Python pathlib make directories if they don’t exist

Question

If I wanted to specify a path to save files to and make directories that don’t exist in that path, is it possible to do this using the pathlib library in one line of code?

wim · Accepted Answer · 2021-05-12T16:54:38.107

334

Yes, that is Path.mkdir:

pathlib.Path('/tmp/sub1/sub2').mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)

From the docs:

If parents is true, any missing parents of this path are created as needed; they are created with the default permissions without taking mode into account (mimicking the POSIX mkdir -p command).

If parents is false (the default), a missing parent raises FileNotFoundError.

If exist_ok is false (the default), FileExistsError is raised if the target directory already exists.

If exist_ok is true, FileExistsError exceptions will be ignored (same behavior as the POSIX mkdir -p command), but only if the last path component is not an existing non-directory file.

edited May 12 '21 at 16:54

answered May 01 '18 at 03:00

wim

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with `exist_ok` set to `true`, does mkdir just overwrite the dir and make it again? Or does it skip (re)making the dir since it already exists? – Prithvi Boinpally Apr 04 '23 at 19:59
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@PrithviBoinpally the latter—calling `mypath.mkdir(exist_ok=True)` will not raise an error, and will leave the existing directory associated with `mypath` intact. – glarue Apr 06 '23 at 17:55

score 14 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 19 '21 at 00:09

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Adding to Wim's answer. If your path has a file on the end that you do not want made as a directory.

ie. '/existing_dir/not_existing_dir/another_dir/a_file'

Then you use PurePath.parents. But the nice thing is that because Paths inherit the attributes of Pure Paths, then you can simply do

filepath = '/existing_dir/not_existing_dir/another_dir/a_file'
pathlib.Path(filepath).parents[0].mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)

answered Nov 19 '21 at 00:09

Immot

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Nice! This is the neatest example and work well. – Gatis Seja Dec 09 '21 at 13:12
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or even shorter Path(filepath).parent – julie Mar 23 '22 at 22:56
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For the copy cats here `pathlib.Path(path).parent.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)` – botenvouwer May 16 '22 at 08:28

Kolibril · Answer 3 · 2021-08-09T12:12:25.057

13

This gives additional control for the case that the path is already there:

path = Path.cwd() / 'new' / 'hi' / 'there'
try:
    path.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=False)
except FileExistsError:
    print("Folder is already there")
else:
    print("Folder was created")

edited Aug 09 '21 at 12:12

answered Jun 03 '20 at 08:56

Kolibril

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score -1 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 02 '23 at 13:23

Universal function to create dirs/files that do not exist

def check_and_create_path(self, path: Path):
        path_way = path.parent if path.is_file() else path

        path_way.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)

        if not path.exists():
            path.touch()

Python pathlib make directories if they don’t exist

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