CINXE.COM

<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> <meta name="color-scheme" content="light dark"> <title>PEP 355 – Path - Object oriented filesystem paths | peps.python.org</title> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="../_static/py.png"> <link rel="canonical" href="https://peps.python.org/pep-0355/"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/style.css" type="text/css"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/mq.css" type="text/css"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/pygments.css" type="text/css" media="(prefers-color-scheme: light)" id="pyg-light"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/pygments_dark.css" type="text/css" media="(prefers-color-scheme: dark)" id="pyg-dark"> <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Latest PEPs" href="https://peps.python.org/peps.rss"> <meta property="og:title" content='PEP 355 – Path - Object oriented filesystem paths | peps.python.org'> <meta property="og:description" content="This PEP describes a new class, Path, to be added to the os module, for handling paths in an object oriented fashion. The “weak” deprecation of various related functions is also discussed and recommended."> <meta property="og:type" content="website"> <meta property="og:url" content="https://peps.python.org/pep-0355/"> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Python Enhancement Proposals (PEPs)"> <meta property="og:image" content="https://peps.python.org/_static/og-image.png"> <meta property="og:image:alt" content="Python PEPs"> <meta property="og:image:width" content="200"> <meta property="og:image:height" content="200"> <meta name="description" content="This PEP describes a new class, Path, to be added to the os module, for handling paths in an object oriented fashion. The “weak” deprecation of various related functions is also discussed and recommended."> <meta name="theme-color" content="#3776ab"> </head> <body> <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" style="display: none;"> <symbol id="svg-sun-half" viewBox="0 0 24 24" pointer-events="all"> <title>Following system colour scheme</title> <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"> <circle cx="12" cy="12" r="9"></circle> <path d="M12 3v18m0-12l4.65-4.65M12 14.3l7.37-7.37M12 19.6l8.85-8.85"></path> </svg> </symbol> <symbol id="svg-moon" viewBox="0 0 24 24" pointer-events="all"> <title>Selected dark colour scheme</title> <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"> <path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"></path> <path d="M12 3c.132 0 .263 0 .393 0a7.5 7.5 0 0 0 7.92 12.446a9 9 0 1 1 -8.313 -12.454z"></path> </svg> </symbol> <symbol id="svg-sun" viewBox="0 0 24 24" pointer-events="all"> <title>Selected light colour scheme</title> <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"> <circle cx="12" cy="12" r="5"></circle> <line x1="12" y1="1" x2="12" y2="3"></line> <line x1="12" y1="21" x2="12" y2="23"></line> <line x1="4.22" y1="4.22" x2="5.64" y2="5.64"></line> <line x1="18.36" y1="18.36" x2="19.78" y2="19.78"></line> <line x1="1" y1="12" x2="3" y2="12"></line> <line x1="21" y1="12" x2="23" y2="12"></line> <line x1="4.22" y1="19.78" x2="5.64" y2="18.36"></line> <line x1="18.36" y1="5.64" x2="19.78" y2="4.22"></line> </svg> </symbol> </svg> <script> document.documentElement.dataset.colour_scheme = localStorage.getItem("colour_scheme") || "auto" </script> <section id="pep-page-section"> <header> <h1>Python Enhancement Proposals</h1> <ul class="breadcrumbs"> <li><a href="https://www.python.org/" title="The Python Programming Language">Python</a> » </li> <li><a href="../pep-0000/">PEP Index</a> » </li> <li>PEP 355</li> </ul> <button id="colour-scheme-cycler" onClick="setColourScheme(nextColourScheme())"> <svg aria-hidden="true" class="colour-scheme-icon-when-auto"><use href="#svg-sun-half"></use></svg> <svg aria-hidden="true" class="colour-scheme-icon-when-dark"><use href="#svg-moon"></use></svg> <svg aria-hidden="true" class="colour-scheme-icon-when-light"><use href="#svg-sun"></use></svg> Toggle light / dark / auto colour theme </button> </header> <article> <section id="pep-content"> <h1 class="page-title">PEP 355 – Path - Object oriented filesystem paths</h1> <dl class="rfc2822 field-list simple"> <dt class="field-odd">Author:</dt> <dd class="field-odd">Björn Lindqvist <bjourne at gmail.com></dd> <dt class="field-even">Status:</dt> <dd class="field-even"><abbr title="Formally declined and will not be accepted">Rejected</abbr></dd> <dt class="field-odd">Type:</dt> <dd class="field-odd"><abbr title="Normative PEP with a new feature for Python, implementation change for CPython or interoperability standard for the ecosystem">Standards Track</abbr></dd> <dt class="field-even">Created:</dt> <dd class="field-even">24-Jan-2006</dd> <dt class="field-odd">Python-Version:</dt> <dd class="field-odd">2.5</dd> <dt class="field-even">Post-History:</dt> <dd class="field-even"></dd> </dl> <hr class="docutils" /> <section id="contents"> <details><summary>Table of Contents</summary><ul class="simple"> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#rejection-notice">Rejection Notice</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#abstract">Abstract</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#background">Background</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#motivation">Motivation</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#rationale">Rationale</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#specification">Specification</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#replacing-older-functions-with-the-path-class">Replacing older functions with the Path class</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#deprecations">Deprecations</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#closed-issues">Closed Issues</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#open-issues">Open Issues</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#reference-implementation">Reference Implementation</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#examples">Examples</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#references-and-footnotes">References and Footnotes</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#copyright">Copyright</a></li> </ul> </details></section> <section id="rejection-notice"> <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#rejection-notice" role="doc-backlink">Rejection Notice</a></h2> This PEP has been rejected (in this form). The proposed path class is the ultimate kitchen sink; but the notion that it’s better to implement all functionality that uses a path as a method on a single class is an anti-pattern. (E.g. why not <code class="docutils literal notranslate">open()</code>? Or <code class="docutils literal notranslate">execfile()</code>?) Subclassing from str is a particularly bad idea; many string operations make no sense when applied to a path. This PEP has lingered, and while the discussion flares up from time to time, it’s time to put this PEP out of its misery. A less far-fetched proposal might be more palatable. </section> <section id="abstract"> <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#abstract" role="doc-backlink">Abstract</a></h2> This PEP describes a new class, <code class="docutils literal notranslate">Path</code>, to be added to the <code class="docutils literal notranslate">os</code> module, for handling paths in an object oriented fashion. The “weak” deprecation of various related functions is also discussed and recommended. </section> <section id="background"> <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#background" role="doc-backlink">Background</a></h2> The ideas expressed in this PEP are not recent, but have been debated in the Python community for many years. Many have felt that the API for manipulating file paths as offered in the os.path module is inadequate. The first proposal for a <code class="docutils literal notranslate">Path</code> object was raised by Just van Rossum on python-dev in 2001 <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id7" id="id1">[2]</a>. In 2003, Jason Orendorff released version 1.0 of the “path module” which was the first public implementation that used objects to represent paths <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id8" id="id2">[3]</a>. The path module quickly became very popular and numerous attempts were made to get the path module included in the Python standard library; <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id9" id="id3">[4]</a>, <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id10" id="id4">[5]</a>, <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id11" id="id5">[6]</a>, <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id12" id="id6">[7]</a>. This PEP summarizes the ideas and suggestions people have expressed about the path module and proposes that a modified version should be included in the standard library. </section> <section id="motivation"> <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#motivation" role="doc-backlink">Motivation</a></h2> Dealing with filesystem paths is a common task in any programming language, and very common in a high-level language like Python. Good support for this task is needed, because: <ul class="simple"> <li>Almost every program uses paths to access files. It makes sense that a task, that is so often performed, should be as intuitive and as easy to perform as possible.</li> <li>It makes Python an even better replacement language for over-complicated shell scripts.</li> </ul> Currently, Python has a large number of different functions scattered over half a dozen modules for handling paths. This makes it hard for newbies and experienced developers to choose the right method. The <code class="docutils literal notranslate">Path</code> class provides the following enhancements over the current common practice: <ul> <li>One “unified” object provides all functionality from previous functions.</li> <li>Subclassability - the <code class="docutils literal notranslate">Path</code> object can be extended to support paths other than filesystem paths. The programmer does not need to learn a new API, but can reuse their knowledge of Path to deal with the extended class.</li> <li>With all related functionality in one place, the right approach is easier to learn as one does not have to hunt through many different modules for the right functions.</li> <li>Python is an object oriented language. Just like files, datetimes and sockets are objects so are paths, they are not merely strings to be passed to functions. <code class="docutils literal notranslate">Path</code> objects is inherently a pythonic idea.</li> <li><code class="docutils literal notranslate">Path</code> takes advantage of properties. Properties make for more readable code:<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>if imgpath.ext == 'jpg': jpegdecode(imgpath) </pre></div> </div> Is better than: <div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>if os.path.splitexit(imgpath)[1] == 'jpg': jpegdecode(imgpath) </pre></div> </div> </li> </ul> </section> <section id="rationale"> <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#rationale" role="doc-backlink">Rationale</a></h2> The following points summarize the design: <ul class="simple"> <li><code class="docutils literal notranslate">Path</code> extends from string, therefore all code which expects string pathnames need not be modified and no existing code will break.</li> <li>A <code class="docutils literal notranslate">Path</code> object can be created either by using the classmethod <code class="docutils literal notranslate">Path.cwd</code>, by instantiating the class with a string representing a path or by using the default constructor which is equivalent to <code class="docutils literal notranslate">Path(".")</code>.</li> <li><code class="docutils literal notranslate">Path</code> provides common pathname manipulation, pattern expansion, pattern matching and other high-level file operations including copying. Basically <code class="docutils literal notranslate">Path</code> provides everything path-related except the manipulation of file contents, for which file objects are better suited.</li> <li>Platform incompatibilities are dealt with by not instantiating system specific methods.</li> </ul> </section> <section id="specification"> <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#specification" role="doc-backlink">Specification</a></h2> This class defines the following public interface (docstrings have been extracted from the reference implementation, and shortened for brevity; see the reference implementation for more detail): <div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>class Path(str): # Special Python methods: def __new__(cls, *args) => Path """ Creates a new path object concatenating the *args. *args may only contain Path objects or strings. If *args is empty, Path(os.curdir) is created. """ def __repr__(self): ... def __add__(self, more): ... def __radd__(self, other): ... # Alternative constructor. def cwd(cls): ... # Operations on path strings: def abspath(self) => Path """Returns the absolute path of self as a new Path object.""" def normcase(self): ... def normpath(self): ... def realpath(self): ... def expanduser(self): ... def expandvars(self): ... def basename(self): ... def expand(self): ... def splitpath(self) => (Path, str) """p.splitpath() -> Return (p.parent, p.name).""" def stripext(self) => Path """p.stripext() -> Remove one file extension from the path.""" def splitunc(self): ... # See footnote [1] def splitall(self): ... def relpath(self): ... def relpathto(self, dest): ... # Properties about the path: parent => Path """This Path's parent directory as a new path object.""" name => str """The name of this file or directory without the full path.""" ext => str """ The file extension or an empty string if Path refers to a file without an extension or a directory. """ drive => str """ The drive specifier. Always empty on systems that don't use drive specifiers. """ namebase => str """ The same as path.name, but with one file extension stripped off. """ uncshare[1] # Operations that return lists of paths: def listdir(self, pattern = None): ... def dirs(self, pattern = None): ... def files(self, pattern = None): ... def walk(self, pattern = None): ... def walkdirs(self, pattern = None): ... def walkfiles(self, pattern = None): ... def match(self, pattern) => bool """Returns True if self.name matches the given pattern.""" def matchcase(self, pattern) => bool """ Like match() but is guaranteed to be case sensitive even on platforms with case insensitive filesystems. """ def glob(self, pattern): # Methods for retrieving information about the filesystem # path: def exists(self): ... def isabs(self): ... def isdir(self): ... def isfile(self): ... def islink(self): ... def ismount(self): ... def samefile(self, other): ... # See footnote [1] def atime(self): ... """Last access time of the file.""" def mtime(self): ... """Last-modified time of the file.""" def ctime(self): ... """ Return the system's ctime which, on some systems (like Unix) is the time of the last change, and, on others (like Windows), is the creation time for path. """ def size(self): ... def access(self, mode): ... # See footnote [1] def stat(self): ... def lstat(self): ... def statvfs(self): ... # See footnote [1] def pathconf(self, name): ... # See footnote [1] # Methods for manipulating information about the filesystem # path. def utime(self, times) => None def chmod(self, mode) => None def chown(self, uid, gid) => None # See footnote [1] def rename(self, new) => None def renames(self, new) => None # Create/delete operations on directories def mkdir(self, mode = 0777): ... def makedirs(self, mode = 0777): ... def rmdir(self): ... def removedirs(self): ... # Modifying operations on files def touch(self): ... def remove(self): ... def unlink(self): ... # Modifying operations on links def link(self, newpath): ... def symlink(self, newlink): ... def readlink(self): ... def readlinkabs(self): ... # High-level functions from shutil def copyfile(self, dst): ... def copymode(self, dst): ... def copystat(self, dst): ... def copy(self, dst): ... def copy2(self, dst): ... def copytree(self, dst, symlinks = True): ... def move(self, dst): ... def rmtree(self, ignore_errors = False, onerror = None): ... # Special stuff from os def chroot(self): ... # See footnote [1] def startfile(self): ... # See footnote [1] </pre></div> </div> </section> <section id="replacing-older-functions-with-the-path-class"> <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#replacing-older-functions-with-the-path-class" role="doc-backlink">Replacing older functions with the Path class</a></h2> In this section, “a ==> b” means that b can be used as a replacement for a. In the following examples, we assume that the <code class="docutils literal notranslate">Path</code> class is imported with <code class="docutils literal notranslate">from path import Path</code>. <ul> <li>Replacing <code class="docutils literal notranslate">os.path.join</code>:<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>os.path.join(os.getcwd(), "foobar") ==> Path(Path.cwd(), "foobar") os.path.join("foo", "bar", "baz") ==> Path("foo", "bar", "baz") </pre></div> </div> </li> <li>Replacing <code class="docutils literal notranslate">os.path.splitext</code>:<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>fname = "Python2.4.tar.gz" os.path.splitext(fname)[1] ==> fname = Path("Python2.4.tar.gz") fname.ext </pre></div> </div> Or if you want both parts: <div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>fname = "Python2.4.tar.gz" base, ext = os.path.splitext(fname) ==> fname = Path("Python2.4.tar.gz") base, ext = fname.namebase, fname.extx </pre></div> </div> </li> <li>Replacing <code class="docutils literal notranslate">glob.glob</code>:<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>lib_dir = "/lib" libs = glob.glob(os.path.join(lib_dir, "*s.o")) ==> lib_dir = Path("/lib") libs = lib_dir.files("*.so") </pre></div> </div> </li> </ul> </section> <section id="deprecations"> <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#deprecations" role="doc-backlink">Deprecations</a></h2> Introducing this module to the standard library introduces a need for the “weak” deprecation of a number of existing modules and functions. These modules and functions are so widely used that they cannot be truly deprecated, as in generating DeprecationWarning. Here “weak deprecation” means notes in the documentation only. The table below lists the existing functionality that should be deprecated. <table class="docutils align-default"> <thead> <tr class="row-odd"><th class="head">Path method/property</th> <th class="head">Deprecates function</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr class="row-even"><td>normcase()</td> <td>os.path.normcase()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>normpath()</td> <td>os.path.normpath()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>realpath()</td> <td>os.path.realpath()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>expanduser()</td> <td>os.path.expanduser()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>expandvars()</td> <td>os.path.expandvars()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>parent</td> <td>os.path.dirname()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>name</td> <td>os.path.basename()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>splitpath()</td> <td>os.path.split()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>drive</td> <td>os.path.splitdrive()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>ext</td> <td>os.path.splitext()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>splitunc()</td> <td>os.path.splitunc()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>__new__()</td> <td>os.path.join(), os.curdir</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>listdir()</td> <td>os.listdir() [fnmatch.filter()]</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>match()</td> <td>fnmatch.fnmatch()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>matchcase()</td> <td>fnmatch.fnmatchcase()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>glob()</td> <td>glob.glob()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>exists()</td> <td>os.path.exists()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>isabs()</td> <td>os.path.isabs()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>isdir()</td> <td>os.path.isdir()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>isfile()</td> <td>os.path.isfile()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>islink()</td> <td>os.path.islink()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>ismount()</td> <td>os.path.ismount()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>samefile()</td> <td>os.path.samefile()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>atime()</td> <td>os.path.getatime()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>ctime()</td> <td>os.path.getctime()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>mtime()</td> <td>os.path.getmtime()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>size()</td> <td>os.path.getsize()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>cwd()</td> <td>os.getcwd()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>access()</td> <td>os.access()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>stat()</td> <td>os.stat()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>lstat()</td> <td>os.lstat()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>statvfs()</td> <td>os.statvfs()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>pathconf()</td> <td>os.pathconf()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>utime()</td> <td>os.utime()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>chmod()</td> <td>os.chmod()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>chown()</td> <td>os.chown()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>rename()</td> <td>os.rename()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>renames()</td> <td>os.renames()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>mkdir()</td> <td>os.mkdir()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>makedirs()</td> <td>os.makedirs()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>rmdir()</td> <td>os.rmdir()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>removedirs()</td> <td>os.removedirs()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>remove()</td> <td>os.remove()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>unlink()</td> <td>os.unlink()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>link()</td> <td>os.link()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>symlink()</td> <td>os.symlink()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>readlink()</td> <td>os.readlink()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>chroot()</td> <td>os.chroot()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>startfile()</td> <td>os.startfile()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>copyfile()</td> <td>shutil.copyfile()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>copymode()</td> <td>shutil.copymode()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>copystat()</td> <td>shutil.copystat()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>copy()</td> <td>shutil.copy()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>copy2()</td> <td>shutil.copy2()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>copytree()</td> <td>shutil.copytree()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td>move()</td> <td>shutil.move()</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td>rmtree()</td> <td>shutil.rmtree()</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> The <code class="docutils literal notranslate">Path</code> class deprecates the whole of <code class="docutils literal notranslate">os.path</code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate">shutil</code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate">fnmatch</code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate">glob</code>. A big chunk of <code class="docutils literal notranslate">os</code> is also deprecated. </section> <section id="closed-issues"> <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#closed-issues" role="doc-backlink">Closed Issues</a></h2> A number contentious issues have been resolved since this PEP first appeared on python-dev: <ul> <li>The <code class="docutils literal notranslate">__div__()</code> method was removed. Overloading the / (division) operator may be “too much magic” and make path concatenation appear to be division. The method can always be re-added later if the BDFL so desires. In its place, <code class="docutils literal notranslate">__new__()</code> got an <code class="docutils literal notranslate">*args</code> argument that accepts both <code class="docutils literal notranslate">Path</code> and string objects. The <code class="docutils literal notranslate">*args</code> are concatenated with <code class="docutils literal notranslate">os.path.join()</code> which is used to construct the <code class="docutils literal notranslate">Path</code> object. These changes obsoleted the problematic <code class="docutils literal notranslate">joinpath()</code> method which was removed.</li> <li>The methods and the properties <code class="docutils literal notranslate">getatime()/atime</code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate">getctime()/ctime</code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate">getmtime()/mtime</code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate">getsize()/size</code> duplicated each other. These methods and properties have been merged to <code class="docutils literal notranslate">atime()</code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate">ctime()</code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate">mtime()</code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate">size()</code>. The reason they are not properties instead, is because there is a possibility that they may change unexpectedly. The following example is not guaranteed to always pass the assertion:<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>p = Path("foobar") s = p.size() assert p.size() == s </pre></div> </div> </li> </ul> </section> <section id="open-issues"> <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#open-issues" role="doc-backlink">Open Issues</a></h2> Some functionality of Jason Orendorff’s path module have been omitted: <ul> <li>Function for opening a path - better handled by the builtin <code class="docutils literal notranslate">open()</code>.</li> <li>Functions for reading and writing whole files - better handled by file objects’ own <code class="docutils literal notranslate">read()</code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate">write()</code> methods.</li> <li>A <code class="docutils literal notranslate">chdir()</code> function may be a worthy inclusion.</li> <li>A deprecation schedule needs to be set up. How much functionality should <code class="docutils literal notranslate">Path</code> implement? How much of existing functionality should it deprecate and when?</li> <li>The name obviously has to be either “path” or “Path,” but where should it live? In its own module or in <code class="docutils literal notranslate">os</code>?</li> <li>Due to <code class="docutils literal notranslate">Path</code> subclassing either <code class="docutils literal notranslate">str</code> or <code class="docutils literal notranslate">unicode</code>, the following non-magic, public methods are available on <code class="docutils literal notranslate">Path</code> objects:<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>capitalize(), center(), count(), decode(), encode(), endswith(), expandtabs(), find(), index(), isalnum(), isalpha(), isdigit(), islower(), isspace(), istitle(), isupper(), join(), ljust(), lower(), lstrip(), replace(), rfind(), rindex(), rjust(), rsplit(), rstrip(), split(), splitlines(), startswith(), strip(), swapcase(), title(), translate(), upper(), zfill() </pre></div> </div> On python-dev it has been argued whether this inheritance is sane or not. Most persons debating said that most string methods doesn’t make sense in the context of filesystem paths – they are just dead weight. The other position, also argued on python-dev, is that inheriting from string is very convenient because it allows code to “just work” with <code class="docutils literal notranslate">Path</code> objects without having to be adapted for them. One of the problems is that at the Python level, there is no way to make an object “string-like enough,” so that it can be passed to the builtin function <code class="docutils literal notranslate">open()</code> (and other builtins expecting a string or buffer), unless the object inherits from either <code class="docutils literal notranslate">str</code> or <code class="docutils literal notranslate">unicode</code>. Therefore, to not inherit from string requires changes in CPython’s core. </li> </ul> The functions and modules that this new module is trying to replace (<code class="docutils literal notranslate">os.path</code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate">shutil</code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate">fnmatch</code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate">glob</code> and parts of <code class="docutils literal notranslate">os</code>) are expected to be available in future Python versions for a long time, to preserve backwards compatibility. </section> <section id="reference-implementation"> <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#reference-implementation" role="doc-backlink">Reference Implementation</a></h2> Currently, the <code class="docutils literal notranslate">Path</code> class is implemented as a thin wrapper around the standard library modules <code class="docutils literal notranslate">fnmatch</code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate">glob</code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate">os</code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate">os.path</code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate">shutil</code>. The intention of this PEP is to move functionality from the aforementioned modules to <code class="docutils literal notranslate">Path</code> while they are being deprecated. For more detail and an implementation see: <blockquote> <div><a class="reference external" href="http://wiki.python.org/moin/PathModule">http://wiki.python.org/moin/PathModule</a></div></blockquote> </section> <section id="examples"> <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#examples" role="doc-backlink">Examples</a></h2> In this section, “a ==> b” means that b can be used as a replacement for a. <ul> <li>Make all python files in the a directory executable:<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>DIR = '/usr/home/guido/bin' for f in os.listdir(DIR): if f.endswith('.py'): path = os.path.join(DIR, f) os.chmod(path, 0755) ==> for f in Path('/usr/home/guido/bin').files("*.py"): f.chmod(0755) </pre></div> </div> </li> <li>Delete emacs backup files:<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>def delete_backups(arg, dirname, names): for name in names: if name.endswith('~'): os.remove(os.path.join(dirname, name)) os.path.walk(os.environ['HOME'], delete_backups, None) ==> d = Path(os.environ['HOME']) for f in d.walkfiles('*~'): f.remove() </pre></div> </div> </li> <li>Finding the relative path to a file:<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>b = Path('/users/peter/') a = Path('/users/peter/synergy/tiki.txt') a.relpathto(b) </pre></div> </div> </li> <li>Splitting a path into directory and filename:<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>os.path.split("/path/to/foo/bar.txt") ==> Path("/path/to/foo/bar.txt").splitpath() </pre></div> </div> </li> <li>List all Python scripts in the current directory tree:<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>list(Path().walkfiles("*.py")) </pre></div> </div> </li> </ul> </section> <section id="references-and-footnotes"> <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#references-and-footnotes" role="doc-backlink">References and Footnotes</a></h2> [1] Method is not guaranteed to be available on all platforms. <aside class="footnote-list brackets"> <aside class="footnote brackets" id="id7" role="doc-footnote"> <dt class="label" id="id7">[<a href="#id1">2</a>]</dt> <dd>“(idea) subclassable string: path object?”, van Rossum, 2001 <a class="reference external" href="https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2001-August/016663.html">https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2001-August/016663.html</a></aside> <aside class="footnote brackets" id="id8" role="doc-footnote"> <dt class="label" id="id8">[<a href="#id2">3</a>]</dt> <dd>“path module v1.0 released”, Orendorff, 2003 <a class="reference external" href="https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-announce-list/2003-January/001984.html">https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-announce-list/2003-January/001984.html</a></aside> <aside class="footnote brackets" id="id9" role="doc-footnote"> <dt class="label" id="id9">[<a href="#id3">4</a>]</dt> <dd>“Some RFE for review”, Birkenfeld, 2005 <a class="reference external" href="https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-June/054438.html">https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-June/054438.html</a></aside> <aside class="footnote brackets" id="id10" role="doc-footnote"> <dt class="label" id="id10">[<a href="#id4">5</a>]</dt> <dd>“path module”, Orendorff, 2003 <a class="reference external" href="https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2003-July/174289.html">https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2003-July/174289.html</a></aside> <aside class="footnote brackets" id="id11" role="doc-footnote"> <dt class="label" id="id11">[<a href="#id5">6</a>]</dt> <dd>“PRE-PEP: new Path class”, Roth, 2004 <a class="reference external" href="https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-January/201672.html">https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-January/201672.html</a></aside> <aside class="footnote brackets" id="id12" role="doc-footnote"> <dt class="label" id="id12">[<a href="#id6">7</a>]</dt> <dd><a class="reference external" href="http://wiki.python.org/moin/PathClass">http://wiki.python.org/moin/PathClass</a></aside> </aside> </section> <section id="copyright"> <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#copyright" role="doc-backlink">Copyright</a></h2> This document has been placed in the public domain. </section> </section> <hr class="docutils" /> Source: <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/python/peps/blob/main/peps/pep-0355.rst">https://github.com/python/peps/blob/main/peps/pep-0355.rst</a> Last modified: <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/python/peps/commits/main/peps/pep-0355.rst">2025-02-01 08:59:27 GMT</a> </article> <nav id="pep-sidebar"> <h2>Contents</h2> <ul> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#rejection-notice">Rejection Notice</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#abstract">Abstract</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#background">Background</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#motivation">Motivation</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#rationale">Rationale</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#specification">Specification</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#replacing-older-functions-with-the-path-class">Replacing older functions with the Path class</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#deprecations">Deprecations</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#closed-issues">Closed Issues</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#open-issues">Open Issues</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#reference-implementation">Reference Implementation</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#examples">Examples</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#references-and-footnotes">References and Footnotes</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#copyright">Copyright</a></li> </ul> <a id="source" href="https://github.com/python/peps/blob/main/peps/pep-0355.rst">Page Source (GitHub)</a> </nav> </section> <script src="../_static/colour_scheme.js"></script> <script src="../_static/wrap_tables.js"></script> <script src="../_static/sticky_banner.js"></script> </body> </html>