[Python-Dev] PEP 471 -- os.scandir() function -- a better and faster directory iterator

[Gregory P. Smith]

+1 on getting this in for 3.5.

If the only objection people are having is the stupid paint color of the
name I don't care what it's called!  scandir matches the libc API of the
same name.  iterdir also makes sense to anyone reading it.  Whoever checks
this in can pick one and be done with it.  We have other Python APIs with
iter in the name and tend not to be trying to mirror C so much these days
so the iterdir folks do have a valid point.

I'm not a huge fan of the DirEntry object and the method calls on it
instead of simply yielding tuples of (filename,
partially_filled_in_stat_result) but I don't *really* care which is used as
they both work fine and it is trivial to wrap with another generator
expression to turn it into exactly what you want anyways.

Python not having the ability to operate on large directories means Python
simply cannot be used for common system maintenance tasks.  Python being
slow to walk a file system due to unnecessary stat calls (often each an
entire io op. requiring a disk seek!) due to the existing information that
it throws away not being used via listdir is similarly a problem. This
addresses both.

IMNSHO, it is a single function, it belongs in the os module right next to
listdir.

-gps



On Thu, Jun 26, 2014 at 6:37 PM, Ben Hoyt <benhoyt at gmail.com> wrote:

> I don't mind iterdir() and would take it :-), but I'll just say why I
> chose the name scandir() -- though it wasn't my suggestion originally:
>
> iterdir() sounds like just an iterator version of listdir(), kinda
> like keys() and iterkeys() in Python 2. Whereas in actual fact the
> return values are quite different (DirEntry objects vs strings), and
> so the name change reflects that difference a little.
>
> I'm also -1 on windows_wildcard. I think it's asking for trouble, and
> wouldn't gain much on Windows in most cases anyway.
>
> -Ben
>
> On Thu, Jun 26, 2014 at 7:43 PM, Ethan Furman <ethan at stoneleaf.us> wrote:
> > On 06/26/2014 04:36 PM, Tim Delaney wrote:
> >>
> >> On 27 June 2014 09:28, MRAB wrote:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Personally, I'd prefer the name 'iterdir' because it emphasises that
> >>> it's an iterator.
> >>
> >>
> >> Exactly what I was going to post (with the added note that thee's an
> >> obvious symmetry with listdir).
> >>
> >> +1 for iterdir rather than scandir
> >>
> >> Other than that:
> >>
> >> +1 for adding [it] to the stdlib
> >
> >
> > +1 for all of above
> >
> > --
> > ~Ethan~
> >
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