windows
.. attribute:: st_dev
Identifier of the device on which this file resides.
.. attribute:: st_nlink
Number of hard links.
.. attribute:: st_uid
User identifier of the file owner.
.. attribute:: st_gid
Group identifier of the file owner.
.. attribute:: st_size
Size of the file in bytes, if it is a regular file or a symbolic link.
The size of a symbolic link is the length of the pathname it contains,
without a terminating null byte.
Timestamps:
.. attribute:: st_atime
Time of most recent access expressed in seconds.
.. attribute:: st_mtime
Time of most recent content modification expressed in seconds.
.. attribute:: st_ctime
Platform dependent:
* the time of most recent metadata change on Unix,
* the time of creation on Windows, expressed in seconds.
.. attribute:: st_atime_ns
Time of most recent access expressed in nanoseconds as an integer.
.. attribute:: st_mtime_ns
Time of most recent content modification expressed in nanoseconds as an
integer.
.. attribute:: st_ctime_ns
Platform dependent:
* the time of most recent metadata change on Unix,
* the time of creation on Windows, expressed in nanoseconds as an
integer.
.. note::
The exact meaning and resolution of the :attr:`st_atime`,
:attr:`st_mtime`, and :attr:`st_ctime` attributes depend on the operating
system and the file system. For example, on Windows systems using the FAT
or FAT32 file systems, :attr:`st_mtime` has 2-second resolution, and
:attr:`st_atime` has only 1-day resolution. See your operating system
documentation for details.
Similarly, although :attr:`st_atime_ns`, :attr:`st_mtime_ns`,
and :attr:`st_ctime_ns` are always expressed in nanoseconds, many
systems do not provide nanosecond precision. On systems that do
provide nanosecond precision, the floating-point object used to
store :attr:`st_atime`, :attr:`st_mtime`, and :attr:`st_ctime`
cannot preserve all of it, and as such will be slightly inexact.
If you need the exact timestamps you should always use
:attr:`st_atime_ns`, :attr:`st_mtime_ns`, and :attr:`st_ctime_ns`.
On some Unix systems (such as Linux), the following attributes may also be available:
.. attribute:: st_blocks
Number of 512-byte blocks allocated for file.
This may be smaller than :attr:`st_size`/512 when the file has holes.
.. attribute:: st_blksize
"Preferred" blocksize for efficient file system I/O. Writing to a file in
smaller chunks may cause an inefficient read-modify-rewrite.
.. attribute:: st_rdev
Type of device if an inode device.
.. attribute:: st_flags
User defined flags for file.
On other Unix systems (such as FreeBSD), the following attributes may be available (but may be only filled out if root tries to use them):
.. attribute:: st_gen
File generation number.
.. attribute:: st_birthtime
Time of file creation.
On Solaris and derivatives, the following attributes may also be available:
.. attribute:: st_fstype
String that uniquely identifies the type of the filesystem that
contains the file.
On Mac OS systems, the following attributes may also be available:
.. attribute:: st_rsize
Real size of the file.
.. attribute:: st_creator
Creator of the file.
.. attribute:: st_type
File type.
On Windows systems, the following attribute is also available:
.. attribute:: st_file_attributes
Windows file attributes: ``dwFileAttributes`` member of the
``BY_HANDLE_FILE_INFORMATION`` structure returned by
:c:func:`GetFileInformationByHandle`. See the ``FILE_ATTRIBUTE_*``
constants in the :mod:`stat` module.
The standard module :mod:stat defines functions and constants that are
useful for extracting information from a :c:type:stat structure. (On
Windows, some items are filled with dummy values.)
For backward compatibility, a :class:stat_result instance is also
accessible as a tuple of at least 10 integers giving the most important (and
portable) members of the :c:type:stat structure, in the order
:attr:st_mode, :attr:st_ino, :attr:st_dev, :attr:st_nlink,
:attr:st_uid, :attr:st_gid, :attr:st_size, :attr:st_atime,
:attr:st_mtime, :attr:st_ctime. More items may be added at the end by
some implementations. For compatibility with older Python versions,
accessing :class:stat_result as a tuple always returns integers.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
Added the :attr:st_atime_ns, :attr:st_mtime_ns, and
:attr:st_ctime_ns members.
.. versionadded:: 3.5
Added the :attr:st_file_attributes member on Windows.
.. versionchanged:: 3.5
Windows now returns the file index as :attr:st_ino when
available.
.. versionadded:: 3.7
Added the :attr:st_fstype member to Solaris/derivatives.
.. function:: statvfs(path)
Perform a :c:func:statvfs system call on the given path. The return value is
an object whose attributes describe the filesystem on the given path, and
correspond to the members of the :c:type:statvfs structure, namely:
:attr:f_bsize, :attr:f_frsize, :attr:f_blocks, :attr:f_bfree,
:attr:f_bavail, :attr:f_files, :attr:f_ffree, :attr:f_favail,
:attr:f_flag, :attr:f_namemax, :attr:f_fsid.
Two module-level constants are defined for the :attr:f_flag attribute's
bit-flags: if :const:ST_RDONLY is set, the filesystem is mounted
read-only, and if :const:ST_NOSUID is set, the semantics of
setuid/setgid bits are disabled or not supported.
Additional module-level constants are defined for GNU/glibc based systems.
These are :const:ST_NODEV (disallow access to device special files),
:const:ST_NOEXEC (disallow program execution), :const:ST_SYNCHRONOUS
(writes are synced at once), :const:ST_MANDLOCK (allow mandatory locks on an FS),
:const:ST_WRITE (write on file/directory/symlink), :const:ST_APPEND
(append-only file), :const:ST_IMMUTABLE (immutable file), :const:ST_NOATIME
(do not update access times), :const:ST_NODIRATIME (do not update directory access
times), :const:ST_RELATIME (update atime relative to mtime/ctime).
This function can support :ref:specifying a file descriptor <path_fd>.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionchanged:: 3.2
The :const:ST_RDONLY and :const:ST_NOSUID constants were added.
.. versionadded:: 3.3 Added support for specifying an open file descriptor for path.
.. versionchanged:: 3.4
The :const:ST_NODEV, :const:ST_NOEXEC, :const:ST_SYNCHRONOUS,
:const:ST_MANDLOCK, :const:ST_WRITE, :const:ST_APPEND,
:const:ST_IMMUTABLE, :const:ST_NOATIME, :const:ST_NODIRATIME,
and :const:ST_RELATIME constants were added.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. versionadded:: 3.7
Added :attr:f_fsid.
.. data:: supports_dir_fd
A :class:~collections.abc.Set object indicating which functions in the
:mod:os module permit use of their dir_fd parameter. Different platforms
provide different functionality, and an option that might work on one might
be unsupported on another. For consistency's sakes, functions that support
dir_fd always allow specifying the parameter, but will raise an exception
if the functionality is not actually available.
To check whether a particular function permits use of its dir_fd
parameter, use the in operator on supports_dir_fd. As an example,
this expression determines whether the dir_fd parameter of :func:os.stat
is locally available::
os.stat in os.supports_dir_fd
Currently dir_fd parameters only work on Unix platforms; none of them work on Windows.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. data:: supports_effective_ids
A :class:~collections.abc.Set object indicating which functions in the
:mod:os module permit use of the effective_ids parameter for
:func:os.access. If the local platform supports it, the collection will
contain :func:os.access, otherwise it will be empty.
To check whether you can use the effective_ids parameter for
:func:os.access, use the in operator on supports_effective_ids,
like so::
os.access in os.supports_effective_ids
Currently effective_ids only works on Unix platforms; it does not work on Windows.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. data:: supports_fd
A :class:~collections.abc.Set object indicating which functions in the
:mod:os module permit specifying their path parameter as an open file
descriptor. Different platforms provide different functionality, and an
option that might work on one might be unsupported on another. For
consistency's sakes, functions that support fd always allow specifying
the parameter, but will raise an exception if the functionality is not
actually available.
To check whether a particular function permits specifying an open file
descriptor for its path parameter, use the in operator on
supports_fd. As an example, this expression determines whether
:func:os.chdir accepts open file descriptors when called on your local
platform::
os.chdir in os.supports_fd
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. data:: supports_follow_symlinks
A :class:~collections.abc.Set object indicating which functions in the
:mod:os module permit use of their follow_symlinks parameter. Different
platforms provide different functionality, and an option that might work on
one might be unsupported on another. For consistency's sakes, functions that
support follow_symlinks always allow specifying the parameter, but will
raise an exception if the functionality is not actually available.
To check whether a particular function permits use of its follow_symlinks
parameter, use the in operator on supports_follow_symlinks. As an
example, this expression determines whether the follow_symlinks parameter
of :func:os.stat is locally available::
os.stat in os.supports_follow_symlinks
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. function:: symlink(src, dst, target_is_directory=False, *, dir_fd=None)
Create a symbolic link pointing to src named dst.
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.
Symbolic link support was introduced in Windows 6.0 (Vista). :func:symlink
will raise a :exc:NotImplementedError on Windows versions earlier than 6.0.
This function can support :ref:paths relative to directory descriptors <dir_fd>.
.. note::
On Windows, the *SeCreateSymbolicLinkPrivilege* is required in order to
successfully create symlinks. This privilege is not typically granted to
regular users but is available to accounts which can escalate privileges
to the administrator level. Either obtaining the privilege or running your
application as an administrator are ways to successfully create symlinks.
:exc:`OSError` is raised when the function is called by an unprivileged
user.
.. availability:: Unix, Windows.
.. versionchanged:: 3.2 Added support for Windows 6.0 (Vista) symbolic links.
.. versionadded:: 3.3 Added the dir_fd argument, and now allow target_is_directory on non-Windows platforms.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object for src and dst.
.. function:: sync()
Force write of everything to disk.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. function:: truncate(path, length)
Truncate the file corresponding to path, so that it is at most length bytes in size.
This function can support :ref:specifying a file descriptor <path_fd>.
.. availability:: Unix, Windows.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. versionchanged:: 3.5 Added support for Windows
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. function:: unlink(path, *, dir_fd=None)
Remove (delete) the file path. This function is semantically
identical to :func:remove; the unlink name is its
traditional Unix name. Please see the documentation for
:func:remove for further information.
.. versionadded:: 3.3 The dir_fd parameter.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. function:: utime(path, times=None, *[, ns], dir_fd=None, follow_symlinks=True)
Set the access and modified times of the file specified by path.
:func:utime takes two optional parameters, times and ns.
These specify the times set on path and are used as follows:
(atime_ns, mtime_ns)
where each member is an int expressing nanoseconds.None,
it must be a 2-tuple of the form (atime, mtime)
where each member is an int or float expressing seconds.None and ns is unspecified,
this is equivalent to specifying ns=(atime_ns, mtime_ns)
where both times are the current time.It is an error to specify tuples for both times and ns.
Whether a directory can be given for path
depends on whether the operating system implements directories as files
(for example, Windows does not). Note that the exact times you set here may
not be returned by a subsequent :func:~os.stat call, depending on the
resolution with which your operating system records access and modification
times; see :func:~os.stat. The best way to preserve exact times is to
use the st_atime_ns and st_mtime_ns fields from the :func:os.stat
result object with the ns parameter to utime.
This function can support :ref:specifying a file descriptor <path_fd>,
:ref:paths relative to directory descriptors <dir_fd> and :ref:not following symlinks <follow_symlinks>.
.. versionadded:: 3.3 Added support for specifying an open file descriptor for path, and the dir_fd, follow_symlinks, and ns parameters.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. function:: walk(top, topdown=True, onerror=None, followlinks=False)
.. index:: single: directory; walking single: directory; traversal
Generate the file names in a directory tree by walking the tree
either top-down or bottom-up. For each directory in the tree rooted at directory
top (including top itself), it yields a 3-tuple (dirpath, dirnames, filenames).
dirpath is a string, the path to the directory. dirnames is a list of the
names of the subdirectories in dirpath (excluding '.' and '..').
filenames is a list of the names of the non-directory files in dirpath.
Note that the names in the lists contain no path components. To get a full path
(which begins with top) to a file or directory in dirpath, do
os.path.join(dirpath, name).
If optional argument topdown is True or not specified, the triple for a
directory is generated before the triples for any of its subdirectories
(directories are generated top-down). If topdown is False, the triple
for a directory is generated after the triples for all of its subdirectories
(directories are generated bottom-up). No matter the value of topdown, the
list of subdirectories is retrieved before the tuples for the directory and
its subdirectories are generated.
When topdown is True, the caller can modify the dirnames list in-place
(perhaps using :keyword:del or slice assignment), and :func:walk will only
recurse into the subdirectories whose names remain in dirnames; this can be
used to prune the search, impose a specific order of visiting, or even to inform
:func:walk about directories the caller creates or renames before it resumes
:func:walk again. Modifying dirnames when topdown is False has
no effect on the behavior of the walk, because in bottom-up mode the directories
in dirnames are generated before dirpath itself is generated.
By default, errors from the :func:scandir call are ignored. If optional
argument onerror is specified, it should be a function; it will be called with
one argument, an :exc:OSError instance. It can report the error to continue
with the walk, or raise the exception to abort the walk. Note that the filename
is available as the filename attribute of the exception object.
By default, :func:walk will not walk down into symbolic links that resolve to
directories. Set followlinks to True to visit directories pointed to by
symlinks, on systems that support them.
.. note::
Be aware that setting *followlinks* to ``True`` can lead to infinite
recursion if a link points to a parent directory of itself. :func:`walk`
does not keep track of the directories it visited already.
.. note::
If you pass a relative pathname, don't change the current working directory
between resumptions of :func:`walk`. :func:`walk` never changes the current
directory, and assumes that its caller doesn't either.
This example displays the number of bytes taken by non-directory files in each directory under the starting directory, except that it doesn't look under any CVS subdirectory::
import os
from os.path import join, getsize
for root, dirs, files in os.walk('python/Lib/email'):
print(root, "consumes", end=" ")
print(sum(getsize(join(root, name)) for name in files), end=" ")
print("bytes in", len(files), "non-directory files")
if 'CVS' in dirs:
dirs.remove('CVS') # don't visit CVS directories
In the next example (simple implementation of :func:shutil.rmtree),
walking the tree bottom-up is essential, :func:rmdir doesn't allow
deleting a directory before the directory is empty::
# Delete everything reachable from the directory named in "top",
# assuming there are no symbolic links.
# CAUTION: This is dangerous! For example, if top == '/', it
# could delete all your disk files.
import os
for root, dirs, files in os.walk(top, topdown=False):
for name in files:
os.remove(os.path.join(root, name))
for name in dirs:
os.rmdir(os.path.join(root, name))
.. versionchanged:: 3.5
This function now calls :func:os.scandir instead of :func:os.listdir,
making it faster by reducing the number of calls to :func:os.stat.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. function:: fwalk(top='.', topdown=True, onerror=None, *, follow_symlinks=False, dir_fd=None)
.. index:: single: directory; walking single: directory; traversal
This behaves exactly like :func:walk, except that it yields a 4-tuple
(dirpath, dirnames, filenames, dirfd), and it supports dir_fd.
dirpath, dirnames and filenames are identical to :func:walk output,
and dirfd is a file descriptor referring to the directory dirpath.
This function always supports :ref:paths relative to directory descriptors <dir_fd> and :ref:not following symlinks <follow_symlinks>. Note however
that, unlike other functions, the :func:fwalk default value for
follow_symlinks is False.
.. note::
Since :func:`fwalk` yields file descriptors, those are only valid until
the next iteration step, so you should duplicate them (e.g. with
:func:`dup`) if you want to keep them longer.
This example displays the number of bytes taken by non-directory files in each directory under the starting directory, except that it doesn't look under any CVS subdirectory::
import os
for root, dirs, files, rootfd in os.fwalk('python/Lib/email'):
print(root, "consumes", end="")
print(sum([os.stat(name, dir_fd=rootfd).st_size for name in files]),
end="")
print("bytes in", len(files), "non-directory files")
if 'CVS' in dirs:
dirs.remove('CVS') # don't visit CVS directories
In the next example, walking the tree bottom-up is essential:
:func:rmdir doesn't allow deleting a directory before the directory is
empty::
# Delete everything reachable from the directory named in "top",
# assuming there are no symbolic links.
# CAUTION: This is dangerous! For example, if top == '/', it
# could delete all your disk files.
import os
for root, dirs, files, rootfd in os.fwalk(top, topdown=False):
for name in files:
os.unlink(name, dir_fd=rootfd)
for name in dirs:
os.rmdir(name, dir_fd=rootfd)
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:path-like object.
.. versionchanged:: 3.7
Added support for :class:bytes paths.
Linux extended attributes
.. versionadded:: 3.3
These functions are all available on Linux only.
.. function:: getxattr(path, attribute, *, follow_symlinks=True)
Return the value of the extended filesystem attribute *attribute* for
*path*. *attribute* can be bytes or str (directly or indirectly through the
:class:`PathLike` interface). If it is str, it is encoded with the filesystem
encoding.
This function can support :ref:`specifying a file descriptor <path_fd>` and
:ref:`not following symlinks <follow_symlinks>`.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:`path-like object` for *path* and *attribute*.
.. function:: listxattr(path=None, *, follow_symlinks=True)
Return a list of the extended filesystem attributes on *path*. The
attributes in the list are represented as strings decoded with the filesystem
encoding. If *path* is ``None``, :func:`listxattr` will examine the current
directory.
This function can support :ref:`specifying a file descriptor <path_fd>` and
:ref:`not following symlinks <follow_symlinks>`.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:`path-like object`.
.. function:: removexattr(path, attribute, *, follow_symlinks=True)
Removes the extended filesystem attribute *attribute* from *path*.
*attribute* should be bytes or str (directly or indirectly through the
:class:`PathLike` interface). If it is a string, it is encoded
with the filesystem encoding.
This function can support :ref:`specifying a file descriptor <path_fd>` and
:ref:`not following symlinks <follow_symlinks>`.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:`path-like object` for *path* and *attribute*.
.. function:: setxattr(path, attribute, value, flags=0, *, follow_symlinks=True)
Set the extended filesystem attribute *attribute* on *path* to *value*.
*attribute* must be a bytes or str with no embedded NULs (directly or
indirectly through the :class:`PathLike` interface). If it is a str,
it is encoded with the filesystem encoding. *flags* may be
:data:`XATTR_REPLACE` or :data:`XATTR_CREATE`. If :data:`XATTR_REPLACE` is
given and the attribute does not exist, ``EEXISTS`` will be raised.
If :data:`XATTR_CREATE` is given and the attribute already exists, the
attribute will not be created and ``ENODATA`` will be raised.
This function can support :ref:`specifying a file descriptor <path_fd>` and
:ref:`not following symlinks <follow_symlinks>`.
.. note::
A bug in Linux kernel versions less than 2.6.39 caused the flags argument
to be ignored on some filesystems.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:`path-like object` for *path* and *attribute*.
.. data:: XATTR_SIZE_MAX
The maximum size the value of an extended attribute can be. Currently, this
is 64 KiB on Linux.
.. data:: XATTR_CREATE
This is a possible value for the flags argument in :func:`setxattr`. It
indicates the operation must create an attribute.
.. data:: XATTR_REPLACE
This is a possible value for the flags argument in :func:`setxattr`. It
indicates the operation must replace an existing attribute.
.. _os-process:
Process Management
------------------
These functions may be used to create and manage processes.
The various :func:`exec\* <execl>` functions take a list of arguments for the new
program loaded into the process. In each case, the first of these arguments is
passed to the new program as its own name rather than as an argument a user may
have typed on a command line. For the C programmer, this is the ``argv[0]``
passed to a program's :c:func:`main`. For example, ``os.execv('/bin/echo',
['foo', 'bar'])`` will only print ``bar`` on standard output; ``foo`` will seem
to be ignored.
.. function:: abort()
Generate a :const:`SIGABRT` signal to the current process. On Unix, the default
behavior is to produce a core dump; on Windows, the process immediately returns
an exit code of ``3``. Be aware that calling this function will not call the
Python signal handler registered for :const:`SIGABRT` with
:func:`signal.signal`.
.. function:: execl(path, arg0, arg1, ...)
execle(path, arg0, arg1, ..., env)
execlp(file, arg0, arg1, ...)
execlpe(file, arg0, arg1, ..., env)
execv(path, args)
execve(path, args, env)
execvp(file, args)
execvpe(file, args, env)
These functions all execute a new program, replacing the current process; they
do not return. On Unix, the new executable is loaded into the current process,
and will have the same process id as the caller. Errors will be reported as
:exc:`OSError` exceptions.
The current process is replaced immediately. Open file objects and
descriptors are not flushed, so if there may be data buffered
on these open files, you should flush them using
:func:`sys.stdout.flush` or :func:`os.fsync` before calling an
:func:`exec\* <execl>` function.
The "l" and "v" variants of the :func:`exec\* <execl>` functions differ in how
command-line arguments are passed. The "l" variants are perhaps the easiest
to work with if the number of parameters is fixed when the code is written; the
individual parameters simply become additional parameters to the :func:`execl\*`
functions. The "v" variants are good when the number of parameters is
variable, with the arguments being passed in a list or tuple as the *args*
parameter. In either case, the arguments to the child process should start with
the name of the command being run, but this is not enforced.
The variants which include a "p" near the end (:func:`execlp`,
:func:`execlpe`, :func:`execvp`, and :func:`execvpe`) will use the
:envvar:`PATH` environment variable to locate the program *file*. When the
environment is being replaced (using one of the :func:`exec\*e <execl>` variants,
discussed in the next paragraph), the new environment is used as the source of
the :envvar:`PATH` variable. The other variants, :func:`execl`, :func:`execle`,
:func:`execv`, and :func:`execve`, will not use the :envvar:`PATH` variable to
locate the executable; *path* must contain an appropriate absolute or relative
path.
For :func:`execle`, :func:`execlpe`, :func:`execve`, and :func:`execvpe` (note
that these all end in "e"), the *env* parameter must be a mapping which is
used to define the environment variables for the new process (these are used
instead of the current process' environment); the functions :func:`execl`,
:func:`execlp`, :func:`execv`, and :func:`execvp` all cause the new process to
inherit the environment of the current process.
For :func:`execve` on some platforms, *path* may also be specified as an open
file descriptor. This functionality may not be supported on your platform;
you can check whether or not it is available using :data:`os.supports_fd`.
If it is unavailable, using it will raise a :exc:`NotImplementedError`.
.. availability:: Unix, Windows.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
Added support for specifying an open file descriptor for *path*
for :func:`execve`.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:`path-like object`.
.. function:: _exit(n)
Exit the process with status *n*, without calling cleanup handlers, flushing
stdio buffers, etc.
.. note::
The standard way to exit is ``sys.exit(n)``. :func:`_exit` should
normally only be used in the child process after a :func:`fork`.
The following exit codes are defined and can be used with :func:`_exit`,
although they are not required. These are typically used for system programs
written in Python, such as a mail server's external command delivery program.
.. note::
Some of these may not be available on all Unix platforms, since there is some
variation. These constants are defined where they are defined by the underlying
platform.
.. data:: EX_OK
Exit code that means no error occurred.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. data:: EX_USAGE
Exit code that means the command was used incorrectly, such as when the wrong
number of arguments are given.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. data:: EX_DATAERR
Exit code that means the input data was incorrect.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. data:: EX_NOINPUT
Exit code that means an input file did not exist or was not readable.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. data:: EX_NOUSER
Exit code that means a specified user did not exist.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. data:: EX_NOHOST
Exit code that means a specified host did not exist.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. data:: EX_UNAVAILABLE
Exit code that means that a required service is unavailable.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. data:: EX_SOFTWARE
Exit code that means an internal software error was detected.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. data:: EX_OSERR
Exit code that means an operating system error was detected, such as the
inability to fork or create a pipe.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. data:: EX_OSFILE
Exit code that means some system file did not exist, could not be opened, or had
some other kind of error.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. data:: EX_CANTCREAT
Exit code that means a user specified output file could not be created.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. data:: EX_IOERR
Exit code that means that an error occurred while doing I/O on some file.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. data:: EX_TEMPFAIL
Exit code that means a temporary failure occurred. This indicates something
that may not really be an error, such as a network connection that couldn't be
made during a retryable operation.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. data:: EX_PROTOCOL
Exit code that means that a protocol exchange was illegal, invalid, or not
understood.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. data:: EX_NOPERM
Exit code that means that there were insufficient permissions to perform the
operation (but not intended for file system problems).
.. availability:: Unix.
.. data:: EX_CONFIG
Exit code that means that some kind of configuration error occurred.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. data:: EX_NOTFOUND
Exit code that means something like "an entry was not found".
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: fork()
Fork a child process. Return ``0`` in the child and the child's process id in the
parent. If an error occurs :exc:`OSError` is raised.
Note that some platforms including FreeBSD <= 6.3 and Cygwin have
known issues when using fork() from a thread.
.. warning::
See :mod:`ssl` for applications that use the SSL module with fork().
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: forkpty()
Fork a child process, using a new pseudo-terminal as the child's controlling
terminal. Return a pair of ``(pid, fd)``, where *pid* is ``0`` in the child, the
new child's process id in the parent, and *fd* is the file descriptor of the
master end of the pseudo-terminal. For a more portable approach, use the
:mod:`pty` module. If an error occurs :exc:`OSError` is raised.
.. availability:: some flavors of Unix.
.. function:: kill(pid, sig)
.. index::
single: process; killing
single: process; signalling
Send signal *sig* to the process *pid*. Constants for the specific signals
available on the host platform are defined in the :mod:`signal` module.
Windows: The :data:`signal.CTRL_C_EVENT` and
:data:`signal.CTRL_BREAK_EVENT` signals are special signals which can
only be sent to console processes which share a common console window,
e.g., some subprocesses. Any other value for *sig* will cause the process
to be unconditionally killed by the TerminateProcess API, and the exit code
will be set to *sig*. The Windows version of :func:`kill` additionally takes
process handles to be killed.
See also :func:`signal.pthread_kill`.
.. versionadded:: 3.2
Windows support.
.. function:: killpg(pgid, sig)
.. index::
single: process; killing
single: process; signalling
Send the signal *sig* to the process group *pgid*.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: nice(increment)
Add *increment* to the process's "niceness". Return the new niceness.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: plock(op)
Lock program segments into memory. The value of *op* (defined in
``<sys/lock.h>``) determines which segments are locked.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: popen(cmd, mode='r', buffering=-1)
Open a pipe to or from command *cmd*.
The return value is an open file object
connected to the pipe, which can be read or written depending on whether *mode*
is ``'r'`` (default) or ``'w'``. The *buffering* argument has the same meaning as
the corresponding argument to the built-in :func:`open` function. The
returned file object reads or writes text strings rather than bytes.
The ``close`` method returns :const:`None` if the subprocess exited
successfully, or the subprocess's return code if there was an
error. On POSIX systems, if the return code is positive it
represents the return value of the process left-shifted by one
byte. If the return code is negative, the process was terminated
by the signal given by the negated value of the return code. (For
example, the return value might be ``- signal.SIGKILL`` if the
subprocess was killed.) On Windows systems, the return value
contains the signed integer return code from the child process.
This is implemented using :class:`subprocess.Popen`; see that class's
documentation for more powerful ways to manage and communicate with
subprocesses.
.. function:: register_at_fork(*, before=None, after_in_parent=None, \
after_in_child=None)
Register callables to be executed when a new child process is forked
using :func:`os.fork` or similar process cloning APIs.
The parameters are optional and keyword-only.
Each specifies a different call point.
* *before* is a function called before forking a child process.
* *after_in_parent* is a function called from the parent process
after forking a child process.
* *after_in_child* is a function called from the child process.
These calls are only made if control is expected to return to the
Python interpreter. A typical :mod:`subprocess` launch will not
trigger them as the child is not going to re-enter the interpreter.
Functions registered for execution before forking are called in
reverse registration order. Functions registered for execution
after forking (either in the parent or in the child) are called
in registration order.
Note that :c:func:`fork` calls made by third-party C code may not
call those functions, unless it explicitly calls :c:func:`PyOS_BeforeFork`,
:c:func:`PyOS_AfterFork_Parent` and :c:func:`PyOS_AfterFork_Child`.
There is no way to unregister a function.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.7
.. function:: spawnl(mode, path, ...)
spawnle(mode, path, ..., env)
spawnlp(mode, file, ...)
spawnlpe(mode, file, ..., env)
spawnv(mode, path, args)
spawnve(mode, path, args, env)
spawnvp(mode, file, args)
spawnvpe(mode, file, args, env)
Execute the program *path* in a new process.
(Note that the :mod:`subprocess` module provides more powerful facilities for
spawning new processes and retrieving their results; using that module is
preferable to using these functions. Check especially the
:ref:`subprocess-replacements` section.)
If *mode* is :const:`P_NOWAIT`, this function returns the process id of the new
process; if *mode* is :const:`P_WAIT`, returns the process's exit code if it
exits normally, or ``-signal``, where *signal* is the signal that killed the
process. On Windows, the process id will actually be the process handle, so can
be used with the :func:`waitpid` function.
The "l" and "v" variants of the :func:`spawn\* <spawnl>` functions differ in how
command-line arguments are passed. The "l" variants are perhaps the easiest
to work with if the number of parameters is fixed when the code is written; the
individual parameters simply become additional parameters to the
:func:`spawnl\*` functions. The "v" variants are good when the number of
parameters is variable, with the arguments being passed in a list or tuple as
the *args* parameter. In either case, the arguments to the child process must
start with the name of the command being run.
The variants which include a second "p" near the end (:func:`spawnlp`,
:func:`spawnlpe`, :func:`spawnvp`, and :func:`spawnvpe`) will use the
:envvar:`PATH` environment variable to locate the program *file*. When the
environment is being replaced (using one of the :func:`spawn\*e <spawnl>` variants,
discussed in the next paragraph), the new environment is used as the source of
the :envvar:`PATH` variable. The other variants, :func:`spawnl`,
:func:`spawnle`, :func:`spawnv`, and :func:`spawnve`, will not use the
:envvar:`PATH` variable to locate the executable; *path* must contain an
appropriate absolute or relative path.
For :func:`spawnle`, :func:`spawnlpe`, :func:`spawnve`, and :func:`spawnvpe`
(note that these all end in "e"), the *env* parameter must be a mapping
which is used to define the environment variables for the new process (they are
used instead of the current process' environment); the functions
:func:`spawnl`, :func:`spawnlp`, :func:`spawnv`, and :func:`spawnvp` all cause
the new process to inherit the environment of the current process. Note that
keys and values in the *env* dictionary must be strings; invalid keys or
values will cause the function to fail, with a return value of ``127``.
As an example, the following calls to :func:`spawnlp` and :func:`spawnvpe` are
equivalent::
import os
os.spawnlp(os.P_WAIT, 'cp', 'cp', 'index.html', '/dev/null')
L = ['cp', 'index.html', '/dev/null']
os.spawnvpe(os.P_WAIT, 'cp', L, os.environ)
.. availability:: Unix, Windows. :func:`spawnlp`, :func:`spawnlpe`, :func:`spawnvp`
and :func:`spawnvpe` are not available on Windows. :func:`spawnle` and
:func:`spawnve` are not thread-safe on Windows; we advise you to use the
:mod:`subprocess` module instead.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Accepts a :term:`path-like object`.
.. data:: P_NOWAIT
P_NOWAITO
Possible values for the *mode* parameter to the :func:`spawn\* <spawnl>` family of
functions. If either of these values is given, the :func:`spawn\*` functions
will return as soon as the new process has been created, with the process id as
the return value.
.. availability:: Unix, Windows.
.. data:: P_WAIT
Possible value for the *mode* parameter to the :func:`spawn\* <spawnl>` family of
functions. If this is given as *mode*, the :func:`spawn\*` functions will not
return until the new process has run to completion and will return the exit code
of the process the run is successful, or ``-signal`` if a signal kills the
process.
.. availability:: Unix, Windows.
.. data:: P_DETACH
P_OVERLAY
Possible values for the *mode* parameter to the :func:`spawn\* <spawnl>` family of
functions. These are less portable than those listed above. :const:`P_DETACH`
is similar to :const:`P_NOWAIT`, but the new process is detached from the
console of the calling process. If :const:`P_OVERLAY` is used, the current
process will be replaced; the :func:`spawn\* <spawnl>` function will not return.
.. availability:: Windows.
.. function:: startfile(path[, operation])
Start a file with its associated application.
When *operation* is not specified or ``'open'``, this acts like double-clicking
the file in Windows Explorer, or giving the file name as an argument to the
:program:`start` command from the interactive command shell: the file is opened
with whatever application (if any) its extension is associated.
When another *operation* is given, it must be a "command verb" that specifies
what should be done with the file. Common verbs documented by Microsoft are
``'print'`` and ``'edit'`` (to be used on files) as well as ``'explore'`` and
``'find'`` (to be used on directories).
:func:`startfile` returns as soon as the associated application is launched.
There is no option to wait for the application to close, and no way to retrieve
the application's exit status. The *path* parameter is relative to the current
directory. If you want to use an absolute path, make sure the first character
is not a slash (``'/'``); the underlying Win32 :c:func:`ShellExecute` function
doesn't work if it is. Use the :func:`os.path.normpath` function to ensure that
the path is properly encoded for Win32.
To reduce interpreter startup overhead, the Win32 :c:func:`ShellExecute`
function is not resolved until this function is first called. If the function
cannot be resolved, :exc:`NotImplementedError` will be raised.
.. availability:: Windows.
.. function:: system(command)
Execute the command (a string) in a subshell. This is implemented by calling
the Standard C function :c:func:`system`, and has the same limitations.
Changes to :data:`sys.stdin`, etc. are not reflected in the environment of
the executed command. If *command* generates any output, it will be sent to
the interpreter standard output stream.
On Unix, the return value is the exit status of the process encoded in the
format specified for :func:`wait`. Note that POSIX does not specify the
meaning of the return value of the C :c:func:`system` function, so the return
value of the Python function is system-dependent.
On Windows, the return value is that returned by the system shell after
running *command*. The shell is given by the Windows environment variable
:envvar:`COMSPEC`: it is usually :program:`cmd.exe`, which returns the exit
status of the command run; on systems using a non-native shell, consult your
shell documentation.
The :mod:`subprocess` module provides more powerful facilities for spawning
new processes and retrieving their results; using that module is preferable
to using this function. See the :ref:`subprocess-replacements` section in
the :mod:`subprocess` documentation for some helpful recipes.
.. availability:: Unix, Windows.
.. function:: times()
Returns the current global process times.
The return value is an object with five attributes:
* :attr:`user` - user time
* :attr:`system` - system time
* :attr:`children_user` - user time of all child processes
* :attr:`children_system` - system time of all child processes
* :attr:`elapsed` - elapsed real time since a fixed point in the past
For backwards compatibility, this object also behaves like a five-tuple
containing :attr:`user`, :attr:`system`, :attr:`children_user`,
:attr:`children_system`, and :attr:`elapsed` in that order.
See the Unix manual page
:manpage:`times(2)` or the corresponding Windows Platform API documentation.
On Windows, only :attr:`user` and :attr:`system` are known; the other
attributes are zero.
.. availability:: Unix, Windows.
.. versionchanged:: 3.3
Return type changed from a tuple to a tuple-like object
with named attributes.
.. function:: wait()
Wait for completion of a child process, and return a tuple containing its pid
and exit status indication: a 16-bit number, whose low byte is the signal number
that killed the process, and whose high byte is the exit status (if the signal
number is zero); the high bit of the low byte is set if a core file was
produced.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: waitid(idtype, id, options)
Wait for the completion of one or more child processes.
*idtype* can be :data:`P_PID`, :data:`P_PGID` or :data:`P_ALL`.
*id* specifies the pid to wait on.
*options* is constructed from the ORing of one or more of :data:`WEXITED`,
:data:`WSTOPPED` or :data:`WCONTINUED` and additionally may be ORed with
:data:`WNOHANG` or :data:`WNOWAIT`. The return value is an object
representing the data contained in the :c:type:`siginfo_t` structure, namely:
:attr:`si_pid`, :attr:`si_uid`, :attr:`si_signo`, :attr:`si_status`,
:attr:`si_code` or ``None`` if :data:`WNOHANG` is specified and there are no
children in a waitable state.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. data:: P_PID
P_PGID
P_ALL
These are the possible values for *idtype* in :func:`waitid`. They affect
how *id* is interpreted.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. data:: WEXITED
WSTOPPED
WNOWAIT
Flags that can be used in *options* in :func:`waitid` that specify what
child signal to wait for.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. data:: CLD_EXITED
CLD_DUMPED
CLD_TRAPPED
CLD_CONTINUED
These are the possible values for :attr:`si_code` in the result returned by
:func:`waitid`.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. function:: waitpid(pid, options)
The details of this function differ on Unix and Windows.
On Unix: Wait for completion of a child process given by process id *pid*, and
return a tuple containing its process id and exit status indication (encoded as
for :func:`wait`). The semantics of the call are affected by the value of the
integer *options*, which should be ``0`` for normal operation.
If *pid* is greater than ``0``, :func:`waitpid` requests status information for
that specific process. If *pid* is ``0``, the request is for the status of any
child in the process group of the current process. If *pid* is ``-1``, the
request pertains to any child of the current process. If *pid* is less than
``-1``, status is requested for any process in the process group ``-pid`` (the
absolute value of *pid*).
An :exc:`OSError` is raised with the value of errno when the syscall
returns -1.
On Windows: Wait for completion of a process given by process handle *pid*, and
return a tuple containing *pid*, and its exit status shifted left by 8 bits
(shifting makes cross-platform use of the function easier). A *pid* less than or
equal to ``0`` has no special meaning on Windows, and raises an exception. The
value of integer *options* has no effect. *pid* can refer to any process whose
id is known, not necessarily a child process. The :func:`spawn\* <spawnl>`
functions called with :const:`P_NOWAIT` return suitable process handles.
.. versionchanged:: 3.5
If the system call is interrupted and the signal handler does not raise an
exception, the function now retries the system call instead of raising an
:exc:`InterruptedError` exception (see :pep:`475` for the rationale).
.. function:: wait3(options)
Similar to :func:`waitpid`, except no process id argument is given and a
3-element tuple containing the child's process id, exit status indication,
and resource usage information is returned. Refer to
:mod:`resource`.\ :func:`~resource.getrusage` for details on resource usage
information. The option argument is the same as that provided to
:func:`waitpid` and :func:`wait4`.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: wait4(pid, options)
Similar to :func:`waitpid`, except a 3-element tuple, containing the child's
process id, exit status indication, and resource usage information is returned.
Refer to :mod:`resource`.\ :func:`~resource.getrusage` for details on
resource usage information. The arguments to :func:`wait4` are the same
as those provided to :func:`waitpid`.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. data:: WNOHANG
The option for :func:`waitpid` to return immediately if no child process status
is available immediately. The function returns ``(0, 0)`` in this case.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. data:: WCONTINUED
This option causes child processes to be reported if they have been continued
from a job control stop since their status was last reported.
.. availability:: some Unix systems.
.. data:: WUNTRACED
This option causes child processes to be reported if they have been stopped but
their current state has not been reported since they were stopped.
.. availability:: Unix.
The following functions take a process status code as returned by
:func:`system`, :func:`wait`, or :func:`waitpid` as a parameter. They may be
used to determine the disposition of a process.
.. function:: WCOREDUMP(status)
Return ``True`` if a core dump was generated for the process, otherwise
return ``False``.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: WIFCONTINUED(status)
Return ``True`` if the process has been continued from a job control stop,
otherwise return ``False``.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: WIFSTOPPED(status)
Return ``True`` if the process has been stopped, otherwise return
``False``.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: WIFSIGNALED(status)
Return ``True`` if the process exited due to a signal, otherwise return
``False``.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: WIFEXITED(status)
Return ``True`` if the process exited using the :manpage:`exit(2)` system call,
otherwise return ``False``.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: WEXITSTATUS(status)
If ``WIFEXITED(status)`` is true, return the integer parameter to the
:manpage:`exit(2)` system call. Otherwise, the return value is meaningless.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: WSTOPSIG(status)
Return the signal which caused the process to stop.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: WTERMSIG(status)
Return the signal which caused the process to exit.
.. availability:: Unix.
Interface to the scheduler
--------------------------
These functions control how a process is allocated CPU time by the operating
system. They are only available on some Unix platforms. For more detailed
information, consult your Unix manpages.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
The following scheduling policies are exposed if they are supported by the
operating system.
.. data:: SCHED_OTHER
The default scheduling policy.
.. data:: SCHED_BATCH
Scheduling policy for CPU-intensive processes that tries to preserve
interactivity on the rest of the computer.
.. data:: SCHED_IDLE
Scheduling policy for extremely low priority background tasks.
.. data:: SCHED_SPORADIC
Scheduling policy for sporadic server programs.
.. data:: SCHED_FIFO
A First In First Out scheduling policy.
.. data:: SCHED_RR
A round-robin scheduling policy.
.. data:: SCHED_RESET_ON_FORK
This flag can be OR'ed with any other scheduling policy. When a process with
this flag set forks, its child's scheduling policy and priority are reset to
the default.
.. class:: sched_param(sched_priority)
This class represents tunable scheduling parameters used in
:func:`sched_setparam`, :func:`sched_setscheduler`, and
:func:`sched_getparam`. It is immutable.
At the moment, there is only one possible parameter:
.. attribute:: sched_priority
The scheduling priority for a scheduling policy.
.. function:: sched_get_priority_min(policy)
Get the minimum priority value for *policy*. *policy* is one of the
scheduling policy constants above.
.. function:: sched_get_priority_max(policy)
Get the maximum priority value for *policy*. *policy* is one of the
scheduling policy constants above.
.. function:: sched_setscheduler(pid, policy, param)
Set the scheduling policy for the process with PID *pid*. A *pid* of 0 means
the calling process. *policy* is one of the scheduling policy constants
above. *param* is a :class:`sched_param` instance.
.. function:: sched_getscheduler(pid)
Return the scheduling policy for the process with PID *pid*. A *pid* of 0
means the calling process. The result is one of the scheduling policy
constants above.
.. function:: sched_setparam(pid, param)
Set a scheduling parameters for the process with PID *pid*. A *pid* of 0 means
the calling process. *param* is a :class:`sched_param` instance.
.. function:: sched_getparam(pid)
Return the scheduling parameters as a :class:`sched_param` instance for the
process with PID *pid*. A *pid* of 0 means the calling process.
.. function:: sched_rr_get_interval(pid)
Return the round-robin quantum in seconds for the process with PID *pid*. A
*pid* of 0 means the calling process.
.. function:: sched_yield()
Voluntarily relinquish the CPU.
.. function:: sched_setaffinity(pid, mask)
Restrict the process with PID *pid* (or the current process if zero) to a
set of CPUs. *mask* is an iterable of integers representing the set of
CPUs to which the process should be restricted.
.. function:: sched_getaffinity(pid)
Return the set of CPUs the process with PID *pid* (or the current process
if zero) is restricted to.
.. _os-path:
Miscellaneous System Information
--------------------------------
.. function:: confstr(name)
Return string-valued system configuration values. *name* specifies the
configuration value to retrieve; it may be a string which is the name of a
defined system value; these names are specified in a number of standards (POSIX,
Unix 95, Unix 98, and others). Some platforms define additional names as well.
The names known to the host operating system are given as the keys of the
``confstr_names`` dictionary. For configuration variables not included in that
mapping, passing an integer for *name* is also accepted.
If the configuration value specified by *name* isn't defined, ``None`` is
returned.
If *name* is a string and is not known, :exc:`ValueError` is raised. If a
specific value for *name* is not supported by the host system, even if it is
included in ``confstr_names``, an :exc:`OSError` is raised with
:const:`errno.EINVAL` for the error number.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. data:: confstr_names
Dictionary mapping names accepted by :func:`confstr` to the integer values
defined for those names by the host operating system. This can be used to
determine the set of names known to the system.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: cpu_count()
Return the number of CPUs in the system. Returns ``None`` if undetermined.
This number is not equivalent to the number of CPUs the current process can
use. The number of usable CPUs can be obtained with
``len(os.sched_getaffinity(0))``
.. versionadded:: 3.4
.. function:: getloadavg()
Return the number of processes in the system run queue averaged over the last
1, 5, and 15 minutes or raises :exc:`OSError` if the load average was
unobtainable.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. function:: sysconf(name)
Return integer-valued system configuration values. If the configuration value
specified by *name* isn't defined, ``-1`` is returned. The comments regarding
the *name* parameter for :func:`confstr` apply here as well; the dictionary that
provides information on the known names is given by ``sysconf_names``.
.. availability:: Unix.
.. data:: sysconf_names
Dictionary mapping names accepted by :func:`sysconf` to the integer values
defined for those names by the host operating system. This can be used to
determine the set of names known to the system.
.. availability:: Unix.
The following data values are used to support path manipulation operations. These
are defined for all platforms.
Higher-level operations on pathnames are defined in the :mod:`os.path` module.
.. index:: single: . (dot); in pathnames
.. data:: curdir
The constant string used by the operating system to refer to the current
directory. This is ``'.'`` for Windows and POSIX. Also available via
:mod:`os.path`.
.. index:: single: ..; in pathnames
.. data:: pardir
The constant string used by the operating system to refer to the parent
directory. This is ``'..'`` for Windows and POSIX. Also available via
:mod:`os.path`.
.. index:: single: / (slash); in pathnames
.. index:: single: \ (backslash); in pathnames (Windows)
.. data:: sep
The character used by the operating system to separate pathname components.
This is ``'/'`` for POSIX and ``'\\'`` for Windows. Note that knowing this
is not sufficient to be able to parse or concatenate pathnames --- use
:func:`os.path.split` and :func:`os.path.join` --- but it is occasionally
useful. Also available via :mod:`os.path`.
.. index:: single: / (slash); in pathnames
.. data:: altsep
An alternative character used by the operating system to separate pathname
components, or ``None`` if only one separator character exists. This is set to
``'/'`` on Windows systems where ``sep`` is a backslash. Also available via
:mod:`os.path`.
.. index:: single: . (dot); in pathnames
.. data:: extsep
The character which separates the base filename from the extension; for example,
the ``'.'`` in :file:`os.py`. Also available via :mod:`os.path`.
.. index:: single: : (colon); path separator (POSIX)
single: ; (semicolon)
.. data:: pathsep
The character conventionally used by the operating system to separate search
path components (as in :envvar:`PATH`), such as ``':'`` for POSIX or ``';'`` for
Windows. Also available via :mod:`os.path`.
.. data:: defpath
The default search path used by :func:`exec\*p\* <execl>` and
:func:`spawn\*p\* <spawnl>` if the environment doesn't have a ``'PATH'``
key. Also available via :mod:`os.path`.
.. data:: linesep
The string used to separate (or, rather, terminate) lines on the current
platform. This may be a single character, such as ``'\n'`` for POSIX, or
multiple characters, for example, ``'\r\n'`` for Windows. Do not use
*os.linesep* as a line terminator when writing files opened in text mode (the
default); use a single ``'\n'`` instead, on all platforms.
.. data:: devnull
The file path of the null device. For example: ``'/dev/null'`` for
POSIX, ``'nul'`` for Windows. Also available via :mod:`os.path`.
.. data:: RTLD_LAZY
RTLD_NOW
RTLD_GLOBAL
RTLD_LOCAL
RTLD_NODELETE
RTLD_NOLOAD
RTLD_DEEPBIND
Flags for use with the :func:`~sys.setdlopenflags` and
:func:`~sys.getdlopenflags` functions. See the Unix manual page
:manpage:`dlopen(3)` for what the different flags mean.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
Random numbers
--------------
.. function:: getrandom(size, flags=0)
Get up to *size* random bytes. The function can return less bytes than
requested.
These bytes can be used to seed user-space random number generators or for
cryptographic purposes.
``getrandom()`` relies on entropy gathered from device drivers and other
sources of environmental noise. Unnecessarily reading large quantities of
data will have a negative impact on other users of the ``/dev/random`` and
``/dev/urandom`` devices.
The flags argument is a bit mask that can contain zero or more of the
following values ORed together: :py:data:`os.GRND_RANDOM` and
:py:data:`GRND_NONBLOCK`.
See also the `Linux getrandom() manual page
<http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/getrandom.2.html>`_.
.. availability:: Linux 3.17 and newer.
.. versionadded:: 3.6
.. function:: urandom(size)
Return a string of *size* random bytes suitable for cryptographic use.
This function returns random bytes from an OS-specific randomness source. The
returned data should be unpredictable enough for cryptographic applications,
though its exact quality depends on the OS implementation.
On Linux, if the ``getrandom()`` syscall is available, it is used in
blocking mode: block until the system urandom entropy pool is initialized
(128 bits of entropy are collected by the kernel). See the :pep:`524` for
the rationale. On Linux, the :func:`getrandom` function can be used to get
random bytes in non-blocking mode (using the :data:`GRND_NONBLOCK` flag) or
to poll until the system urandom entropy pool is initialized.
On a Unix-like system, random bytes are read from the ``/dev/urandom``
device. If the ``/dev/urandom`` device is not available or not readable, the
:exc:`NotImplementedError` exception is raised.
On Windows, it will use ``CryptGenRandom()``.
.. seealso::
The :mod:`secrets` module provides higher level functions. For an
easy-to-use interface to the random number generator provided by your
platform, please see :class:`random.SystemRandom`.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6.0
On Linux, ``getrandom()`` is now used in blocking mode to increase the
security.
.. versionchanged:: 3.5.2
On Linux, if the ``getrandom()`` syscall blocks (the urandom entropy pool
is not initialized yet), fall back on reading ``/dev/urandom``.
.. versionchanged:: 3.5
On Linux 3.17 and newer, the ``getrandom()`` syscall is now used
when available. On OpenBSD 5.6 and newer, the C ``getentropy()``
function is now used. These functions avoid the usage of an internal file
descriptor.
.. data:: GRND_NONBLOCK
By default, when reading from ``/dev/random``, :func:`getrandom` blocks if
no random bytes are available, and when reading from ``/dev/urandom``, it blocks
if the entropy pool has not yet been initialized.
If the :py:data:`GRND_NONBLOCK` flag is set, then :func:`getrandom` does not
block in these cases, but instead immediately raises :exc:`BlockingIOError`.
.. versionadded:: 3.6
.. data:: GRND_RANDOM
If this bit is set, then random bytes are drawn from the
``/dev/random`` pool instead of the ``/dev/urandom`` pool.
.. versionadded:: 3.6