pathlib— Object-oriented filesystem paths

Added in version 3.4.

Source code:Lib/pathlib.py

---

This module offers classes representing filesystem paths with semantics appropriate for different operating systems. Path classes are divided betweenpure paths,which provide purely computational operations without I/O, andconcrete paths,which inherit from pure paths but also provide I/O operations.

If you’ve never used this module before or just aren’t sure which class is right for your task,Pathis most likely what you need. It instantiates aconcrete pathfor 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 aWindowsPathwhen running on Unix, but you can instantiatePureWindowsPath.

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

See also

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

See also

For low-level path manipulation on strings, you can also use the os.pathmodule.

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'
>>>q
PosixPath('/etc/init.d/reboot')
>>>q.resolve()
PosixPath('/etc/rc.d/init.d/halt')

Querying path properties:

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

Opening a file:

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

Pure paths

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

classpathlib.PurePath(*pathsegments)

A generic class that represents the system’s path flavour (instantiating it creates either aPurePosixPathor aPureWindowsPath):

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

Each element ofpathsegmentscan be either a string representing a path segment, or an object implementing theos.PathLikeinterface where the__fspath__()method returns a string, such as another path object:

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

Whenpathsegmentsis 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 path segment (e.g.,r'\foo') is encountered:

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

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

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

(a naïve approach would makePurePosixPath('foo/../bar')equivalent toPurePosixPath('bar'),which is wrong iffoois a symbolic link to another directory)

Pure path objects implement theos.PathLikeinterface, allowing them to be used anywhere the interface is accepted.

Changed in version 3.6:Added support for theos.PathLikeinterface.

classpathlib.PurePosixPath(*pathsegments)

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

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

pathsegmentsis specified similarly toPurePath.

classpathlib.PureWindowsPath(*pathsegments)

A subclass ofPurePath,this path flavour represents Windows filesystem paths, includingUNC paths:

>>>PureWindowsPath('c:/','Users','Ximénez')
PureWindowsPath('c:/Users/Ximénez')
>>>PureWindowsPath('//server/share/file')
PureWindowsPath('//server/share/file')

pathsegmentsis specified similarly toPurePath.

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

General properties

Paths are immutable andhashable.Paths of a same flavour are comparable and orderable. These properties respect the flavour’s case-folding semantics:

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

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

>>>PureWindowsPath('foo')==PurePosixPath('foo')
False
>>>PureWindowsPath('foo')<PurePosixPath('foo')
Traceback (most recent call last):
File"<stdin>",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 rooted relative path (e.g.,r'\foo'):

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

A path object can be used anywhere an object implementingos.PathLike is 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 can pass to any function taking a file path as a string:

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

Similarly, callingbyteson a path gives the raw filesystem path as a bytes object, as encoded byos.fsencode():

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

Note

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

Accessing individual parts

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

PurePath.parts

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

>>>p=PurePath('/usr/bin/ Python 3')
>>>p.parts
('/', 'usr', 'bin', ' Python 3')

>>>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, PurePosixPathcollapses 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 in an implementation-defined manner, although more than two leading slashes shall 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 of the path:

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

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

PurePath.parent

The logical parent of the path:

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

You cannot go past an anchor, or empty path:

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

Note

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

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

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

PurePath.name

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

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

UNC drive names are not considered:

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

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 afileURI.ValueErroris raised if the 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 absolute if it has both a root and (if the flavour allows) a drive:

>>>PurePosixPath('/a/b').is_absolute()
True
>>>PurePosixPath('a/b').is_absolute()
False

>>>PureWindowsPath('c:/a/b').is_absolute()
True
>>>PureWindowsPath('/a/b').is_absolute()
False
>>>PureWindowsPath('c:').is_absolute()
False
>>>PureWindowsPath('//some/share').is_absolute()
True

PurePath.is_relative_to(other)

Return whether or not this path is relative to theotherpath.

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

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

>>>u=PurePath('/usr')
>>>u==poruinp.parents
False

Added in version 3.9.

Deprecated since version 3.12, will be removed in version 3.14:Passing additional arguments is deprecated; if supplied, they are joined withother.

PurePath.is_reserved()

WithPureWindowsPath,returnTrueif the path is considered reserved under Windows,Falseotherwise. WithPurePosixPath, Falseis always returned.

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

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

PurePath.joinpath(*pathsegments)

Calling this method is equivalent to combining the path with each of the givenpathsegmentsin 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,*,case_sensitive=None)

Match this path against the provided glob-style pattern. ReturnTrue if matching is successful,Falseotherwise.

Ifpatternis 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

Ifpatternis absolute, the path must be absolute, and the whole path must match:

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

Thepatternmay be another path object; this speeds up matching the same pattern against multiple files:

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

Note

The recursive wildcard “**”isn’t supported by this method (it acts like non-recursive “*”.)

Changed in version 3.12:Accepts an object implementing theos.PathLikeinterface.

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

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

Setcase_sensitivetoTrueorFalseto override this behaviour.

Changed in version 3.12:Thecase_sensitiveparameter was added.

PurePath.relative_to(other,walk_up=False)

Compute a version of this path relative to the path represented by other.If it’s impossible,ValueErroris 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",line941,inrelative_to
raiseValueError(error_message.format(str(self),str(formatted)))
ValueError:'/etc/passwd' is not in the subpath of '/usr' OR one path is relative and the other is absolute.

Whenwalk_upis false (the default), the path must start withother. When the argument is true,..entries may be added to form the relative path. In all other cases, such as the paths referencing different drives,ValueErroris raised.:

>>>p.relative_to('/usr',walk_up=True)
PurePosixPath('../etc/passwd')
>>>p.relative_to('foo',walk_up=True)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File"<stdin>",line1,in<module>
File"pathlib.py",line941,inrelative_to
raiseValueError(error_message.format(str(self),str(formatted)))
ValueError:'/etc/passwd' is not on the same drive as 'foo' OR one path is relative and the other is absolute.

Warning

This function is part ofPurePathand works with strings. It does not check or access the underlying file structure. This can impact thewalk_upoption as it assumes that no symlinks are present in the path; callresolve()first if necessary to resolve symlinks.

Changed in version 3.12:Thewalk_upparameter was added (old behavior is the same aswalk_up=False).

Deprecated since version 3.12, will be removed in version 3.14:Passing additional positional arguments is deprecated; if supplied, they are joined withother.

PurePath.with_name(name)

Return a new path with thenamechanged. If the original path doesn’t have a name, ValueError is raised:

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

PurePath.with_stem(stem)

Return a new path with thestemchanged. If the original path doesn’t have a name, ValueError is raised:

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

Added in version 3.9.

PurePath.with_suffix(suffix)

Return a new path with thesuffixchanged. If the original path doesn’t have a suffix, the newsuffixis appended instead. If the suffixis 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')

PurePath.with_segments(*pathsegments)

Create a new path object of the same type by combining the given pathsegments.This method is called whenever a derivative path is created, such as fromparentandrelative_to().Subclasses may override this method to pass information to derivative paths, for example:

frompathlibimportPurePosixPath

classMyPath(PurePosixPath):
def__init__(self,*pathsegments,session_id):
super().__init__(*pathsegments)
self.session_id=session_id

defwith_segments(self,*pathsegments):
returntype(self)(*pathsegments,session_id=self.session_id)

etc=MyPath('/etc',session_id=42)
hosts=etc/'hosts'
print(hosts.session_id)# 42

Added in version 3.12.

Concrete paths

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

classpathlib.Path(*pathsegments)

A subclass ofPurePath,this class represents concrete paths of the system’s path flavour (instantiating it creates either a PosixPathor aWindowsPath):

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

pathsegmentsis specified similarly toPurePath.

classpathlib.PosixPath(*pathsegments)

A subclass ofPathandPurePosixPath,this class represents concrete non-Windows filesystem paths:

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

pathsegmentsis specified similarly toPurePath.

classpathlib.WindowsPath(*pathsegments)

A subclass ofPathandPureWindowsPath,this class represents concrete Windows filesystem paths:

>>>WindowsPath('c:/','Users','Ximénez')
WindowsPath('c:/Users/Ximénez')

pathsegmentsis 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 to bugs 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

Some concrete path methods can raise anOSErrorif a system call fails (for example because the path doesn’t exist).

Expanding and resolving paths

classmethodPath.home()

Return a new path object representing the user’s home directory (as returned byos.path.expanduser()with~construct). If the home directory can’t be resolved,RuntimeErroris raised.

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

Added in version 3.5.

Path.expanduser()

Return a new path with expanded~and~userconstructs, as returned byos.path.expanduser().If a home directory can’t be resolved,RuntimeErroris raised.

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

Added in version 3.5.

classmethodPath.cwd()

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

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

Path.absolute()

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

>>>p=Path('tests')
>>>p
PosixPath('tests')
>>>p.absolute()
PosixPath('/home/antoine/pathlib/tests')

Path.resolve(strict=False)

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

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

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

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

If the path doesn’t exist andstrictisTrue,FileNotFoundError is raised. IfstrictisFalse,the path is resolved as far as possible and any remainder is appended without checking whether it exists. If an infinite loop is encountered along the resolution path,RuntimeError is raised.

Changed in version 3.6:Thestrictparameter was added (pre-3.6 behavior is strict).

Path.readlink()

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

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

Added in version 3.9.

Querying file type and status

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 returnFalse instead of raising an exception for paths that contain characters unrepresentable at the OS level.

Path.stat(*,follow_symlinks=True)

Return anos.stat_resultobject 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 argument follow_symlinks=False,or uselstat().

>>>p=Path('setup.py')
>>>p.stat().st_size
956
>>>p.stat().st_mtime
1327883547.852554

Changed in version 3.10:Thefollow_symlinksparameter was added.

Path.lstat()

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

Path.exists(*,follow_symlinks=True)

ReturnTrueif the path points to an existing file or directory.

This method normally follows symlinks; to check if a symlink exists, add the argumentfollow_symlinks=False.

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

Changed in version 3.12:Thefollow_symlinksparameter was added.

Path.is_file()

ReturnTrueif the path points to a regular file (or a symbolic link pointing to a regular file),Falseif it points to another kind of file.

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

Path.is_dir()

ReturnTrueif the path points to a directory (or a symbolic link pointing to a directory),Falseif it points to another kind of file.

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

Path.is_symlink()

ReturnTrueif the path points to a symbolic link,Falseotherwise.

Falseis also returned if the path doesn’t exist; other errors (such as permission errors) are propagated.

Path.is_junction()

ReturnTrueif the path points to a junction, andFalsefor any other type of file. Currently only Windows supports junctions.

Added in version 3.12.

Path.is_mount()

ReturnTrueif the path is amount point:a point in a file system where a different file system has been mounted. On POSIX, the function checks whetherpath’s parent,path/..,is on a different device thanpath,or whetherpath/..andpathpoint to the same i-node on the same device — this should detect mount points for all Unix and POSIX variants. On Windows, a mount point is considered to be a drive letter root (e.g.c:\), a UNC share (e.g.\\server\share), or a mounted filesystem directory.

Added in version 3.7.

Changed in version 3.12:Windows support was added.

Path.is_socket()

ReturnTrueif the path points to a Unix socket (or a symbolic link pointing to a Unix socket),Falseif it points to another kind of file.

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

Path.is_fifo()

ReturnTrueif the path points to a FIFO (or a symbolic link pointing to a FIFO),Falseif it points to another kind of file.

Falseis 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()

ReturnTrueif the path points to a block device (or a symbolic link pointing to a block device),Falseif it points to another kind of file.

Falseis 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()

ReturnTrueif the path points to a character device (or a symbolic link pointing to a character device),Falseif it points to another kind of file.

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

Path.samefile(other_path)

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

AnOSErrorcan be raised if either file cannot be accessed for some reason.

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

Added in version 3.5.

Reading and writing files

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 Python 3\n'

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 same meaning as inopen().

Added in version 3.5.

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'

Added in version 3.5.

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

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

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

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

Added in version 3.5.

Changed in version 3.10:Thenewlineparameter was added.

Path.write_bytes(data)

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

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

An existing file of the same name is overwritten.

Added in version 3.5.

Reading directories

Path.iterdir()

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

>>>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 added to the directory after creating the iterator, it is unspecified whether a path object for that file is included.

If the path is not a directory or otherwise inaccessible,OSErroris raised.

Path.glob(pattern,*,case_sensitive=None)

Glob the given relativepatternin 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 other words, 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')]

This method callsPath.is_dir()on the top-level directory and propagates anyOSErrorexception that is raised. Subsequent OSErrorexceptions from scanning directories are suppressed.

By default, or when thecase_sensitivekeyword-only argument is set to None,this method matches paths using platform-specific casing rules: typically, case-sensitive on POSIX, and case-insensitive on Windows. Setcase_sensitivetoTrueorFalseto override this behaviour.

Note

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

Raises anauditing eventpathlib.Path.globwith argumentsself,pattern.

Changed in version 3.11:Return only directories ifpatternends with a pathname components separator (seporaltsep).

Changed in version 3.12:Thecase_sensitiveparameter was added.

Path.rglob(pattern,*,case_sensitive=None)

Glob the given relativepatternrecursively. This is like calling Path.glob()with “**/”added in front of thepattern,where patternsare the same as forfnmatch:

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

By default, or when thecase_sensitivekeyword-only argument is set to None,this method matches paths using platform-specific casing rules: typically, case-sensitive on POSIX, and case-insensitive on Windows. Setcase_sensitivetoTrueorFalseto override this behaviour.

Raises anauditing eventpathlib.Path.rglobwith argumentsself,pattern.

Changed in version 3.11:Return only directories ifpatternends with a pathname components separator (seporaltsep).

Changed in version 3.12:Thecase_sensitiveparameter was added.

Path.walk(top_down=True,on_error=None,follow_symlinks=False)

Generate the file names in a directory tree by walking the tree either top-down or bottom-up.

For each directory in the directory tree rooted atself(including selfbut excluding ‘.’ and ‘..’), the method yields a 3-tuple of (dirpath,dirnames,filenames).

dirpathis aPathto the directory currently being walked, dirnamesis a list of strings for the names of subdirectories indirpath (excluding'.'and'..'), andfilenamesis a list of strings for the names of the non-directory files indirpath.To get a full path (which begins withself) to a file or directory indirpath,do dirpath/name.Whether or not the lists are sorted is file system-dependent.

If the optional argumenttop_downis true (which is the default), the triple for a directory is generated before the triples for any of its subdirectories (directories are walked top-down). Iftop_downis false, the triple for a directory is generated after the triples for all of its subdirectories (directories are walked bottom-up). No matter the value oftop_down,the list of subdirectories is retrieved before the triples for the directory and its subdirectories are walked.

Whentop_downis true, the caller can modify thedirnameslist in-place (for example, usingdelor slice assignment), andPath.walk() will only recurse into the subdirectories whose names remain indirnames. This can be used to prune the search, or to impose a specific order of visiting, or even to informPath.walk()about directories the caller creates or renames before it resumesPath.walk()again. Modifyingdirnameswhen top_downis false has no effect on the behavior ofPath.walk()since the directories indirnameshave already been generated by the timedirnames is yielded to the caller.

By default, errors fromos.scandir()are ignored. If the optional argumenton_erroris specified, it should be a callable; it will be called with one argument, anOSErrorinstance. The callable can handle the error to continue the walk or re-raise it to stop the walk. Note that the filename is available as thefilenameattribute of the exception object.

By default,Path.walk()does not follow symbolic links, and instead adds them to thefilenameslist. Setfollow_symlinksto true to resolve symlinks and place them indirnamesandfilenamesas appropriate for their targets, and consequently visit directories pointed to by symlinks (where supported).

Note

Be aware that settingfollow_symlinksto true can lead to infinite recursion if a link points to a parent directory of itself.Path.walk() does not keep track of the directories it has already visited.

Note

Path.walk()assumes the directories it walks are not modified during execution. For example, if a directory fromdirnameshas been replaced with a symlink andfollow_symlinksis false,Path.walk()will still try to descend into it. To prevent such behavior, remove directories fromdirnamesas appropriate.

Note

Unlikeos.walk(),Path.walk()lists symlinks to directories in filenamesiffollow_symlinksis false.

This example displays the number of bytes used by all files in each directory, while ignoring__pycache__directories:

frompathlibimportPath
forroot,dirs,filesinPath("c Python /Lib/concurrent").walk(on_error=print):
print(
root,
"consumes",
sum((root/file).stat().st_sizeforfileinfiles),
"bytes in",
len(files),
"non-directory files"
)
if'__pycache__'indirs:
dirs.remove('__pycache__')

This next example is a simple implementation ofshutil.rmtree(). Walking the tree bottom-up is essential asrmdir()doesn’t allow deleting a directory before it is empty:

# Delete everything reachable from the directory "top".
# CAUTION: This is dangerous! For example, if top == Path('/'),
# it could delete all of your files.
forroot,dirs,filesintop.walk(top_down=False):
fornameinfiles:
(root/name).unlink()
fornameindirs:
(root/name).rmdir()

Added in version 3.12.

Creating files and directories

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

Create a file at this given path. Ifmodeis given, it is combined with the process’sumaskvalue to determine the file mode and access flags. If the file already exists, the function succeeds whenexist_ok is true (and its modification time is updated to the current time), otherwiseFileExistsErroris raised.

See also

Theopen(),write_text()and write_bytes()methods are often used to create files.

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

Create a new directory at this given path. Ifmodeis given, it is combined with the process’sumaskvalue to determine the file mode and access flags. If the path already exists,FileExistsError is raised.

Ifparentsis true, any missing parents of this path are created as needed; they are created with the default permissions without taking modeinto account (mimicking the POSIXmkdir-pcommand).

Ifparentsis false (the default), a missing parent raises FileNotFoundError.

Ifexist_okis false (the default),FileExistsErroris raised if the target directory already exists.

Ifexist_okis true,FileExistsErrorwill not be raised unless the given path already exists in the file system and is not a directory (same behavior as the POSIXmkdir-pcommand).

Changed in version 3.5:Theexist_okparameter was added.

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 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 iftarget_is_directoryis true or a file symlink (the default) otherwise. On non-Windows platforms,target_is_directoryis ignored.

>>>p=Path('mylink')
>>>p.symlink_to('setup.py')
>>>p.resolve()
PosixPath('/home/antoine/pathlib/setup.py')
>>>p.stat().st_size
956
>>>p.lstat().st_size
8

Note

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

Added in version 3.10.

Renaming and deleting

Path.rename(target)

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

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

The target path may be absolute or relative. Relative paths are interpreted relative to the current working directory,notthe 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 newPathinstance.

Path.replace(target)

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

The target path may be absolute or relative. Relative paths are interpreted relative to the current working directory,notthe directory of the Pathobject.

Changed in version 3.8:Added return value, return the newPathinstance.

Path.unlink(missing_ok=False)

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

Ifmissing_okis false (the default),FileNotFoundErroris raised if the path does not exist.

Ifmissing_okis true,FileNotFoundErrorexceptions will be ignored (same behavior as the POSIXrm-fcommand).

Changed in version 3.8:Themissing_okparameter was added.

Path.rmdir()

Remove this directory. The directory must be empty.

Permissions and ownership

Path.owner()

Return the name of the user owning the file.KeyErroris raised if the file’s user identifier (UID) isn’t found in the system database.

Path.group()

Return the name of the group owning the file.KeyErroris raised if the file’s group identifier (GID) isn’t found in the system database.

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

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

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

>>>p=Path('setup.py')
>>>p.stat().st_mode
33277
>>>p.chmod(0o444)
>>>p.stat().st_mode
33060

Changed in version 3.10:Thefollow_symlinksparameter was added.

Path.lchmod(mode)

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

Correspondence to tools in theosmodule

Below is a table mapping variousosfunctions to their corresponding PurePath/Pathequivalent.

osandos.path	pathlib
os.path.dirname()	PurePath.parent
os.path.basename()	PurePath.name
os.path.splitext()	PurePath.stem,PurePath.suffix
os.path.join()	PurePath.joinpath()
os.path.isabs()	PurePath.is_absolute()
os.path.relpath()	PurePath.relative_to()[1]
os.path.expanduser()	Path.expanduser()[2]
os.path.realpath()	Path.resolve()
os.path.abspath()	Path.absolute()[3]
os.path.exists()	Path.exists()
os.path.isfile()	Path.is_file()
os.path.isdir()	Path.is_dir()
os.path.islink()	Path.is_symlink()
os.path.isjunction()	Path.is_junction()
os.path.ismount()	Path.is_mount()
os.path.samefile()	Path.samefile()
os.getcwd()	Path.cwd()
os.stat()	Path.stat()
os.lstat()	Path.lstat()
os.listdir()	Path.iterdir()
os.walk()	Path.walk()[4]
os.mkdir(),os.makedirs()	Path.mkdir()
os.link()	Path.hardlink_to()
os.symlink()	Path.symlink_to()
os.readlink()	Path.readlink()
os.rename()	Path.rename()
os.replace()	Path.replace()
os.remove(),os.unlink()	Path.unlink()
os.rmdir()	Path.rmdir()
os.chmod()	Path.chmod()
os.lchmod()	Path.lchmod()

Footnotes

[1]

os.path.relpath()callsabspath()to make paths absolute and remove “..”parts, whereasPurePath.relative_to() is a lexical operation that raisesValueErrorwhen its inputs’ anchors differ (e.g. if one path is absolute and the other relative.)

[2]

os.path.expanduser()returns the path unchanged if the home directory can’t be resolved, whereasPath.expanduser()raises RuntimeError.

[3]

os.path.abspath()removes “..”components without resolving symlinks, which may change the meaning of the path, whereas Path.absolute()leaves any “..”components in the path.

[4]

os.walk()always follows symlinks when categorizing paths into dirnamesandfilenames,whereasPath.walk()categorizes all symlinks intofilenameswhenfollow_symlinksis false (the default.)