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<section id="file-and-directory-access">
<span id="filesys"></span><h1>File and Directory Access<a class="headerlink" href="#file-and-directory-access" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h1>
<p>The modules described in this chapter deal with disk files and directories. For
example, there are modules for reading the properties of files, manipulating
paths in a portable way, and creating temporary files. The full list of modules
in this chapter is:</p>
<div class="toctree-wrapper compound">
<ul>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pathlib</span></code> — Object-oriented filesystem paths</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#basic-use">Basic use</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#exceptions">Exceptions</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#pure-paths">Pure paths</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#general-properties">General properties</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#operators">Operators</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#accessing-individual-parts">Accessing individual parts</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#methods-and-properties">Methods and properties</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#concrete-paths">Concrete paths</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#parsing-and-generating-uris">Parsing and generating URIs</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#expanding-and-resolving-paths">Expanding and resolving paths</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#querying-file-type-and-status">Querying file type and status</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#reading-and-writing-files">Reading and writing files</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#reading-directories">Reading directories</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#creating-files-and-directories">Creating files and directories</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#renaming-and-deleting">Renaming and deleting</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#permissions-and-ownership">Permissions and ownership</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#pattern-language">Pattern language</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#comparison-to-the-glob-module">Comparison to the <code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">glob</span></code> module</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#comparison-to-the-os-and-os-path-modules">Comparison to the <code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">os</span></code> and <code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">os.path</span></code> modules</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#corresponding-tools">Corresponding tools</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="os.path.html"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">os.path</span></code> — Common pathname manipulations</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="stat.html"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">stat</span></code> — Interpreting <code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">stat()</span></code> results</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="filecmp.html"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">filecmp</span></code> — File and Directory Comparisons</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="filecmp.html#the-dircmp-class">The <code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dircmp</span></code> class</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="tempfile.html"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">tempfile</span></code> — Generate temporary files and directories</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="tempfile.html#examples">Examples</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="tempfile.html#deprecated-functions-and-variables">Deprecated functions and variables</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="glob.html"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">glob</span></code> — Unix style pathname pattern expansion</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="glob.html#examples">Examples</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="fnmatch.html"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">fnmatch</span></code> — Unix filename pattern matching</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="linecache.html"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">linecache</span></code> — Random access to text lines</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="shutil.html"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shutil</span></code> — High-level file operations</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="shutil.html#directory-and-files-operations">Directory and files operations</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="shutil.html#platform-dependent-efficient-copy-operations">Platform-dependent efficient copy operations</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="shutil.html#copytree-example">copytree example</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="shutil.html#rmtree-example">rmtree example</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="shutil.html#archiving-operations">Archiving operations</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="shutil.html#archiving-example">Archiving example</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="shutil.html#archiving-example-with-base-dir">Archiving example with <em>base_dir</em></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="shutil.html#querying-the-size-of-the-output-terminal">Querying the size of the output terminal</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="admonition seealso">
<p class="admonition-title">See also</p>
<dl class="simple">
<dt>Module <a class="reference internal" href="os.html#module-os" title="os: Miscellaneous operating system interfaces."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">os</span></code></a></dt><dd><p>Operating system interfaces, including functions to work with files at a
lower level than Python <a class="reference internal" href="../glossary.html#term-file-object"><span class="xref std std-term">file objects</span></a>.</p>
</dd>
<dt>Module <a class="reference internal" href="io.html#module-io" title="io: Core tools for working with streams."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">io</span></code></a></dt><dd><p>Python’s built-in I/O library, including both abstract classes and
some concrete classes such as file I/O.</p>
</dd>
<dt>Built-in function <a class="reference internal" href="functions.html#open" title="open"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">open()</span></code></a></dt><dd><p>The standard way to open files for reading and writing with Python.</p>
</dd>
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