[Python-ideas] Please consider skipping hidden directories in os.walk, os.fwalk, etc.

[Steve Barnes]

On 08/05/2018 15:53, Giampaolo Rodola' wrote:
> 
> 
> On Tue, May 8, 2018 at 2:00 PM, David Mertz <mertz at gnosis.cx 
> <mailto:mertz at gnosis.cx>> wrote:
> 
>     I like the idea. I think an argument to os.walk() is the simplest
>     option for most users. But per some comments, "hidden" is actually
>     more subtle than the filesystem bit sometimes. I.e. dot-files, ~
>     suffix, maybe .bak, etc.
> 
>     I'd suggest meeting the ideas slightly and making the new argument
>     'filter' or 'skip' that takes a callable. Default to None, but
>     provide an os.is_hidden that users don't need to figure out how to
>     implement. E.g.
> 
>     os.walk(PATH, skip=os.is_hidden)
> 
>     os.walk(PATH, skip=lambda entry: entry.name.endswith(('~', '.bak',
>     '.tmp')))
> 
> 
> I think this would be a good addition because it gives direct access to 
> the underlying os.scandir() objects which are currently inaccessible and 
> discarded (if os.walk() were to be written today it'd probably yield 
> (root, os.DirEntry) instead of (root, dirs, files)). As such one can 
> implement advanced filtering logic without having to call os.stat() for 
> each path string yielded by os.walk() (faster).
> 
> IMO the callback should accept a (root, os.DirEntry) pair though, 
> because the "root" path can also be part of the filtering logic.
> 
> -- 
> 
> Giampaolo - http://grodola.blogspot.com
> 
> 

I like the idea of extending the original idea to a filtered walk 
possibly with some predefined filters.

As there does not seem to be a lot of strong opposition so far to the 
basic idea, (other than a some "why bother it is too easy to do 
yourself"), it seems like there is a choice now is between:

   a) raising an enhancement request on the tracker (I am not sure if 
this is major enough to require a PEP) or
   b) setting up a new library on PyPi and putting it out there to see 
if it sinks or swims.

What is the general feeling between the two options?

-- 
Steve (Gadget) Barnes
Any opinions in this message are my personal opinions and do not reflect 
those of my employer.

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