The stat module defines constants and functions for interpreting the results of os.stat(), os.fstat() and os.lstat() (if they exist). For complete details about the stat(), fstat() and lstat() calls, consult the documentation for your system.
The stat module defines the following functions to test for specific file types:
Two additional functions are defined for more general manipulation of the file's mode:
Normally, you would use the os.path.is*() functions for testing the type of a file; the functions here are useful when you are doing multiple tests of the same file and wish to avoid the overhead of the stat() system call for each test. These are also useful when checking for information about a file that isn't handled by os.path, like the tests for block and character devices.
All the variables below are simply symbolic indexes into the 10-tuple returned by os.stat(), os.fstat() or os.lstat().
Example:
import os, sys from stat import * def process(dir, func): '''recursively descend the directory rooted at dir, calling func for each regular file''' for f in os.listdir(dir): mode = os.stat('%s/%s' % (dir, f))[ST_MODE] if S_ISDIR(mode): # recurse into directory process('%s/%s' % (dir, f), func) elif S_ISREG(mode): func('%s/%s' % (dir, f)) else: print 'Skipping %s/%s' % (dir, f) def f(file): print 'frobbed', file if __name__ == '__main__': process(sys.argv[1], f)