28.9. os.path: File and directory interface

28.9. `os.path`: File and directory interface

These functions allow you to deal with path names and directory trees. To use a given method in this module, import the os module and then use os.path.method().

For example, to get the base name of a path p, use os.path.basename(p).

abspath(p): Return the absolute path name that is equivalent to path p.
basename(p): Return the base name portion of a path name string p. See split(), below.
commonprefix(L): For a list L containing pathname strings, return the longest string that is a prefix of each element in L.
exists(p): Predicate for testing whether pathname p exists.
expanduser(p): If p is a pathname starting with a tilde character (~), return the equivalent full pathname; otherwise return p.
isabs(p): Predicate for testing whether p is an absolute pathname (e.g., starts with a slash on Unix systems).
isfile(p): Predicate for testing whether p refers to a regular file, as opposed to a directory, link, or device.
islink(p): Predicate for testing whether p is a soft (symbolic) link.
ismount(p): Predicate for testing whether p is a mount point, that is, whether p is on a different device than its parent directory.
join(p,q): If q is an absolute path, returns q. Otherwise, if p is empty or ends in a slash, returns p+q, but otherwise it returns p+'/'+q.
normcase(p): Return pathname p with its case normalized. On Unix systems, this does nothing, but on Macs it lowercases p.
samefile(p,q): Predicate for testing whether p and q are the same file (that is, the same inode on the same device). This method may raise an exception if os.stat() fails for either argument.
split(p): Return a 2-tuple (H,T) where T is the tail end of the pathname (not containing a slash) and H is everything up to the tail. If p ends with a slash, returns (p,''). If p contains no slashes, returns ('',p). The returned H string will have its trailing slash removed unless H is the root directory.
splitext(p): Returns a 2-tuple (R,E) where E is the “extension” part of the pathname and R is the “root” part. If p contains at least one period, E will contain the last period and everything after that, and R will be everything up to but not including the last period. If p contains no periods, returns (p,'').
walk(p,V,a): Walks an entire directory structure starting at pathname p. See below for more information.

The os.path.walk(p,V,a) function does the following for every directory at or below p (including p if p is a directory), this method calls the “visitor function” V with arguments

V(a,d,N)

`a`	The same `a` passed to `os.path.walk()`. You can use `a` to provide information to the `V()` function, or to accumulate information throughout the traversal of the directory structure.
`d`	A string containing the name of the directory being visited.
`N`	A list of all the names within directory `d`. You can remove elements from this list in place if there are some elements of `d` that you don't want `walk()` to visit.

Python 2.7 quick reference

28.9. os.path: File and directory interface

28.9. `os.path`: File and directory interface