[Python-ideas] os.listdir iteration support

[Aahz]

On Thu, Nov 22, 2007, Giampaolo Rodola' wrote:
>
> I would find very useful having a version of os.listdir returning a
> generator.  If a directory has many files, say 20,000, it could take
> a long time getting all of them with os.listdir and this could be a
> problem in asynchronous environments (e.g. asynchronous servers).
>
> The only solution which comes to my mind in such case is using a
> thread/fork or having a non-blocking version of listdir() returning an
> iterator.
>
> What do you think about that?

-1

The problem is that reading a directory requires an open file handle;
given a generator context, there's no clear mechanism for determining
when to close the handle.  Because the list needs to be created in the
first place, why bother with a generator?
-- 
Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"Typing is cheap.  Thinking is expensive."  --Roy Smith