[Tutor] tarfile library question

[alexkleider]

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
On Thursday, December 10, 2020 2:10 AM, Alan Gauld via Tutor <tutor at python.org> wrote:

> On 10/12/2020 02:30, alexkleider via Tutor wrote:
>
> > I have written the following code as an archiving utility to serve my needs:
>
> >
> > 1.  is there a way of writing the code so as to eliminate the need to
> >     create and populate a temporary directory and instead create the parent
> >     directory and then populate it all within the "with...as tar" clause?
> >
>
> Probably. You need a loop over the target folders somewhere
> inside the open and you need to append to the tar file
> not write to it.
>
> > 2.  why are <res> and <destination_directory> not considered equal?
>
> Don't know, show us some sample output.
> Also, try printing the repr() of the names as well as the str() versions.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Alan G

Sorry, I didn't notice that my mail client had messed up the indentation!
Here's how it should have been:

import os
import shutil
import tarfile


def archive(destination_directory, source, targz_base_name):
    """
    Create a <targz_base_name>.tar.gz archive and
    file it in the <destination_directory>.
    The archive is to contain all files &/or directories
    listed in <source> all under a directory called <targz_base_name>.
    Fails if a directory <targz_base_name> already exists.
    A directory of this name is created as a temporary place to
    gather what is to be archived.  I'd like to avoid having to do so.
    """
    os.mkdir(targz_base_name)
    for folder in list_of_targets:
        shutil.copytree(folder,
                        os.path.join(targz_base_name, folder),
                        )
    tar_file = "{}.tar.gz".format(targz_base_name)
    with tarfile.open(tar_file, "w:gz") as tar:
        tar.add(targz_base_name)

    shutil.rmtree(targz_base_name)

    res = shutil.move(tar_file, destination_directory)
    if not (repr(res) == repr(os.path.join(destination_directory,
                              tar_file))):
        print("The following two strings:")
        print("\t'{}'".format(res))
        print("\t'{}'".format(os.path.join(destination_directory,
                            tar_file)))
        print("...should be the same: something went wrong!")

The second of my questions has been resolved (silly bug of my doing!)
The first question remains:
   How to avoid having to create the temporary directory targz_base_name
presumably by setting it up within the "while tarfile(... as tar:" loop.

Sorry about the confusion and thanks again in advance for any suggestions.
Alex Kleider