Automatically creating directories with file output
PythonFile IoPython Problem Overview
Say I want to make a file:
filename = "/foo/bar/baz.txt"
with open(filename, "w") as f:
f.write("FOOBAR")
This gives an IOError
, since /foo/bar
does not exist.
What is the most pythonic way to generate those directories automatically? Is it necessary for me explicitly call os.path.exists
and os.mkdir
on every single one (i.e., /foo, then /foo/bar)?
Python Solutions
Solution 1 - Python
In Python 3.2+, you can elegantly do the following:
import os
filename = "/foo/bar/baz.txt"
os.makedirs(os.path.dirname(filename), exist_ok=True)
with open(filename, "w") as f:
f.write("FOOBAR")
In older python, there is a less elegant way:
The os.makedirs
function does this. Try the following:
import os
import errno
filename = "/foo/bar/baz.txt"
if not os.path.exists(os.path.dirname(filename)):
try:
os.makedirs(os.path.dirname(filename))
except OSError as exc: # Guard against race condition
if exc.errno != errno.EEXIST:
raise
with open(filename, "w") as f:
f.write("FOOBAR")
The reason to add the try-except
block is to handle the case when the directory was created between the os.path.exists
and the os.makedirs
calls, so that to protect us from race conditions.