os.listdir unwanted behaviour

[Tim Chase]

>> a month or two back where folks were asking to turn os.listdir()
>> into an iterator (or create an os.xlistdir() or os.iterdir()
>> function) because directories with lots of files were causing
>> inordinate slowdown.  Yes, listdir() in both 2.x and 3.x both
>> return lists while such a proposed iterator version could be
>> changed on the fly by interim file/directory creation.
> 
> Is os.walk not the right thing to use for this kind of stuff?

Behind the scenes os.walk() calls listdir() which has the same 
problems in directories with large files.  But yes, I believe 
there was discussion in that thread of having a generator that 
behaved like os.walk() but called the proposed xlistdir() or 
iterdir() function instead.  However, no such beast exists yet 
(in stock Python).

-tkc