files.Path – Path manipulation

class files.Path(path)

The Path class provides functions for manipulating paths.

path should be a string, list, tuple, or Path object. Most likely, it will be a string, which creates a new Path object that represents that path. An example would be Path("/usr/bin").

Note that all new Path objects automatically:

• Expand ~ and ~user
• Expand $ENV_VAR and %WINDOWS_MUST_BE_DIFFERENT% variables
• Make the path absolute
• Remove double slashes (a//b), .‘s, and ..‘s
• Normalizes case, if necessary.

Symbolic links are not, however, removed from the path.

The Path object can be used in many ways. Assuming path is Path object:

• path + "dir/dir" – Paths can be added to strings to yield new paths

• if path: ... – Paths are True if they exist

• len(path); path[i] – Paths can be used as a list. Note that for a Unix environment, Path[0] will be Path(/). This can be a bit confusing. For example, Path("/usr/local/bin")[2] is Path(/usr/local). Its as if Path objects use one-based indexing, and you can think of it that way if you want.

  path[-1] = "bob" also works, as does path[1:4] = "usr/local/share". So does del path[2].

• "file" in path – Is a file in that path?

• str(path) – Returns the path in string form. This always does not contain the final slash.

• with path: ... – This will change directory to path before entering the with loop, and change back afterwards.

Of course, a :class:Path object also has some useful methods. These are detailed below.

Path.real()

Returns the Path object corresponding to the real path of the file or directory. This will resolve symbolic links.

Path.get()

Returns the File or Dir object corresponding to the path.

Path.exists()

Returns True if the path exists, False if it does not.

Path.type()

Returns a list that may contain any of "file", "dir", "link", or "mount". "mount" denotes a mount point on Unix-like systems.

Path.link(dest[, type="soft"])

Links the current path to dest. If type is "soft", a symlink is created. Otherwise, a hardlink is made.

Path.link_from(src[, type="soft"])

Links src to the current path. type is identical to above.

static Path.split(path)

Splits path (a string) into a list of directories. For example, "/home/pavpan/" becomes ["/", "home", "pavpan"] Wonder what happens to the drive letter on Windows...

static Path.join(path)

Joins path (a list) into a path string. For example, ["/", "home", "pavpan"] becomes "/home/pavpan". The final slash is always omitted.

static Path.current([path=None])

If path (a string or Path) is passed, changes the current directory to path. Otherwise, returns the current path, as a Path.

static Path.setroot(path)

Changes the root directory ("/") to path (a string or Path)