[Python-Dev] Extending os.chown() to accept user/group names

[Nick Coghlan]

2011/5/26 Charles-François Natali <neologix at free.fr>:
> Then, I wonder why shutil.copytree and shutil.rmtree are provided.
> Recursive rm/copy/chown/chmod are extremely useful in system
> administration scripts. Furthermore, it's not as simple as it seems
> because of symlinks, see for example http://bugs.python.org/issue4489

Rather than a fixed binary flag, I would suggest following the
precedent of copytree and rmtree, and provide recursive functionality
as a separate shutil function (i.e. shutil.chmodtree,
shutil.chowntree).

As noted, while these *can* be written manually, it is convenient to
have the logic for handling symlinks dealt with for you, as well as
not having to look up the particular incantation for correctly linking
os.walk and the relevant operations.

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia