CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonpathlib
Reid Ballard
Reid Ballard

Reputation: 1525

Python Pathlib avoid Permission Errors when using Iterdir()

I was starting to build a "Directory Explorer" GUI for a small program I wrote and was using Pathlib since I hadn't used it before. Unfortunately I got stuck pretty much right off the bat iterating over the root directory iterating like this:

import pathlib

current=pathlib.WindowsPath('/')
children=[child for child in current.iterdir() if child.is_dir()]
print(children)

Resulting in "PermissionError: [WinError 5] Access is denied: '\\Config.Msi'"

I tried using path.stat() in order to test the permission before attempting to determine if it's a directory, but it won't even let me get that far, so I'm at a bit of an impasse. I don't need the files/folders that I can't get permission for anyway, so I'd be more than happy to just pass over them, if anyone has any suggestions to do so.

Thanks in advance!

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2875

Answers (1)

Jasper
Jasper

Reputation: 3947

Because it's easier to ask for forgiveness then to ask for permission, use Exceptions. I don't know anything about pathlib, but if you split up the code a little, the following should work

import pathlib

current=pathlib.WindowsPath('/')
children = []
for child in current.iterdir():
  try:
    if child.is_dir():
      children.append(child)
  except PermissionError:
    pass

print(children)

Upvotes: 2

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