Is there a way to get functionality similar to mkdir -p on the shell from within Python. I'm looking for a solution other than the call of the system If the code is short than 20 lines then i'm wondering if anybody has already written it?

Best Answer


For Python ≥ 3.5, use pathlib.Path.mkdir .

import pathlib
pathlib.Path("/tmp/path/to/desired/directory").mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)

The exist_ok parameter was added in Python 3.5.

For Python ≥ 3.2, os.makedirs has an optional third argument exist_ok that, when True , enables the mkdir -p functionality— unless mode is provided and the existing directory has different permissions than the intended ones; in that case, OSError is raised as previously.

import os
os.makedirs("/tmp/path/to/desired/directory", exist_ok=True)

For even older versions of Python you can use os.makedirs and ignore the error.

import errno
import os

def mkdir_p(path):
    try:
        os.makedirs(path)
    except OSError as exc:  # Python ≥ 2.5
        if exc.errno == errno.EEXIST and os.path.isdir(path):
            pass
        # possibly handle other errno cases here, otherwise finally:
        else:
            raise