[Python-Dev] PEP 471 -- os.scandir() function -- a better and faster directory iterator

[Devin Jeanpierre]

On Mon, Jun 30, 2014 at 3:07 PM, Tim Delaney
<timothy.c.delaney at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 1 July 2014 03:05, Ben Hoyt <benhoyt at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > So, here's my alternative proposal: add an "ensure_lstat" flag to
>> > scandir() itself, and don't have *any* methods on DirEntry, only
>> > attributes.
>> ...
>>
>> > Most importantly, *regardless of platform*, the cached stat result (if
>> > not None) would reflect the state of the entry at the time the
>> > directory was scanned, rather than at some arbitrary later point in
>> > time when lstat() was first called on the DirEntry object.
>
>
> I'm torn between whether I'd prefer the stat fields to be populated on
> Windows if ensure_lstat=False or not. There are good arguments each way, but
> overall I'm inclining towards having it consistent with POSIX - don't
> populate them unless ensure_lstat=True.
>
> +0 for stat fields to be None on all platforms unless ensure_lstat=True.

This won't work well if lstat info is only needed for some entries. Is
that a common use-case? It was mentioned earlier in the thread.

-- Devin