Python OS Path Module Tutorial

Python OS Path Module Tutorial

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Python OS Module provides the functions related path for different operating systems. The os.path module provides functions in order to use with string or byte parameters. In this tutorial, we will learn some popular OS Path module functions and usage which can be very helpful.

Return Base Name

A path consists of a directory name and base name which is the file name. The basename() method is used to return the base name of the given path.

import os

print(os.path.basename("/home/ismail/file.txt"))

print(os.path.basename("/etc/passwd"))

print(os.path.basename("/var/log/syslog"))

print(os.path.basename("/home/ismail/"))

print(os.path.basename("/home/log"))

If the path’s last character is / then the given path does not return a file because file names do not contain /. So the “/home/ismail/” does not contain a base name. The output is like below.

file.txt
passwd
syslog

log

Return Directory Name

The directory name is the complete absolute path of the given path. The file name or base name part will be removed from the path. The dirname() method is used for this operation.

import os

print(os.path.dirname("/home/ismail/file.txt"))

print(os.path.dirname("/etc/passwd"))

print(os.path.dirname("/var/log/syslog"))

print(os.path.dirname("/home/ismail/"))

print(os.path.dirname("/home/log"))

The output is like below.

/home/ismail
/etc
/var/log
/home/ismail
/home

Check If Specified Path Is Absolute

A path can be specified in two ways which are called absolute or relative. The absolute path specifies the path complete from the root or drive letter. The isabs() method is used to check if the given path is absolute.

import os

print(os.path.isabs("/home/ismail/file.txt"))

print(os.path.isabs("/etc/passwd"))

print(os.path.isabs("log/syslog"))

print(os.path.isabs("/home/ismail/"))

print(os.path.isabs("./log"))

The output is like below.

True
True
False
True
False

Check If Specified Path Is Directory

The isdir() method is used to check if the specified directory exists and a directory. If one of the checks fails the isdir() method returns False and if both of them are OK it will return True.

import os

print(os.path.isdir("/home/ismail/file.txt"))

print(os.path.isdir("/etc/passwd"))

print(os.path.isdir("log/syslog"))

print(os.path.isdir("/home/ismail/"))

print(os.path.isdir("/var/log"))

The output is like below.

False
False
False
True
True

Check If Specified Path Is File

The isfile() method is used to check if the specified path is a file and exists. If one of the checks fails the isfile() method returns False if both of the checks OK it returns True.

import os

print(os.path.isfile("/home/ismail/file.txt"))

print(os.path.isfile("/etc/passwd"))

print(os.path.isfile("log/syslog"))

print(os.path.isfile("/home/ismail/"))

print(os.path.isfile("/var/log"))

The output is like below.

False
True
False
False
False

Normalize Case

The Linux and MacOSX use the path names as lowercase which is also lowercase too. But in Windows, the path names converted into the lowercase and forward slashes to backslashes. The windows type path names cases can be normalized with the normcase() method. but this method will work on Windows operating systems.

import os

print(os.path.normcase("/ETC/passwd"))

print(os.path.normcase("log/sYSLog"))

The output will be like below.

\\etc\\passwd
log\\syslog

Join Paths

The OS Path module provides the join() method which is used to join two or more paths together. This method can be very useful especially with the directory name and base name concatenation.

import os

basename = "file.txt"
directoryname = "/home/ismail"
path = os.path.join(directoryname,basename)
print(path)


basename = "list.xls"
directoryname = "/home"
username="ismail"
path = os.path.join(directoryname,username,basename)
print(path)

The output will be like below.

/home/ismail/file.txt
/home/ismail/list.xls

Get Size Of Specified Path (File or Directory)

The specified path size can be returned with the getsize() method. This method can return the file or directory size. The directory size is 4096 bytes by default. 

import os

print(os.path.getsize("/home/ismail"))

print(os.path.getsize("/var/log/syslog"))

The output will be like below. The returned sizes are byte unit.

4096
147570

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