pathlib — Object-oriented filesystem paths

New in version 3.4.

Source code:Lib/pathlib.py


This module offers classes representing filesystem paths with semanticsappropriate for different operating systems. Path classes are dividedbetweenpure paths, which provide purely computationaloperations without I/O, andconcrete paths, whichinherit from pure paths but also provide I/O operations.

../_images/pathlib-inheritance.png

If you’ve never used this module before or just aren’t sure which class isright for your task,Path is most likely what you need. It instantiatesaconcrete path for the platform the code is running on.

Pure paths are useful in some special cases; for example:

  1. If you want to manipulate Windows paths on a Unix machine (or vice versa).You cannot instantiate aWindowsPath when running on Unix, but youcan instantiatePureWindowsPath.

  2. You want to make sure that your code only manipulates paths without actuallyaccessing the OS. In this case, instantiating one of the pure classes may beuseful since those simply don’t have any OS-accessing operations.

See also

PEP 428: The pathlib module – object-oriented filesystem paths.

See also

For low-level path manipulation on strings, you can also use theos.path module.

Basic use

Importing the main class:

>>>frompathlibimportPath

Listing subdirectories:

>>>p=Path('.')>>>[xforxinp.iterdir()ifx.is_dir()][PosixPath('.hg'), PosixPath('docs'), PosixPath('dist'), PosixPath('__pycache__'), PosixPath('build')]

Listing Python source files in this directory tree:

>>>list(p.glob('**/*.py'))[PosixPath('test_pathlib.py'), PosixPath('setup.py'), PosixPath('pathlib.py'), PosixPath('docs/conf.py'), PosixPath('build/lib/pathlib.py')]

Navigating inside a directory tree:

>>>p=Path('/etc')>>>q=p/'init.d'/'reboot'>>>qPosixPath('/etc/init.d/reboot')>>>q.resolve()PosixPath('/etc/rc.d/init.d/halt')

Querying path properties:

>>>q.exists()True>>>q.is_dir()False

Opening a file:

>>>withq.open()asf:f.readline()...'#!/bin/bash\n'

Pure paths

Pure path objects provide path-handling operations which don’t actuallyaccess a filesystem. There are three ways to access these classes, whichwe also callflavours:

classpathlib.PurePath(*pathsegments)

A generic class that represents the system’s path flavour (instantiatingit creates either aPurePosixPath or aPureWindowsPath):

>>>PurePath('setup.py')# Running on a Unix machinePurePosixPath('setup.py')

Each element ofpathsegments can be either a string representing apath segment, an object implementing theos.PathLike interfacewhich returns a string, or another path object:

>>>PurePath('foo','some/path','bar')PurePosixPath('foo/some/path/bar')>>>PurePath(Path('foo'),Path('bar'))PurePosixPath('foo/bar')

Whenpathsegments is empty, the current directory is assumed:

>>>PurePath()PurePosixPath('.')

If a segment is an absolute path, all previous segments are ignored(likeos.path.join()):

>>>PurePath('/etc','/usr','lib64')PurePosixPath('/usr/lib64')>>>PureWindowsPath('c:/Windows','d:bar')PureWindowsPath('d:bar')

On Windows, the drive is not reset when a rooted relative pathsegment (e.g.,r'\foo') is encountered:

>>>PureWindowsPath('c:/Windows','/Program Files')PureWindowsPath('c:/Program Files')

Spurious slashes and single dots are collapsed, but double dots ('..')and leading double slashes ('//') are not, since this would change themeaning of a path for various reasons (e.g. symbolic links, UNC paths):

>>>PurePath('foo//bar')PurePosixPath('foo/bar')>>>PurePath('//foo/bar')PurePosixPath('//foo/bar')>>>PurePath('foo/./bar')PurePosixPath('foo/bar')>>>PurePath('foo/../bar')PurePosixPath('foo/../bar')

(a naïve approach would makePurePosixPath('foo/../bar') equivalenttoPurePosixPath('bar'), which is wrong iffoo is a symbolic linkto another directory)

Pure path objects implement theos.PathLike interface, allowing themto be used anywhere the interface is accepted.

Changed in version 3.6:Added support for theos.PathLike interface.

classpathlib.PurePosixPath(*pathsegments)

A subclass ofPurePath, this path flavour represents non-Windowsfilesystem paths:

>>>PurePosixPath('/etc')PurePosixPath('/etc')

pathsegments is specified similarly toPurePath.

classpathlib.PureWindowsPath(*pathsegments)

A subclass ofPurePath, this path flavour represents Windowsfilesystem paths, includingUNC paths:

>>>PureWindowsPath('c:/Program Files/')PureWindowsPath('c:/Program Files')>>>PureWindowsPath('//server/share/file')PureWindowsPath('//server/share/file')

pathsegments is specified similarly toPurePath.

Regardless of the system you’re running on, you can instantiate all ofthese classes, since they don’t provide any operation that does system calls.

General properties

Paths are immutable andhashable. Paths of a same flavour are comparableand orderable. These properties respect the flavour’s case-foldingsemantics:

>>>PurePosixPath('foo')==PurePosixPath('FOO')False>>>PureWindowsPath('foo')==PureWindowsPath('FOO')True>>>PureWindowsPath('FOO')in{PureWindowsPath('foo')}True>>>PureWindowsPath('C:')<PureWindowsPath('d:')True

Paths of a different flavour compare unequal and cannot be ordered:

>>>PureWindowsPath('foo')==PurePosixPath('foo')False>>>PureWindowsPath('foo')<PurePosixPath('foo')Traceback (most recent call last):  File"<stdin>", line1, in<module>TypeError:'<' not supported between instances of 'PureWindowsPath' and 'PurePosixPath'

Operators

The slash operator helps create child paths, likeos.path.join().If the argument is an absolute path, the previous path is ignored.On Windows, the drive is not reset when the argument is a rootedrelative path (e.g.,r'\foo'):

>>>p=PurePath('/etc')>>>pPurePosixPath('/etc')>>>p/'init.d'/'apache2'PurePosixPath('/etc/init.d/apache2')>>>q=PurePath('bin')>>>'/usr'/qPurePosixPath('/usr/bin')>>>p/'/an_absolute_path'PurePosixPath('/an_absolute_path')>>>PureWindowsPath('c:/Windows','/Program Files')PureWindowsPath('c:/Program Files')

A path object can be used anywhere an object implementingos.PathLikeis accepted:

>>>importos>>>p=PurePath('/etc')>>>os.fspath(p)'/etc'

The string representation of a path is the raw filesystem path itself(in native form, e.g. with backslashes under Windows), which you canpass to any function taking a file path as a string:

>>>p=PurePath('/etc')>>>str(p)'/etc'>>>p=PureWindowsPath('c:/Program Files')>>>str(p)'c:\\Program Files'

Similarly, callingbytes on a path gives the raw filesystem path as abytes object, as encoded byos.fsencode():

>>>bytes(p)b'/etc'

Note

Callingbytes is only recommended under Unix. Under Windows,the unicode form is the canonical representation of filesystem paths.

Accessing individual parts

To access the individual “parts” (components) of a path, use the followingproperty:

PurePath.parts

A tuple giving access to the path’s various components:

>>>p=PurePath('/usr/bin/python3')>>>p.parts('/', 'usr', 'bin', 'python3')>>>p=PureWindowsPath('c:/Program Files/PSF')>>>p.parts('c:\\', 'Program Files', 'PSF')

(note how the drive and local root are regrouped in a single part)

Methods and properties

Pure paths provide the following methods and properties:

PurePath.drive

A string representing the drive letter or name, if any:

>>>PureWindowsPath('c:/Program Files/').drive'c:'>>>PureWindowsPath('/Program Files/').drive''>>>PurePosixPath('/etc').drive''

UNC shares are also considered drives:

>>>PureWindowsPath('//host/share/foo.txt').drive'\\\\host\\share'
PurePath.root

A string representing the (local or global) root, if any:

>>>PureWindowsPath('c:/Program Files/').root'\\'>>>PureWindowsPath('c:Program Files/').root''>>>PurePosixPath('/etc').root'/'

UNC shares always have a root:

>>>PureWindowsPath('//host/share').root'\\'

If the path starts with more than two successive slashes,PurePosixPath collapses them:

>>>PurePosixPath('//etc').root'//'>>>PurePosixPath('///etc').root'/'>>>PurePosixPath('////etc').root'/'

Note

This behavior conforms toThe Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6,paragraph4.11 Pathname Resolution:

“A pathname that begins with two successive slashes may be interpreted inan implementation-defined manner, although more than two leading slashesshall be treated as a single slash.”

PurePath.anchor

The concatenation of the drive and root:

>>>PureWindowsPath('c:/Program Files/').anchor'c:\\'>>>PureWindowsPath('c:Program Files/').anchor'c:'>>>PurePosixPath('/etc').anchor'/'>>>PureWindowsPath('//host/share').anchor'\\\\host\\share\\'
PurePath.parents

An immutable sequence providing access to the logical ancestors ofthe path:

>>>p=PureWindowsPath('c:/foo/bar/setup.py')>>>p.parents[0]PureWindowsPath('c:/foo/bar')>>>p.parents[1]PureWindowsPath('c:/foo')>>>p.parents[2]PureWindowsPath('c:/')

Changed in version 3.10:The parents sequence now supportsslices and negative index values.

PurePath.parent

The logical parent of the path:

>>>p=PurePosixPath('/a/b/c/d')>>>p.parentPurePosixPath('/a/b/c')

You cannot go past an anchor, or empty path:

>>>p=PurePosixPath('/')>>>p.parentPurePosixPath('/')>>>p=PurePosixPath('.')>>>p.parentPurePosixPath('.')

Note

This is a purely lexical operation, hence the following behaviour:

>>>p=PurePosixPath('foo/..')>>>p.parentPurePosixPath('foo')

If you want to walk an arbitrary filesystem path upwards, it isrecommended to first callPath.resolve() so as to resolvesymlinks and eliminate".." components.

PurePath.name

A string representing the final path component, excluding the drive androot, if any:

>>>PurePosixPath('my/library/setup.py').name'setup.py'

UNC drive names are not considered:

>>>PureWindowsPath('//some/share/setup.py').name'setup.py'>>>PureWindowsPath('//some/share').name''
PurePath.suffix

The file extension of the final component, if any:

>>>PurePosixPath('my/library/setup.py').suffix'.py'>>>PurePosixPath('my/library.tar.gz').suffix'.gz'>>>PurePosixPath('my/library').suffix''
PurePath.suffixes

A list of the path’s file extensions:

>>>PurePosixPath('my/library.tar.gar').suffixes['.tar', '.gar']>>>PurePosixPath('my/library.tar.gz').suffixes['.tar', '.gz']>>>PurePosixPath('my/library').suffixes[]
PurePath.stem

The final path component, without its suffix:

>>>PurePosixPath('my/library.tar.gz').stem'library.tar'>>>PurePosixPath('my/library.tar').stem'library'>>>PurePosixPath('my/library').stem'library'
PurePath.as_posix()

Return a string representation of the path with forward slashes (/):

>>>p=PureWindowsPath('c:\\windows')>>>str(p)'c:\\windows'>>>p.as_posix()'c:/windows'
PurePath.as_uri()

Represent the path as afile URI.ValueError is raised ifthe path isn’t absolute.

>>>p=PurePosixPath('/etc/passwd')>>>p.as_uri()'file:///etc/passwd'>>>p=PureWindowsPath('c:/Windows')>>>p.as_uri()'file:///c:/Windows'
PurePath.is_absolute()

Return whether the path is absolute or not. A path is considered absoluteif it has both a root and (if the flavour allows) a drive:

>>>PurePosixPath('/a/b').is_absolute()True>>>PurePosixPath('a/b').is_absolute()False>>>PureWindowsPath('c:/a/b').is_absolute()True>>>PureWindowsPath('/a/b').is_absolute()False>>>PureWindowsPath('c:').is_absolute()False>>>PureWindowsPath('//some/share').is_absolute()True
PurePath.is_relative_to(*other)

Return whether or not this path is relative to theother path.

>>>p=PurePath('/etc/passwd')>>>p.is_relative_to('/etc')True>>>p.is_relative_to('/usr')False

If multiple arguments are supplied, they are joined together.

This method is string-based; it neither accesses the filesystem nor treats“..” segments specially. The following code is equivalent:

>>>u=PurePath('/usr')>>>u==poruinp.parentsFalse

New in version 3.9.

PurePath.is_reserved()

WithPureWindowsPath, returnTrue if the path is consideredreserved under Windows,False otherwise. WithPurePosixPath,False is always returned.

>>>PureWindowsPath('nul').is_reserved()True>>>PurePosixPath('nul').is_reserved()False

File system calls on reserved paths can fail mysteriously or haveunintended effects.

PurePath.joinpath(*other)

Calling this method is equivalent to combining the path with each oftheother arguments in turn:

>>>PurePosixPath('/etc').joinpath('passwd')PurePosixPath('/etc/passwd')>>>PurePosixPath('/etc').joinpath(PurePosixPath('passwd'))PurePosixPath('/etc/passwd')>>>PurePosixPath('/etc').joinpath('init.d','apache2')PurePosixPath('/etc/init.d/apache2')>>>PureWindowsPath('c:').joinpath('/Program Files')PureWindowsPath('c:/Program Files')
PurePath.match(pattern)

Match this path against the provided glob-style pattern. ReturnTrueif matching is successful,False otherwise.

Ifpattern is relative, the path can be either relative or absolute,and matching is done from the right:

>>>PurePath('a/b.py').match('*.py')True>>>PurePath('/a/b/c.py').match('b/*.py')True>>>PurePath('/a/b/c.py').match('a/*.py')False

Ifpattern is absolute, the path must be absolute, and the whole pathmust match:

>>>PurePath('/a.py').match('/*.py')True>>>PurePath('a/b.py').match('/*.py')False

As with other methods, case-sensitivity follows platform defaults:

>>>PurePosixPath('b.py').match('*.PY')False>>>PureWindowsPath('b.py').match('*.PY')True
PurePath.relative_to(*other)

Compute a version of this path relative to the path represented byother. If it’s impossible, ValueError is raised:

>>>p=PurePosixPath('/etc/passwd')>>>p.relative_to('/')PurePosixPath('etc/passwd')>>>p.relative_to('/etc')PurePosixPath('passwd')>>>p.relative_to('/usr')Traceback (most recent call last):  File"<stdin>", line1, in<module>  File"pathlib.py", line694, inrelative_to.format(str(self),str(formatted)))ValueError:'/etc/passwd' is not in the subpath of '/usr' OR one path is relative and the other absolute.

If multiple arguments are supplied, they are joined together.

NOTE: This function is part ofPurePath and works with strings. It does not check or access the underlying file structure.

PurePath.with_name(name)

Return a new path with thename changed. If the original pathdoesn’t have a name, ValueError is raised:

>>>p=PureWindowsPath('c:/Downloads/pathlib.tar.gz')>>>p.with_name('setup.py')PureWindowsPath('c:/Downloads/setup.py')>>>p=PureWindowsPath('c:/')>>>p.with_name('setup.py')Traceback (most recent call last):  File"<stdin>", line1, in<module>  File"/home/antoine/cpython/default/Lib/pathlib.py", line751, inwith_nameraiseValueError("%r has an empty name"%(self,))ValueError:PureWindowsPath('c:/') has an empty name
PurePath.with_stem(stem)

Return a new path with thestem changed. If the original pathdoesn’t have a name, ValueError is raised:

>>>p=PureWindowsPath('c:/Downloads/draft.txt')>>>p.with_stem('final')PureWindowsPath('c:/Downloads/final.txt')>>>p=PureWindowsPath('c:/Downloads/pathlib.tar.gz')>>>p.with_stem('lib')PureWindowsPath('c:/Downloads/lib.gz')>>>p=PureWindowsPath('c:/')>>>p.with_stem('')Traceback (most recent call last):  File"<stdin>", line1, in<module>  File"/home/antoine/cpython/default/Lib/pathlib.py", line861, inwith_stemreturnself.with_name(stem+self.suffix)  File"/home/antoine/cpython/default/Lib/pathlib.py", line851, inwith_nameraiseValueError("%r has an empty name"%(self,))ValueError:PureWindowsPath('c:/') has an empty name

New in version 3.9.

PurePath.with_suffix(suffix)

Return a new path with thesuffix changed. If the original pathdoesn’t have a suffix, the newsuffix is appended instead. If thesuffix is an empty string, the original suffix is removed:

>>>p=PureWindowsPath('c:/Downloads/pathlib.tar.gz')>>>p.with_suffix('.bz2')PureWindowsPath('c:/Downloads/pathlib.tar.bz2')>>>p=PureWindowsPath('README')>>>p.with_suffix('.txt')PureWindowsPath('README.txt')>>>p=PureWindowsPath('README.txt')>>>p.with_suffix('')PureWindowsPath('README')

Concrete paths

Concrete paths are subclasses of the pure path classes. In addition tooperations provided by the latter, they also provide methods to do systemcalls on path objects. There are three ways to instantiate concrete paths:

classpathlib.Path(*pathsegments)

A subclass ofPurePath, this class represents concrete paths ofthe system’s path flavour (instantiating it creates either aPosixPath or aWindowsPath):

>>>Path('setup.py')PosixPath('setup.py')

pathsegments is specified similarly toPurePath.

classpathlib.PosixPath(*pathsegments)

A subclass ofPath andPurePosixPath, this classrepresents concrete non-Windows filesystem paths:

>>>PosixPath('/etc')PosixPath('/etc')

pathsegments is specified similarly toPurePath.

classpathlib.WindowsPath(*pathsegments)

A subclass ofPath andPureWindowsPath, this classrepresents concrete Windows filesystem paths:

>>>WindowsPath('c:/Program Files/')WindowsPath('c:/Program Files')

pathsegments is specified similarly toPurePath.

You can only instantiate the class flavour that corresponds to your system(allowing system calls on non-compatible path flavours could lead tobugs or failures in your application):

>>>importos>>>os.name'posix'>>>Path('setup.py')PosixPath('setup.py')>>>PosixPath('setup.py')PosixPath('setup.py')>>>WindowsPath('setup.py')Traceback (most recent call last):  File"<stdin>", line1, in<module>  File"pathlib.py", line798, in__new__%(cls.__name__,))NotImplementedError:cannot instantiate 'WindowsPath' on your system

Methods

Concrete paths provide the following methods in addition to pure pathsmethods. Many of these methods can raise anOSError if a systemcall fails (for example because the path doesn’t exist).

Changed in version 3.8:exists(),is_dir(),is_file(),is_mount(),is_symlink(),is_block_device(),is_char_device(),is_fifo(),is_socket() now returnFalseinstead of raising an exception for paths that contain charactersunrepresentable at the OS level.

classmethodPath.cwd()

Return a new path object representing the current directory (as returnedbyos.getcwd()):

>>>Path.cwd()PosixPath('/home/antoine/pathlib')
classmethodPath.home()

Return a new path object representing the user’s home directory (asreturned byos.path.expanduser() with~ construct). If the homedirectory can’t be resolved,RuntimeError is raised.

>>>Path.home()PosixPath('/home/antoine')

New in version 3.5.

Path.stat(*,follow_symlinks=True)

Return aos.stat_result object containing information about this path, likeos.stat().The result is looked up at each call to this method.

This method normally follows symlinks; to stat a symlink add the argumentfollow_symlinks=False, or uselstat().

>>>p=Path('setup.py')>>>p.stat().st_size956>>>p.stat().st_mtime1327883547.852554

Changed in version 3.10:Thefollow_symlinks parameter was added.

Path.chmod(mode,*,follow_symlinks=True)

Change the file mode and permissions, likeos.chmod().

This method normally follows symlinks. Some Unix flavours support changingpermissions on the symlink itself; on these platforms you may add theargumentfollow_symlinks=False, or uselchmod().

>>>p=Path('setup.py')>>>p.stat().st_mode33277>>>p.chmod(0o444)>>>p.stat().st_mode33060

Changed in version 3.10:Thefollow_symlinks parameter was added.

Path.exists()

Whether the path points to an existing file or directory:

>>>Path('.').exists()True>>>Path('setup.py').exists()True>>>Path('/etc').exists()True>>>Path('nonexistentfile').exists()False

Note

If the path points to a symlink,exists() returns whether thesymlinkpoints to an existing file or directory.

Path.expanduser()

Return a new path with expanded~ and~user constructs,as returned byos.path.expanduser(). If a home directory can’t beresolved,RuntimeError is raised.

>>>p=PosixPath('~/films/Monty Python')>>>p.expanduser()PosixPath('/home/eric/films/Monty Python')

New in version 3.5.

Path.glob(pattern)

Glob the given relativepattern in the directory represented by this path,yielding all matching files (of any kind):

>>>sorted(Path('.').glob('*.py'))[PosixPath('pathlib.py'), PosixPath('setup.py'), PosixPath('test_pathlib.py')]>>>sorted(Path('.').glob('*/*.py'))[PosixPath('docs/conf.py')]

Patterns are the same as forfnmatch, with the addition of “**”which means “this directory and all subdirectories, recursively”. In otherwords, it enables recursive globbing:

>>>sorted(Path('.').glob('**/*.py'))[PosixPath('build/lib/pathlib.py'), PosixPath('docs/conf.py'), PosixPath('pathlib.py'), PosixPath('setup.py'), PosixPath('test_pathlib.py')]

Note

Using the “**” pattern in large directory trees may consumean inordinate amount of time.

Raises anauditing eventpathlib.Path.glob with argumentsself,pattern.

Changed in version 3.11:Return only directories ifpattern ends with a pathname componentsseparator (sep oraltsep).

Path.group()

Return the name of the group owning the file.KeyError is raisedif the file’s gid isn’t found in the system database.

Path.is_dir()

ReturnTrue if the path points to a directory (or a symbolic linkpointing to a directory),False if it points to another kind of file.

False is also returned if the path doesn’t exist or is a broken symlink;other errors (such as permission errors) are propagated.

Path.is_file()

ReturnTrue if the path points to a regular file (or a symbolic linkpointing to a regular file),False if it points to another kind of file.

False is also returned if the path doesn’t exist or is a broken symlink;other errors (such as permission errors) are propagated.

Path.is_mount()

ReturnTrue if the path is amount point: a point in afile system where a different file system has been mounted. On POSIX, thefunction checks whetherpath’s parent,path/.., is on a differentdevice thanpath, or whetherpath/.. andpath point to the samei-node on the same device — this should detect mount points for all Unixand POSIX variants. Not implemented on Windows.

New in version 3.7.

Path.is_symlink()

ReturnTrue if the path points to a symbolic link,False otherwise.

False is also returned if the path doesn’t exist; other errors (suchas permission errors) are propagated.

Path.is_socket()

ReturnTrue if the path points to a Unix socket (or a symbolic linkpointing to a Unix socket),False if it points to another kind of file.

False is also returned if the path doesn’t exist or is a broken symlink;other errors (such as permission errors) are propagated.

Path.is_fifo()

ReturnTrue if the path points to a FIFO (or a symbolic linkpointing to a FIFO),False if it points to another kind of file.

False is also returned if the path doesn’t exist or is a broken symlink;other errors (such as permission errors) are propagated.

Path.is_block_device()

ReturnTrue if the path points to a block device (or a symbolic linkpointing to a block device),False if it points to another kind of file.

False is also returned if the path doesn’t exist or is a broken symlink;other errors (such as permission errors) are propagated.

Path.is_char_device()

ReturnTrue if the path points to a character device (or a symbolic linkpointing to a character device),False if it points to another kind of file.

False is also returned if the path doesn’t exist or is a broken symlink;other errors (such as permission errors) are propagated.

Path.iterdir()

When the path points to a directory, yield path objects of the directorycontents:

>>>p=Path('docs')>>>forchildinp.iterdir():child...PosixPath('docs/conf.py')PosixPath('docs/_templates')PosixPath('docs/make.bat')PosixPath('docs/index.rst')PosixPath('docs/_build')PosixPath('docs/_static')PosixPath('docs/Makefile')

The children are yielded in arbitrary order, and the special entries'.' and'..' are not included. If a file is removed from or addedto the directory after creating the iterator, whether a path object forthat file be included is unspecified.

Path.lchmod(mode)

LikePath.chmod() but, if the path points to a symbolic link, thesymbolic link’s mode is changed rather than its target’s.

Path.lstat()

LikePath.stat() but, if the path points to a symbolic link, returnthe symbolic link’s information rather than its target’s.

Path.mkdir(mode=0o777,parents=False,exist_ok=False)

Create a new directory at this given path. Ifmode is given, it iscombined with the process’umask value to determine the file modeand access flags. If the path already exists,FileExistsErroris raised.

Ifparents is true, any missing parents of this path are createdas needed; they are created with the default permissions without takingmode into account (mimicking the POSIXmkdir-p command).

Ifparents is false (the default), a missing parent raisesFileNotFoundError.

Ifexist_ok is false (the default),FileExistsError israised if the target directory already exists.

Ifexist_ok is true,FileExistsError will not be raised unless the givenpath already exists in the file system and is not a directory (samebehavior as the POSIXmkdir-p command).

Changed in version 3.5:Theexist_ok parameter was added.

Path.open(mode='r',buffering=-1,encoding=None,errors=None,newline=None)

Open the file pointed to by the path, like the built-inopen()function does:

>>>p=Path('setup.py')>>>withp.open()asf:...f.readline()...'#!/usr/bin/env python3\n'
Path.owner()

Return the name of the user owning the file.KeyError is raisedif the file’s uid isn’t found in the system database.

Path.read_bytes()

Return the binary contents of the pointed-to file as a bytes object:

>>>p=Path('my_binary_file')>>>p.write_bytes(b'Binary file contents')20>>>p.read_bytes()b'Binary file contents'

New in version 3.5.

Path.read_text(encoding=None,errors=None)

Return the decoded contents of the pointed-to file as a string:

>>>p=Path('my_text_file')>>>p.write_text('Text file contents')18>>>p.read_text()'Text file contents'

The file is opened and then closed. The optional parameters have the samemeaning as inopen().

New in version 3.5.

Path.readlink()

Return the path to which the symbolic link points (as returned byos.readlink()):

>>>p=Path('mylink')>>>p.symlink_to('setup.py')>>>p.readlink()PosixPath('setup.py')

New in version 3.9.

Path.rename(target)

Rename this file or directory to the giventarget, and return a new Pathinstance pointing totarget. On Unix, iftarget exists and is a file,it will be replaced silently if the user has permission.On Windows, iftarget exists,FileExistsError will be raised.target can be either a string or another path object:

>>>p=Path('foo')>>>p.open('w').write('some text')9>>>target=Path('bar')>>>p.rename(target)PosixPath('bar')>>>target.open().read()'some text'

The target path may be absolute or relative. Relative paths are interpretedrelative to the current working directory,not the directory of the Pathobject.

It is implemented in terms ofos.rename() and gives the same guarantees.

Changed in version 3.8:Added return value, return the new Path instance.

Path.replace(target)

Rename this file or directory to the giventarget, and return a new Pathinstance pointing totarget. Iftarget points to an existing file orempty directory, it will be unconditionally replaced.

The target path may be absolute or relative. Relative paths are interpretedrelative to the current working directory,not the directory of the Pathobject.

Changed in version 3.8:Added return value, return the new Path instance.

Path.absolute()

Make the path absolute, without normalization or resolving symlinks.Returns a new path object:

>>>p=Path('tests')>>>pPosixPath('tests')>>>p.absolute()PosixPath('/home/antoine/pathlib/tests')
Path.resolve(strict=False)

Make the path absolute, resolving any symlinks. A new path object isreturned:

>>>p=Path()>>>pPosixPath('.')>>>p.resolve()PosixPath('/home/antoine/pathlib')

..” components are also eliminated (this is the only method to do so):

>>>p=Path('docs/../setup.py')>>>p.resolve()PosixPath('/home/antoine/pathlib/setup.py')

If the path doesn’t exist andstrict isTrue,FileNotFoundErroris raised. Ifstrict isFalse, the path is resolved as far as possibleand any remainder is appended without checking whether it exists. If aninfinite loop is encountered along the resolution path,RuntimeErroris raised.

New in version 3.6:Thestrict argument (pre-3.6 behavior is strict).

Path.rglob(pattern)

This is like callingPath.glob() with “**/” added in front of thegiven relativepattern:

>>>sorted(Path().rglob("*.py"))[PosixPath('build/lib/pathlib.py'), PosixPath('docs/conf.py'), PosixPath('pathlib.py'), PosixPath('setup.py'), PosixPath('test_pathlib.py')]

Raises anauditing eventpathlib.Path.rglob with argumentsself,pattern.

Changed in version 3.11:Return only directories ifpattern ends with a pathname componentsseparator (sep oraltsep).

Path.rmdir()

Remove this directory. The directory must be empty.

Path.samefile(other_path)

Return whether this path points to the same file asother_path, whichcan be either a Path object, or a string. The semantics are similartoos.path.samefile() andos.path.samestat().

AnOSError can be raised if either file cannot be accessed for somereason.

>>>p=Path('spam')>>>q=Path('eggs')>>>p.samefile(q)False>>>p.samefile('spam')True

New in version 3.5.

Path.symlink_to(target,target_is_directory=False)

Make this path a symbolic link pointing totarget.

On Windows, a symlink represents either a file or a directory, and does notmorph to the target dynamically. If the target is present, the type of thesymlink will be created to match. Otherwise, the symlink will be createdas a directory iftarget_is_directory isTrue or a file symlink (thedefault) otherwise. On non-Windows platforms,target_is_directory is ignored.

>>>p=Path('mylink')>>>p.symlink_to('setup.py')>>>p.resolve()PosixPath('/home/antoine/pathlib/setup.py')>>>p.stat().st_size956>>>p.lstat().st_size8

Note

The order of arguments (link, target) is the reverseofos.symlink()’s.

Path.hardlink_to(target)

Make this path a hard link to the same file astarget.

Note

The order of arguments (link, target) is the reverseofos.link()’s.

New in version 3.10.

Path.link_to(target)

Maketarget a hard link to this path.

Warning

This function does not make this path a hard link totarget, despitethe implication of the function and argument names. The argument order(target, link) is the reverse ofPath.symlink_to() andPath.hardlink_to(), but matches that ofos.link().

New in version 3.8.

Deprecated since version 3.10:This method is deprecated in favor ofPath.hardlink_to(), as theargument order ofPath.link_to() does not match that ofPath.symlink_to().

Path.touch(mode=0o666,exist_ok=True)

Create a file at this given path. Ifmode is given, it is combinedwith the process’umask value to determine the file mode and accessflags. If the file already exists, the function succeeds ifexist_okis true (and its modification time is updated to the current time),otherwiseFileExistsError is raised.

Path.unlink(missing_ok=False)

Remove this file or symbolic link. If the path points to a directory,usePath.rmdir() instead.

Ifmissing_ok is false (the default),FileNotFoundError israised if the path does not exist.

Ifmissing_ok is true,FileNotFoundError exceptions will beignored (same behavior as the POSIXrm-f command).

Changed in version 3.8:Themissing_ok parameter was added.

Path.write_bytes(data)

Open the file pointed to in bytes mode, writedata to it, and close thefile:

>>>p=Path('my_binary_file')>>>p.write_bytes(b'Binary file contents')20>>>p.read_bytes()b'Binary file contents'

An existing file of the same name is overwritten.

New in version 3.5.

Path.write_text(data,encoding=None,errors=None,newline=None)

Open the file pointed to in text mode, writedata to it, and close thefile:

>>>p=Path('my_text_file')>>>p.write_text('Text file contents')18>>>p.read_text()'Text file contents'

An existing file of the same name is overwritten. The optional parametershave the same meaning as inopen().

New in version 3.5.

Changed in version 3.10:Thenewline parameter was added.

Correspondence to tools in theos module

Below is a table mapping variousos functions to their correspondingPurePath/Path equivalent.

Note

Not all pairs of functions/methods below are equivalent. Some of them,despite having some overlapping use-cases, have different semantics. Theyincludeos.path.abspath() andPath.absolute(),os.path.relpath() andPurePath.relative_to().

os andos.path

pathlib

os.path.abspath()

Path.absolute()[1]

os.path.realpath()

Path.resolve()

os.chmod()

Path.chmod()

os.mkdir()

Path.mkdir()

os.makedirs()

Path.mkdir()

os.rename()

Path.rename()

os.replace()

Path.replace()

os.rmdir()

Path.rmdir()

os.remove(),os.unlink()

Path.unlink()

os.getcwd()

Path.cwd()

os.path.exists()

Path.exists()

os.path.expanduser()

Path.expanduser() andPath.home()

os.listdir()

Path.iterdir()

os.path.isdir()

Path.is_dir()

os.path.isfile()

Path.is_file()

os.path.islink()

Path.is_symlink()

os.link()

Path.hardlink_to()

os.symlink()

Path.symlink_to()

os.readlink()

Path.readlink()

os.path.relpath()

PurePath.relative_to()[2]

os.stat()

Path.stat(),Path.owner(),Path.group()

os.path.isabs()

PurePath.is_absolute()

os.path.join()

PurePath.joinpath()

os.path.basename()

PurePath.name

os.path.dirname()

PurePath.parent

os.path.samefile()

Path.samefile()

os.path.splitext()

PurePath.stem andPurePath.suffix

Footnotes

[1]

os.path.abspath() normalizes the resulting path, which may change its meaning in the presence of symlinks, whilePath.absolute() does not.

[2]

PurePath.relative_to() requiresself to be the subpath of the argument, butos.path.relpath() does not.