Working with paths with spaces in NT

[David LeBlanc]

[This followup was posted to comp.lang.python and a copy was sent to the 
cited author.]

FWIW, here's my latest iteration. I'm rather proud of it as a first hack 
in Python beyond the "enter a few lines and run a few programs" level of 
investigation. I'd appreciate any critique, especially wrt to better 
python idioms for doing things (like the spaces/tabs kiudge noted below).

This reminded me so much of my beloved Smalltalk without some of it's 
kinks!
------------------------------------------------------------
#BEWARE of line wraps!
#NOTE: Set tabstops = 2 for best viewing!

import os
import dircache
import re

dirtotal = 0
filetotal = 0
doctotal = 0
basepath = "L:/languages/python"
#WRAP ERROR next line!
tabs = "                                                                  
"
extensions = ["exe", "tar", "tgz", "gz", "zip", "py", "c"]
docextensions = ["html", "htm", "pdf", "ps"]
filetree = {}

def buildtree(path, depth, tree):
	global dirtotal, filetotal, doctotal, tabs, extensions, 
docextensions, filetree
	
	base = ""
	ext = ""
	tree["filelist"] = []
	tree["dircount"] = 0
	tree["filecount"] = 0

	currentdepth = depth
	depth += 1
	spaces = tabs[0:(depth * 2)]	# kludge - there's a better way,
				# but i'm not clear on how to use it.
	
	os.chdir(path)

	
	for name in dircache.listdir("."):
		if os.path.isdir(name) and name != "CVS":
			print spaces + name
			tree["dircount"] += 1
			tree[name] = {}
			buildtree(name, depth, tree[name])
		else:
			base, ext = os.path.splitext(name)
			if ext[1:] in docextensions:
				doctotal += 1
			elif ext[1:] in extensions:
				tree["filecount"] += 1			
				tree["filelist"].append(name)
				
	currentspaces = tabs[0:(currentdepth * 2)]
	print currentspaces + path + ": Dirs:", tree["dircount"], "Files:", 
tree["filecount"]

	filetotal += tree["filecount"]
	dirtotal += tree["dircount"]
	os.chdir("..")

	return tree
	
if __name__ == '__main__':
	print basepath
	filetree = buildtree(basepath, 1, filetree)
	print "Total Dirs:", dirtotal, "Total Files:", filetotal
	print "Total Doc Files:", doctotal

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Mats, you must have missed my apology to Tim the next day - who knows why 
cats arch their backs at shadows ;-) I also did get the hint about 
dir(".") and chdir("..").

Dave LeBlanc

In article <3b279eaf.5984935 at news.laplaza.org>, xyzmats at laplaza.org 
says...
> Tim wrote:
> 
> >> If you look at your output very carefully, you'll discover this has
> nothing
> >> to do with spaces.  After all, you chdir'ed to
> >> 
> >>     A Gentle Introduction to Ted Nelson's ZigZag Structure_files
> >> 
> >> just fine.  If that's not enough of a hint, try this starting in
> some deep
> >> directory tree that doesn't have any spacey names.
> >> 
> >> don't-use-relative-paths-unless-you're-sure-you-know-where-you-
> >>     are-ly y'rs  - tim
> 
> And Dave replied:
> 
> >Thank you Tim for the warm and friendly help without a hint of 
> >condescension - i'm sure it really encourages people new to python
> > and even more those new to programming.
> 
> 
> I missed what it was raised your hackles in Tim's comment.
> 
> He pointed out that it wasn't a space problem since you've been in a
> directory with spaces already.  The more obscure reference is that you
> never came out of that directory before trying to go on to the next
> one.
> 
> You need an os.chdir('..') somewhere.
> 
> -- mats
> 
> Mats Wichmann
> 
> (Anti-spam stuff: to reply remove the "xyz" from the
> address xyzmats at laplaza.org. Not that it helps much...)
>