Python not recognising directories os.path.isdir()

Question

I have the following Python code to remove files in a directory. For some reason my .svn directories are not being recognised as directories.

And I get the following output:

.svn not a dir

Any ideas would be appreciated.

def rmfiles(path, pattern):
    pattern = re.compile(pattern)
    for each in os.listdir(path):
        if os.path.isdir(each) != True:
            print(each +  " not a dir")
            if pattern.search(each):
                name = os.path.join(path, each)
                os.remove(name)

score 61 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 21 '10 at 14:47

61

You need to create the full path name before checking:

if not os.path.isdir(os.path.join(path, each)):
  ...

answered Sep 21 '10 at 14:47

unwind

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I spent a little while on this problem and it turns out that I needed to use os.path.join(). Thank you for the tip. – Phil Ringsmuth Jul 16 '15 at 14:07

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 21 '10 at 14:49

You will need to os.path.join the path you invoke listdir on with the found file/directory, i.e.

for each in os.listdir(path):
    if os.path.isdir(os.path.join(path, each)):
        ....

If you don't create an absolute path this way you will be testing against your current working directory in stead, which probably dioesn't have the svn directory.

Also, don't explicitly compare boolean values. Let if handle it as a boolean expression (some functions may return non True/False truth values, i.e. None or an instance)

There's a method called abspath in ospath, and yet this isn't working for me either. Do you know why this wouldn't work? — vargonian, Feb 14 '14 at 21:11

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 21 '10 at 14:52

You could also switch to the target directory instead of constructing an absolute path.

def rmfiles(path, pattern):
    pattern = re.compile(pattern)
    oldpath = os.getcwd()     # <--
    os.chdir(path)            # <--
    try:
      for each in os.listdir('.'):
        if os.path.isdir(each) != True:
            print(each +  " not a dir")
            if pattern.search(each):
                name = os.path.join(path, each)
                os.remove(name)
    finally:
      os.chdir(oldpath)       # <--

Python not recognising directories os.path.isdir()

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