pathlib — Object-oriented filesystem paths

Added in version 3.4.

Source code: Lib/pathlib/

---

This module offers classes representing filesystem paths with semantics appropriate for different operating systems. Path classes are divided between pure paths, which provide purely computational operations without I/O, and concrete 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, Path is most likely what you need. It instantiates a concrete 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 a WindowsPath when running on Unix, but you can instantiate PureWindowsPath.

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.path module.

Basic use

Importing the main class:

>>> from pathlib import Path

Listing subdirectories:

>>> p = Path('.')
>>> [x for x in p.iterdir() if x.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:

>>> with q.open() as f: f.readline()
...
'#!/bin/bash\n'

Exceptions

exception pathlib.UnsupportedOperation

An exception inheriting NotImplementedError that is raised when an unsupported operation is called on a path object.

Added in version 3.13.

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 call flavours:

class pathlib.PurePath(*pathsegments)

A generic class that represents the system’s path flavour (instantiating it creates either a PurePosixPath or a PureWindowsPath):

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

Each element of pathsegments can be either a string representing a path segment, or an object implementing the os.PathLike interface 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')

When pathsegments is empty, the current directory is assumed:

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

If a segment is an absolute path, all previous segments are ignored (like os.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 make PurePosixPath('foo/../bar') equivalent to PurePosixPath('bar'), which is wrong if foo is a symbolic link to another directory)

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

Changed in version 3.6: Added support for the os.PathLike interface.

class pathlib.PurePosixPath(*pathsegments)

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

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

pathsegments is specified similarly to PurePath.

class pathlib.PureWindowsPath(*pathsegments)

A subclass of PurePath, this path flavour represents Windows filesystem paths, including UNC paths:

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

pathsegments is specified similarly to PurePath.

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 and hashable. 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>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: '<' not supported between instances of 'PureWindowsPath' and 'PurePosixPath'

Operators

The slash operator helps create child paths, like os.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 implementing os.PathLike is accepted:

>>> import os
>>> 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, calling bytes on a path gives the raw filesystem path as a bytes object, as encoded by os.fsencode():

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

Note

Calling bytes 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 following property:

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.parser

The implementation of the os.path module used for low-level path parsing and joining: either posixpath or ntpath.

Added in version 3.13.

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 to The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6, paragraph 4.11 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 supports slices and 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 call Path.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 last dot-separated portion of the final component, if any:

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

This is commonly called the file extension.

Changed in version 3.14: A single dot (”.”) is considered a valid suffix.

PurePath.suffixes

A list of the path’s suffixes, often called file extensions:

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

Changed in version 3.14: A single dot (”.”) is considered a valid suffix.

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.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 the other path.

>>> 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 == p or u in p.parents
False

Added in version 3.9.

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

PurePath.is_reserved()

With PureWindowsPath, return True if the path is considered reserved under Windows, False otherwise. With PurePosixPath, False is always returned.

Changed in version 3.13: Windows path names that contain a colon, or end with a dot or a space, are considered reserved. UNC paths may be reserved.

Deprecated since version 3.13, will be removed in version 3.15: This method is deprecated; use os.path.isreserved() to detect reserved paths on Windows.

PurePath.joinpath(*pathsegments)

Calling this method is equivalent to combining the path with each of the given pathsegments 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.full_match(pattern, *, case_sensitive=None)

Match this path against the provided glob-style pattern. Return True if matching is successful, False otherwise. For example:

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

See also

Pattern language documentation.

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

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

Set case_sensitive to True or False to override this behaviour.

Added in version 3.13.

PurePath.match(pattern, *, case_sensitive=None)

Match this path against the provided non-recursive glob-style pattern. Return True if matching is successful, False otherwise.

This method is similar to full_match(), but empty patterns aren’t allowed (ValueError is raised), the recursive wildcard “**” isn’t supported (it acts like non-recursive “*”), and if a relative pattern is provided, then 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

Changed in version 3.12: The pattern parameter accepts a path-like object.

Changed in version 3.12: The case_sensitive parameter 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, 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>", line 1, in <module>
  File "pathlib.py", line 941, in relative_to
    raise ValueError(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.

When walk_up is false (the default), the path must start with other. 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, ValueError is 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>", line 1, in <module>
  File "pathlib.py", line 941, in relative_to
    raise ValueError(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 of PurePath and works with strings. It does not check or access the underlying file structure. This can impact the walk_up option as it assumes that no symlinks are present in the path; call resolve() first if necessary to resolve symlinks.

Changed in version 3.12: The walk_up parameter was added (old behavior is the same as walk_up=False).

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

PurePath.with_name(name)

Return a new path with the name changed. 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>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/default/Lib/pathlib.py", line 751, in with_name
    raise ValueError("%r has an empty name" % (self,))
ValueError: PureWindowsPath('c:/') has an empty name

PurePath.with_stem(stem)

Return a new path with the stem changed. 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>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/default/Lib/pathlib.py", line 861, in with_stem
    return self.with_name(stem + self.suffix)
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/default/Lib/pathlib.py", line 851, in with_name
    raise ValueError("%r has 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 the suffix changed. If the original path doesn’t have a suffix, the new suffix is appended instead. If the suffix 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')

Changed in version 3.14: A single dot (”.”) is considered a valid suffix. In previous versions, ValueError is raised if a single dot is supplied.

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 from parent and relative_to(). Subclasses may override this method to pass information to derivative paths, for example:

from pathlib import PurePosixPath

class MyPath(PurePosixPath):
    def __init__(self, *pathsegments, session_id):
        super().__init__(*pathsegments)
        self.session_id = session_id

    def with_segments(self, *pathsegments):
        return type(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:

class pathlib.Path(*pathsegments)

A subclass of PurePath, this class represents concrete paths of the system’s path flavour (instantiating it creates either a PosixPath or a WindowsPath):

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

pathsegments is specified similarly to PurePath.

class pathlib.PosixPath(*pathsegments)

A subclass of Path and PurePosixPath, this class represents concrete non-Windows filesystem paths:

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

pathsegments is specified similarly to PurePath.

Changed in version 3.13: Raises UnsupportedOperation on Windows. In previous versions, NotImplementedError was raised instead.

class pathlib.WindowsPath(*pathsegments)

A subclass of Path and PureWindowsPath, this class represents concrete Windows filesystem paths:

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

pathsegments is specified similarly to PurePath.

Changed in version 3.13: Raises UnsupportedOperation on non-Windows platforms. In previous versions, NotImplementedError was raised instead.

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):

>>> import os
>>> 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>", line 1, in <module>
  File "pathlib.py", line 798, in __new__
    % (cls.__name__,))
UnsupportedOperation: cannot instantiate 'WindowsPath' on your system

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

Parsing and generating URIs

Concrete path objects can be created from, and represented as, ‘file’ URIs conforming to RFC 8089.

Note

File URIs are not portable across machines with different filesystem encodings.

classmethod Path.from_uri(uri)

Return a new path object from parsing a ‘file’ URI. For example:

>>> p = Path.from_uri('file:///etc/hosts')
PosixPath('/etc/hosts')

On Windows, DOS device and UNC paths may be parsed from URIs:

>>> p = Path.from_uri('file:///c:/windows')
WindowsPath('c:/windows')
>>> p = Path.from_uri('file://server/share')
WindowsPath('//server/share')

Several variant forms are supported:

>>> p = Path.from_uri('file:////server/share')
WindowsPath('//server/share')
>>> p = Path.from_uri('file://///server/share')
WindowsPath('//server/share')
>>> p = Path.from_uri('file:c:/windows')
WindowsPath('c:/windows')
>>> p = Path.from_uri('file:/c|/windows')
WindowsPath('c:/windows')

ValueError is raised if the URI does not start with file:, or the parsed path isn’t absolute.

Added in version 3.13.

Path.as_uri()

Represent the path as a ‘file’ URI. ValueError is raised if the path isn’t absolute.

>>> p = PosixPath('/etc/passwd')
>>> p.as_uri()
'file:///etc/passwd'
>>> p = WindowsPath('c:/Windows')
>>> p.as_uri()
'file:///c:/Windows'

For historical reasons, this method is also available from PurePath objects. However, its use of os.fsencode() makes it strictly impure.

Expanding and resolving paths

classmethod Path.home()

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

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

Added in version 3.5.

Path.expanduser()

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

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

Added in version 3.5.

classmethod Path.cwd()

Return a new path object representing the current directory (as returned by os.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 a path doesn’t exist or a symlink loop is encountered, and strict is True, OSError is raised. If strict is False, the path is resolved as far as possible and any remainder is appended without checking whether it exists.

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

Changed in version 3.13: Symlink loops are treated like other errors: OSError is raised in strict mode, and no exception is raised in non-strict mode. In previous versions, RuntimeError is raised no matter the value of 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.

Changed in version 3.13: Raises UnsupportedOperation if os.readlink() is not available. In previous versions, NotImplementedError was raised.

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

Changed in version 3.14: The methods given above now return False instead of raising any OSError exception from the operating system. In previous versions, some kinds of OSError exception are raised, and others suppressed. The new behaviour is consistent with os.path.exists(), os.path.isdir(), etc. Use stat() to retrieve the file status without suppressing exceptions.

Path.stat(*, follow_symlinks=True)

Return an os.stat_result object containing information about this path, like os.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 use lstat().

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

Changed in version 3.10: The follow_symlinks parameter was added.

Path.lstat()

Like Path.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)

Return True if the path points to an existing file or directory. False will be returned if the path is invalid, inaccessible or missing. Use Path.stat() to distinguish between these cases.

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

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

Changed in version 3.12: The follow_symlinks parameter was added.

Path.is_file(*, follow_symlinks=True)

Return True if the path points to a regular file. False will be returned if the path is invalid, inaccessible or missing, or if it points to something other than a regular file. Use Path.stat() to distinguish between these cases.

This method normally follows symlinks; to exclude symlinks, add the argument follow_symlinks=False.

Changed in version 3.13: The follow_symlinks parameter was added.

Path.is_dir(*, follow_symlinks=True)

Return True if the path points to a directory. False will be returned if the path is invalid, inaccessible or missing, or if it points to something other than a directory. Use Path.stat() to distinguish between these cases.

This method normally follows symlinks; to exclude symlinks to directories, add the argument follow_symlinks=False.

Changed in version 3.13: The follow_symlinks parameter was added.

Path.is_symlink()

Return True if the path points to a symbolic link, even if that symlink is broken. False will be returned if the path is invalid, inaccessible or missing, or if it points to something other than a symbolic link. Use Path.stat() to distinguish between these cases.

Path.is_junction()

Return True if the path points to a junction, and False for any other type of file. Currently only Windows supports junctions.

Added in version 3.12.

Path.is_mount()

Return True if the path is a mount point: a point in a file system where a different file system has been mounted. On POSIX, the function checks whether path’s parent, path/.., is on a different device than path, or whether path/.. and path point 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()

Return True if the path points to a Unix socket. False will be returned if the path is invalid, inaccessible or missing, or if it points to something other than a Unix socket. Use Path.stat() to distinguish between these cases.

Path.is_fifo()

Return True if the path points to a FIFO. False will be returned if the path is invalid, inaccessible or missing, or if it points to something other than a FIFO. Use Path.stat() to distinguish between these cases.

Path.is_block_device()

Return True if the path points to a block device. False will be returned if the path is invalid, inaccessible or missing, or if it points to something other than a block device. Use Path.stat() to distinguish between these cases.

Path.is_char_device()

Return True if the path points to a character device. False will be returned if the path is invalid, inaccessible or missing, or if it points to something other than a character device. Use Path.stat() to distinguish between these cases.

Path.samefile(other_path)

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

An OSError can 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-in open() function does:

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

Path.read_text(encoding=None, errors=None, newline=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 in open().

Added in version 3.5.

Changed in version 3.13: The newline parameter was added.

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, write data to 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 in open().

Added in version 3.5.

Changed in version 3.10: The newline parameter was added.

Path.write_bytes(data)

Open the file pointed to in bytes mode, write data to 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')
>>> for child in p.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, OSError is raised.

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

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

See also

Pattern language documentation.

By default, or when the case_sensitive keyword-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. Set case_sensitive to True or False to override this behaviour.

By default, or when the recurse_symlinks keyword-only argument is set to False, this method follows symlinks except when expanding “**” wildcards. Set recurse_symlinks to True to always follow symlinks.

Raises an auditing event pathlib.Path.glob with arguments self, pattern.

Changed in version 3.12: The case_sensitive parameter was added.

Changed in version 3.13: The recurse_symlinks parameter was added.

Changed in version 3.13: The pattern parameter accepts a path-like object.

Changed in version 3.13: Any OSError exceptions raised from scanning the filesystem are suppressed. In previous versions, such exceptions are suppressed in many cases, but not all.

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

Glob the given relative pattern recursively. This is like calling Path.glob() with “**/” added in front of the pattern.

See also

Pattern language and Path.glob() documentation.

Raises an auditing event pathlib.Path.rglob with arguments self, pattern.

Changed in version 3.12: The case_sensitive parameter was added.

Changed in version 3.13: The recurse_symlinks parameter was added.

Changed in version 3.13: The pattern parameter accepts a path-like object.

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 at self (including self but excluding ‘.’ and ‘..’), the method yields a 3-tuple of (dirpath, dirnames, filenames).

dirpath is a Path to the directory currently being walked, dirnames is a list of strings for the names of subdirectories in dirpath (excluding '.' and '..'), and filenames is a list of strings for the names of the non-directory files in dirpath. To get a full path (which begins with self) to a file or directory in dirpath, do dirpath / name. Whether or not the lists are sorted is file system-dependent.

If the optional argument top_down is 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). If top_down is 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 of top_down, the list of subdirectories is retrieved before the triples for the directory and its subdirectories are walked.

When top_down is true, the caller can modify the dirnames list in-place (for example, using del or slice assignment), and Path.walk() will only recurse into the subdirectories whose names remain in dirnames. This can be used to prune the search, or to impose a specific order of visiting, or even to inform Path.walk() about directories the caller creates or renames before it resumes Path.walk() again. Modifying dirnames when top_down is false has no effect on the behavior of Path.walk() since the directories in dirnames have already been generated by the time dirnames is yielded to the caller.

By default, errors from os.scandir() are ignored. If the optional argument on_error is specified, it should be a callable; it will be called with one argument, an OSError instance. 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 the filename attribute of the exception object.

By default, Path.walk() does not follow symbolic links, and instead adds them to the filenames list. Set follow_symlinks to true to resolve symlinks and place them in dirnames and filenames as appropriate for their targets, and consequently visit directories pointed to by symlinks (where supported).

Note

Be aware that setting follow_symlinks to 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 from dirnames has been replaced with a symlink and follow_symlinks is false, Path.walk() will still try to descend into it. To prevent such behavior, remove directories from dirnames as appropriate.

Note

Unlike os.walk(), Path.walk() lists symlinks to directories in filenames if follow_symlinks is false.

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

from pathlib import Path
for root, dirs, files in Path("cpython/Lib/concurrent").walk(on_error=print):
  print(
      root,
      "consumes",
      sum((root / file).stat().st_size for file in files),
      "bytes in",
      len(files),
      "non-directory files"
  )
  if '__pycache__' in dirs:
        dirs.remove('__pycache__')

This next example is a simple implementation of shutil.rmtree(). Walking the tree bottom-up is essential as rmdir() 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.
for root, dirs, files in top.walk(top_down=False):
    for name in files:
        (root / name).unlink()
    for name in dirs:
        (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. If mode is given, it is combined with the process’s umask value to determine the file mode and access flags. If the file already exists, the function succeeds when exist_ok is true (and its modification time is updated to the current time), otherwise FileExistsError is raised.

See also

The open(), 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. If mode is given, it is combined with the process’s umask value to determine the file mode and access flags. If the path already exists, FileExistsError is raised.

If parents is true, any missing parents of this path are created as needed; they are created with the default permissions without taking mode into account (mimicking the POSIX mkdir -p command).

If parents is false (the default), a missing parent raises FileNotFoundError.

If exist_ok is false (the default), FileExistsError is raised if the target directory already exists.

If exist_ok is true, FileExistsError will not be raised unless the given path already exists in the file system and is not a directory (same behavior as the POSIX mkdir -p command).

Changed in version 3.5: The exist_ok parameter was added.

Path.symlink_to(target, target_is_directory=False)

Make this path a symbolic link pointing to target.

On Windows, a symlink represents either a file or a directory, and does not morph to the target dynamically. If the target is present, the type of the symlink will be created to match. Otherwise, the symlink will be created as a directory if target_is_directory is true or a file symlink (the default) otherwise. On non-Windows platforms, target_is_directory is ignored.

>>> 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 of os.symlink()’s.

Changed in version 3.13: Raises UnsupportedOperation if os.symlink() is not available. In previous versions, NotImplementedError was raised.

Path.hardlink_to(target)

Make this path a hard link to the same file as target.

Note

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

Added in version 3.10.

Changed in version 3.13: Raises UnsupportedOperation if os.link() is not available. In previous versions, NotImplementedError was raised.

Copying, moving and deleting

Path.copy(target, *, follow_symlinks=True, dirs_exist_ok=False, preserve_metadata=False)

Copy this file or directory tree to the given target, and return a new Path instance pointing to target.

If the source is a file, the target will be replaced if it is an existing file. If the source is a symlink and follow_symlinks is true (the default), the symlink’s target is copied. Otherwise, the symlink is recreated at the destination.

If the source is a directory and dirs_exist_ok is false (the default), a FileExistsError is raised if the target is an existing directory. If dirs_exists_ok is true, the copying operation will overwrite existing files within the destination tree with corresponding files from the source tree.

If preserve_metadata is false (the default), only directory structures and file data are guaranteed to be copied. Set preserve_metadata to true to ensure that file and directory permissions, flags, last access and modification times, and extended attributes are copied where supported. This argument has no effect when copying files on Windows (where metadata is always preserved).

Note

Where supported by the operating system and file system, this method performs a lightweight copy, where data blocks are only copied when modified. This is known as copy-on-write.

Added in version 3.14.

Path.copy_into(target_dir, *, follow_symlinks=True, dirs_exist_ok=False, preserve_metadata=False)

Copy this file or directory tree into the given target_dir, which should be an existing directory. Other arguments are handled identically to Path.copy(). Returns a new Path instance pointing to the copy.

Added in version 3.14.

Path.rename(target)

Rename this file or directory to the given target, and return a new Path instance pointing to target. On Unix, if target exists and is a file, it will be replaced silently if the user has permission. On Windows, if target 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 interpreted relative to the current working directory, not the directory of the Path object.

It is implemented in terms of os.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 given target, and return a new Path instance pointing to target. If target points 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, not the directory of the Path object.

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

Path.move(target)

Move this file or directory tree to the given target, and return a new Path instance pointing to target.

If the target doesn’t exist it will be created. If both this path and the target are existing files, then the target is overwritten. If both paths point to the same file or directory, or the target is a non-empty directory, then OSError is raised.

If both paths are on the same filesystem, the move is performed with os.replace(). Otherwise, this path is copied (preserving metadata and symlinks) and then deleted.

Added in version 3.14.

Path.move_into(target_dir)

Move this file or directory tree into the given target_dir, which should be an existing directory. Returns a new Path instance pointing to the moved path.

Added in version 3.14.

Path.unlink(missing_ok=False)

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

If missing_ok is false (the default), FileNotFoundError is raised if the path does not exist.

If missing_ok is true, FileNotFoundError exceptions will be ignored (same behavior as the POSIX rm -f command).

Changed in version 3.8: The missing_ok parameter was added.

Path.rmdir()

Remove this directory. The directory must be empty.

Permissions and ownership

Path.owner(*, follow_symlinks=True)

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

This method normally follows symlinks; to get the owner of the symlink, add the argument follow_symlinks=False.

Changed in version 3.13: Raises UnsupportedOperation if the pwd module is not available. In earlier versions, NotImplementedError was raised.

Changed in version 3.13: The follow_symlinks parameter was added.

Path.group(*, follow_symlinks=True)

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

This method normally follows symlinks; to get the group of the symlink, add the argument follow_symlinks=False.

Changed in version 3.13: Raises UnsupportedOperation if the grp module is not available. In earlier versions, NotImplementedError was raised.

Changed in version 3.13: The follow_symlinks parameter was added.

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

Change the file mode and permissions, like os.chmod().

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

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

Changed in version 3.10: The follow_symlinks parameter was added.

Path.lchmod(mode)

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

Pattern language

The following wildcards are supported in patterns for full_match(), glob() and rglob():

** (entire segment)

Matches any number of file or directory segments, including zero.

* (entire segment)

Matches one file or directory segment.

* (part of a segment)

Matches any number of non-separator characters, including zero.

?

Matches one non-separator character.

[seq]

Matches one character in seq.

[!seq]

Matches one character not in seq.

For a literal match, wrap the meta-characters in brackets. For example, "[?]" matches the character "?".

The “**” wildcard enables recursive globbing. A few examples:

Pattern	Meaning
“**/*”	Any path with at least one segment.
“**/*.py”	Any path with a final segment ending “.py”.
“assets/**”	Any path starting with “assets/”.
“assets/**/*”	Any path starting with “assets/”, excluding “assets/” itself.

Note

Globbing with the “**” wildcard visits every directory in the tree. Large directory trees may take a long time to search.

Changed in version 3.13: Globbing with a pattern that ends with “**” returns both files and directories. In previous versions, only directories were returned.

In Path.glob() and rglob(), a trailing slash may be added to the pattern to match only directories.

Changed in version 3.11: Globbing with a pattern that ends with a pathname components separator (sep or altsep) returns only directories.

Comparison to the glob module

The patterns accepted and results generated by Path.glob() and Path.rglob() differ slightly from those by the glob module:

1. Files beginning with a dot are not special in pathlib. This is like passing include_hidden=True to glob.glob().

2. “**” pattern components are always recursive in pathlib. This is like passing recursive=True to glob.glob().

3. “**” pattern components do not follow symlinks by default in pathlib. This behaviour has no equivalent in glob.glob(), but you can pass recurse_symlinks=True to Path.glob() for compatible behaviour.

4. Like all PurePath and Path objects, the values returned from Path.glob() and Path.rglob() don’t include trailing slashes.

5. The values returned from pathlib’s path.glob() and path.rglob() include the path as a prefix, unlike the results of glob.glob(root_dir=path).

6. The values returned from pathlib’s path.glob() and path.rglob() may include path itself, for example when globbing “**”, whereas the results of glob.glob(root_dir=path) never include an empty string that would correspond to path.

Comparison to the os and os.path modules

pathlib implements path operations using PurePath and Path objects, and so it’s said to be object-oriented. On the other hand, the os and os.path modules supply functions that work with low-level str and bytes objects, which is a more procedural approach. Some users consider the object-oriented style to be more readable.

Many functions in os and os.path support bytes paths and paths relative to directory descriptors. These features aren’t available in pathlib.

Python’s str and bytes types, and portions of the os and os.path modules, are written in C and are very speedy. pathlib is written in pure Python and is often slower, but rarely slow enough to matter.

pathlib’s path normalization is slightly more opinionated and consistent than os.path. For example, whereas os.path.abspath() eliminates “..” segments from a path, which may change its meaning if symlinks are involved, Path.absolute() preserves these segments for greater safety.

pathlib’s path normalization may render it unsuitable for some applications:

1. pathlib normalizes Path("my_folder/") to Path("my_folder"), which changes a path’s meaning when supplied to various operating system APIs and command-line utilities. Specifically, the absence of a trailing separator may allow the path to be resolved as either a file or directory, rather than a directory only.

2. pathlib normalizes Path("./my_program") to Path("my_program"), which changes a path’s meaning when used as an executable search path, such as in a shell or when spawning a child process. Specifically, the absence of a separator in the path may force it to be looked up in PATH rather than the current directory.

As a consequence of these differences, pathlib is not a drop-in replacement for os.path.

Corresponding tools

Below is a table mapping various os functions to their corresponding PurePath/Path equivalent.

os and os.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() calls abspath() to make paths absolute and remove “..” parts, whereas PurePath.relative_to() is a lexical operation that raises ValueError when 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, whereas Path.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 dirnames and filenames, whereas Path.walk() categorizes all symlinks into filenames when follow_symlinks is false (the default.)