How to Create a Directory and its Missing Parent Directories in Python?

Creating a Directory and Missing Parent Directories using Python

Q: How can I create a directory at a specified path while also creating any missing parent directories along that path?

To achieve this functionality in Python ≥ 3.5, utilize pathlib.Path.mkdir:

from pathlib import Path
Path("/my/directory").mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)

For earlier Python versions, consider the following approaches:

Approach 1: Utilize os.path.exists and os.makedirs

import os
if not os.path.exists(directory):
    os.makedirs(directory)

While this approach is simple, it poses a potential race condition.

Approach 2: Handle Potential Race Condition

import os, errno

try:
    os.makedirs(directory)
except OSError as e:
    if e.errno != errno.EEXIST:
        raise

This option addresses the race condition by catching and examining the error code.

Modern Python Improvements:

Python versions 3.3 and 3.2 introduce improvements:

• FileExistsError is exposed, allowing for cleaner error handling.
• os.makedirs features the exist_ok keyword argument, enabling directory creation even if it already exists.

try:
    os.makedirs("path/to/directory")
except FileExistsError:
    # directory already exists
    pass

os.makedirs("path/to/directory", exist_ok=True)  # succeeds even if directory exists.

The above is the detailed content of How to Create a Directory and its Missing Parent Directories in Python?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!