[Python-Dev] os.removedirs() vs. shutil.rmtree()

[Johannes Gijsbers]

On Sat, Jan 08, 2005 at 02:45:25PM -0600, Skip Montanaro wrote:
> Is there a reason the standard library needs both os.removedirs and
> shutil.rmtree?  They seem awful similar to me (I can see they aren't really
> identical).  Ditto for os.renames and shutil.move.  Presuming they are all
> really needed, is there some reason they don't all belong in the same
> module?

os.removedirs() only removes directories, it will fail to remove a
non-empty directory, for example. It also doesn't have the
ignore_errors/onerror arguments [1]. os.renames() is different from
shutil.move() in that it also creates intermediate directories (and
deletes any left empty).

So they're not identical, but I do agree they should be consolidated
and moved into one module. I'd say shutil, both because the os
module is already awfully crowded, and because these functions are
"high-level operations on files and collections of files" rather
than "a more portable way of using operating system dependent
functionality [...]".

Johannes

[1] That may actually be a good thing, though. It was a pain to keep
those working backwards-compatibly when shutil.rmtree was recently
rewritten.