«

Just wondering:

With Python 2.3.3 for Windows, I understand why
os.makedirs("C:\SomeDirectoryThatDontExist\.\Anoth erDirectory") fails
throwing an exception saying "OSError: [Errno 17] File exists" - the
period is like a request to create the same directory a second time.

But is this the expected behavior ? I personaly would prefer to see
this operation succeed - and don't like the idea of writing a
workaround

Comments ?

Thanks,

Jean-Marc Ranger

Jean-Marc Ranger wrote:
> With Python 2.3.3 for Windows, I understand why
> os.makedirs("C:\SomeDirectoryThatDontExist\.\Anoth erDirectory")
> fails throwing an exception saying "OSError: [Errno 17] File exists" -
> the period is like a request to create the same directory a second time.
>
> But is this the expected behavior ? I personaly would prefer to see
> this operation succeed - and don't like the idea of writing a
> workaround

It feels like a bug to me. I would expect os.makedirs to run its argument
through os.path.abspath first. But, you can easily do that yourself:

>>> os.path.abspath("C:\\SomeDirectory\\.\\AnotherDire ctory")
'C:\\SomeDirectory\\AnotherDirectory'
>>>

Also, you got very lucky with your backslashes:

>>> "C:\SomeDirectory\.\AnotherDirectory"
'C:\\SomeDirectory\\.\\AnotherDirectory'
>>> "C:\someDirectory\.\anotherDirectory"
'C:\\someDirectory\\.\x07notherDirectory'
>>>

-Mike

Jean-Marc Ranger wrote:

> With Python 2.3.3 for Windows, I understand why
> os.makedirs("C:\SomeDirectoryThatDontExist\.\Anoth erDirectory") fails
> throwing an exception saying "OSError: [Errno 17] File exists" - the
> period is like a request to create the same directory a second time.
>
> But is this the expected behavior ? I personaly would prefer to see
> this operation succeed - and don't like the idea of writing a
> workaround

Wouldn't using os.path.normpath() on the string first be a
really really easy workaround?

-Peter

Am Mittwoch, 5. Mai 2004 21:12 schrieb Jean-Marc Ranger:
> But is this the expected behavior ? I personaly would prefer to see
> this operation succeed - and don't like the idea of writing a
> workaround

What you could do is pass the final directory name to os.path.abspath before
you create it. abspath will filter out the unneccesary reference to "."
before returning the name.

HTH!

Heiko.

> Also, you got very lucky with your backslashes:
>
> >>> "C:\SomeDirectory\.\AnotherDirectory"
> 'C:\\SomeDirectory\\.\\AnotherDirectory'
> >>> "C:\someDirectory\.\anotherDirectory"
> 'C:\\someDirectory\\.\x07notherDirectory'

Oopps....

I need to be more careful. Those names are obviously dummies, but I
could have got stuck by that one easily.

Thanks for spotting it.

And thanks everyone for the hints.

Jean-Marc