I want to run mkdir command as:
mkdir -p directory_name
What's the method to do that in Python?
os.mkdir(directory_name [, -p]) didn't work for me.
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21
pynovice
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4Try os.makedirs('/multiple/path/') – rajpy Apr 16 '13 at 06:11
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1duplicate: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/600268/mkdir-p-functionality-in-python?rq=1 – Nicu Stiurca Apr 16 '13 at 06:11
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Possible duplicate of [mkdir -p functionality in Python](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/600268/mkdir-p-functionality-in-python) – Ciro Santilli Путлер Капут 六四事 Jan 19 '17 at 11:12
5 Answers
32
You can try this:
# top of the file
import os
import errno
# the actual code
try:
os.makedirs(directory_name)
except OSError as exc:
if exc.errno == errno.EEXIST and os.path.isdir(directory_name):
pass
Adem Öztaş
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1That should be os.mkdirs (the ending s is important), but SO won't let me submit such a small edit. – Trebor Rude Apr 16 '13 at 17:28
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1This does not do the same as "mkdir -p": ```-p, --parents: no error if existing, make parent directories as needed``` – WhyNotHugo Apr 07 '14 at 18:58
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1@Hugo edited the answer so that it now uses the `makedirs` function, thus working like `mkdir -p` – Eduard Luca May 07 '14 at 11:52
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1Edited. `exist_ok=True` is much simpler than checking errno and ignoring certain exceptions. – John Kugelman May 07 '14 at 22:29
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7Shouldn't there be an `else raise`? An `if` statement with a `pass` body does nothing. – Jason S Sep 24 '14 at 22:50
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According to the documentation, you can now use this since python 3.2
os.makedirs("/directory/to/make", exist_ok=True)
and it will not throw an error when the directory exists.
Victor Häggqvist
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Michael Ma
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12
Something like this:
if not os.path.exists(directory_name):
os.makedirs(directory_name)
UPD: as it is said in a comments you need to check for exception for thread safety
try:
os.makedirs(directory_name)
except OSError as err:
if err.errno!=17:
raise
WhyNotHugo
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singer
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3this is prone to race conditions. Ie, if some other process/thread creates `directory_name` after the `if` but before the `os.mkdirs`, this code will throw exception – Nicu Stiurca Apr 16 '13 at 06:10
8
If you're using pathlib, use Path.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
from pathlib import Path
new_directory = Path('./some/nested/directory')
new_directory.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
parents=True creates parent directories as needed
exist_ok=True tells mkdir() to not error if the directory already exists
See the pathlib.Path.mkdir() docs.
Boris Verkhovskiy
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