Re: Searching for a file

"Peter J. Holzer" <[email protected]> Sat, 9 Aug 2025 20:46:17 +0200

Newsgroups	gmane.comp.python.general
Message-ID	<[email protected]>

On 2025-08-05 22:11:57 -0400, Grant Edwards via Python-list wrote:
> On 2025-08-05, Michael Torrie via Python-list <[email protected]> wrote:
> > On 5/24/25 7:19 PM, Chris Angelico via Python-list wrote:
> >> for dir in dirs:
> >>     try: open(dir + "/" + fn).close()
> >>     except FileNotFoundError: pass
> >>     else: break
> >> 
> >> Is this really all that difficult? Not everything has to be in the stdlib.
> >
> > That would modify atime on unix file systems, no?  Of course most modern
> > file systems on SSDs are mounted with noatime, but still.
> 
> Why not call os.stat() instead of open/close?

The OP used os.path.isfile().

Depending on what you want to achieve, each of three methods might be
appropriate. Calling os.stat() just tells you whether the thing exists
(but of course its return value gives you a lot of extra information).
os.path.isfile() tells you whether it's a file (and it is shorter, too).
open() tells you whether the file is readable.

        hjp

-- 
   _  | Peter J. Holzer    | Story must make more sense than reality.
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| |   | [email protected]         |    -- Charles Stross, "Creative writing
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