class QDir

The QDir class provides access to directory structures and their contents. More…

Synopsis

Methods

Static functions

Note

This documentation may contain snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python. We always welcome contributions to the snippet translation. If you see an issue with the translation, you can also let us know by creating a ticket on https:/bugreports.qt.io/projects/PYSIDE

Detailed Description

Warning

This section contains snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python and may contain errors.

A QDir is used to manipulate path names, access information regarding paths and files, and manipulate the underlying file system. It can also be used to access Qt’s resource system .

Qt uses “/” as a universal directory separator in the same way that “/” is used as a path separator in URLs. If you always use “/” as a directory separator, Qt will translate your paths to conform to the underlying operating system.

A QDir can point to a file using either a relative or an absolute path. Absolute paths begin with the directory separator (optionally preceded by a drive specification under Windows). Relative file names begin with a directory name or a file name and specify a path relative to the current directory.

Examples of absolute paths:

QDir("/home/user/Documents")
QDir("C:/Users")

On Windows, the second example above will be translated to C:\Users when used to access files.

Examples of relative paths:

QDir("images/landscape.png")

You can use the isRelative() or isAbsolute() functions to check if a QDir is using a relative or an absolute file path. Call makeAbsolute() to convert a relative QDir to an absolute one.

Note

Paths starting with a colon (:) are always considered absolute, as they denote a QResource .

Files and Directory Contents

Directories contain a number of entries, representing files, directories, and symbolic links. The number of entries in a directory is returned by count() . A string list of the names of all the entries in a directory can be obtained with entryList() . If you need information about each entry, use entryInfoList() to obtain a list of QFileInfo objects.

Paths to files and directories within a directory can be constructed using filePath() and absoluteFilePath() . The filePath() function returns a path to the specified file or directory relative to the path of the QDir object; absoluteFilePath() returns an absolute path to the specified file or directory. Neither of these functions checks for the existence of files or directory; they only construct paths.

directory = QDir("Documents/Letters")
path = directory.filePath("contents.txt")
absolutePath = directory.absoluteFilePath("contents.txt")

Files can be removed by using the remove() function. Directories cannot be removed in the same way as files; use rmdir() to remove them instead.

It is possible to reduce the number of entries returned by entryList() and entryInfoList() by applying filters to a QDir object. You can apply a name filter to specify a pattern with wildcards that file names need to match, an attribute filter that selects properties of entries and can distinguish between files and directories, and a sort order.

Name filters are lists of strings that are passed to setNameFilters() . Attribute filters consist of a bitwise OR combination of Filters, and these are specified when calling setFilter() . The sort order is specified using setSorting() with a bitwise OR combination of SortFlags .

You can test to see if a filename matches a filter using the match() function.

Filter and sort order flags may also be specified when calling entryList() and entryInfoList() in order to override previously defined behavior.

The Current Directory and Other Special Paths

Access to some common directories is provided with a number of static functions that return QDir objects. There are also corresponding functions for these that return strings:

QDir

QString

Return Value

current()

currentPath()

The application’s working directory

home()

homePath()

The user’s home directory

root()

rootPath()

The root directory

temp()

tempPath()

The system’s temporary directory

The setCurrent() static function can also be used to set the application’s working directory.

If you want to find the directory containing the application’s executable, see applicationDirPath() .

The drives() static function provides a list of root directories for each device that contains a filing system. On Unix systems this returns a list containing a single root directory “/”; on Windows the list will usually contain C:/, and possibly other drive letters such as D:/, depending on the configuration of the user’s system.

Path Manipulation and Strings

Paths containing “.” elements that reference the current directory at that point in the path, “..” elements that reference the parent directory, and symbolic links can be reduced to a canonical form using the canonicalPath() function.

Paths can also be simplified by using cleanPath() to remove redundant “/” and “..” elements.

It is sometimes necessary to be able to show a path in the native representation for the user’s platform. The static toNativeSeparators() function returns a copy of the specified path in which each directory separator is replaced by the appropriate separator for the underlying operating system.

Examples

Check if a directory exists:

dir = QDir("example")
if not dir.exists():
    qWarning("Cannot find the example directory")

(We could also use one of the static convenience functions exists() or exists() .)

Traversing directories and reading a file:

dir = QDir.root() # "/"()
if not dir.cd("tmp"): # "/tmp"
    qWarning("Cannot find the \"/tmp\" directory")
else:
    QFile file(dir.filePath("ex1.txt")) # "/tmp/ex1.txt"
    if not file.open(QIODevice.ReadWrite):
        qWarning("Cannot create the file %s", file.name())

A program that lists all the files in the current directory (excluding symbolic links), sorted by size, smallest first:

from PySide6.QtCore import QDir

if __name__ == "__main__":

    app = QCoreApplication(argc, argv)
    dir = QDir()
    dir.setFilter(QDir.Files | QDir.Hidden | QDir.NoSymLinks)
    dir.setSorting(QDir.Size | QDir.Reversed)
    list = dir.entryInfoList()
    print(" Bytes Filename")
    for i in range(0, list.size()):
        fileInfo = list.at(i)
        print(qPrintable(QString("%1 %2").arg(fileInfo.size(), 10))
                                                .arg(fileInfo.fileName()))
        std::cout << std::endl

    return 0

Platform Specific Issues

On Android, some limitations apply when dealing with content URIs :

  • Access permissions might be needed by prompting the user through the QFileDialog which implements Android’s native file picker .

  • Aim to follow the Scoped storage guidelines, such as using app specific directories instead of other public external directories. For more information, also see storage best practices .

  • Due to the design of Qt APIs (e.g. QFile ), it’s not possible to fully integrate the latter APIs with Android’s MediaStore APIs.

See also

QFileInfo QFile applicationDirPath() Fetch More Example

class Filter

(inherits enum.Flag) This enum describes the filtering options available to QDir ; e.g. for entryList() and entryInfoList() . The filter value is specified by combining values from the following list using the bitwise OR operator:

Constant

Description

QDir.Dirs

List directories that match the filters.

QDir.AllDirs

List all directories; i.e. don’t apply the filters to directory names.

QDir.Files

List files.

QDir.Drives

List disk drives (ignored under Unix).

QDir.NoSymLinks

Do not list symbolic links (ignored by operating systems that don’t support symbolic links).

QDir.NoDotAndDotDot

Do not list the special entries “.” and “..”.

QDir.NoDot

Do not list the special entry “.”.

QDir.NoDotDot

Do not list the special entry “..”.

QDir.AllEntries

List directories, files, drives and symlinks (this does not list broken symlinks unless you specify System).

QDir.Readable

List files for which the application has read access. The Readable value needs to be combined with Dirs or Files.

QDir.Writable

List files for which the application has write access. The Writable value needs to be combined with Dirs or Files.

QDir.Executable

List files for which the application has execute access. The Executable value needs to be combined with Dirs or Files.

QDir.Modified

Only list files that have been modified (ignored on Unix).

QDir.Hidden

List hidden files (on Unix, files starting with a “.”).

QDir.System

List system files (on Unix, FIFOs, sockets and device files are included; on Windows, .lnk files are included)

QDir.CaseSensitive

The filter should be case sensitive.

Functions that use Filter enum values to filter lists of files and directories will include symbolic links to files and directories unless you set the NoSymLinks value.

A default constructed QDir will not filter out files based on their permissions, so entryList() and entryInfoList() will return all files that are readable, writable, executable, or any combination of the three. This makes the default easy to write, and at the same time useful.

For example, setting the Readable, Writable, and Files flags allows all files to be listed for which the application has read access, write access or both. If the Dirs and Drives flags are also included in this combination then all drives, directories, all files that the application can read, write, or execute, and symlinks to such files/directories can be listed.

To retrieve the permissions for a directory, use the entryInfoList() function to get the associated QFileInfo objects and then use the permissions() to obtain the permissions and ownership for each file.

class SortFlag

(inherits enum.Flag) This enum describes the sort options available to QDir , e.g. for entryList() and entryInfoList() . The sort value is specified by OR-ing together values from the following list:

Constant

Description

QDir.Name

Sort by name.

QDir.Time

Sort by time (modification time).

QDir.Size

Sort by file size.

QDir.Type

Sort by file type (extension).

QDir.Unsorted

Do not sort.

QDir.NoSort

Not sorted by default.

QDir.DirsFirst

Put the directories first, then the files.

QDir.DirsLast

Put the files first, then the directories.

QDir.Reversed

Reverse the sort order.

QDir.IgnoreCase

Sort case-insensitively.

QDir.LocaleAware

Sort items appropriately using the current locale settings.

You can only specify one of the first four.

If you specify both DirsFirst and Reversed, directories are still put first, but in reverse order; the files will be listed after the directories, again in reverse order.

__init__(arg__1)
Parameters:

arg__1 – QDir

Constructs a QDir object that is a copy of the QDir object for directory dir.

See also

operator=()

__init__([path=""])
Parameters:

path – str

Constructs a QDir pointing to the given directory path. If path is empty the program’s working directory, (“.”), is used.

See also

currentPath()

__init__(path, nameFilter[, sort=QDir.SortFlags(QDir.SortFlag.Name | QDir.SortFlag.IgnoreCase)[, filter=QDir.Filter.AllEntries]])
Parameters:

  • path – str

  • nameFilter – str

  • sort – Combination of SortFlag

  • filter – Combination of Filter

Constructs a QDir with path path, that filters its entries by name using nameFilter and by attributes using filters. It also sorts the names using sort.

The default nameFilter is an empty string, which excludes nothing; the default filters is AllEntries , which also excludes nothing. The default sort is Name | IgnoreCase , i.e. sort by name case-insensitively.

If path is an empty string, QDir uses “.” (the current directory). If nameFilter is an empty string, QDir uses the name filter “*” (all files).

Note

path need not exist.

See also

exists() setPath() setNameFilters() setFilter() setSorting()

__reduce__()
Return type:

str

absoluteFilePath(fileName)
Parameters:

fileName – str

Return type:

str

Returns the absolute path name of a file in the directory. Does not check if the file actually exists in the directory; but see exists() . Redundant multiple separators or “.” and “..” directories in fileName are not removed (see cleanPath() ).

absolutePath()
Return type:

str

Returns the absolute path (a path that starts with “/” or with a drive specification), which may contain symbolic links, but never contains redundant “.”, “..” or multiple separators.

static addSearchPath(prefix, path)
Parameters:

  • prefix – str

  • path – str

Adds path to the search path for prefix.

See also

setSearchPaths()

canonicalPath()
Return type:

str

Warning

This section contains snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python and may contain errors.

Returns the canonical path, i.e. a path without symbolic links or redundant “.” or “..” elements.

On systems that do not have symbolic links this function will always return the same string that absolutePath() returns. If the canonical path does not exist (normally due to dangling symbolic links) canonicalPath() returns an empty string.

Example:

bin = "/local/bin" # where /local/bin is a symlink to /usr/bin
binDir = QDir(bin)
canonicalBin = binDir.canonicalPath()
# canonicalBin now equals "/usr/bin"
ls = "/local/bin/ls" # where ls is the executable "ls"
lsDir = QDir(ls)
canonicalLs = lsDir.canonicalPath()
# canonicalLS now equals "/usr/bin/ls".

See also

path() absolutePath() exists() cleanPath() dirName() absoluteFilePath()

cd(dirName)
Parameters:

dirName – str

Return type:

bool

Changes the QDir ‘s directory to dirName.

Returns true if the new directory exists; otherwise returns false. Note that the logical cd() operation is not performed if the new directory does not exist.

Calling cd(“..”) is equivalent to calling cdUp() .

cdUp()
Return type:

bool

Changes directory by moving one directory up from the QDir ‘s current directory.

Returns true if the new directory exists; otherwise returns false. Note that the logical cdUp() operation is not performed if the new directory does not exist.

Note

On Android, this is not supported for content URIs. For more information, see DocumentFile.getParentFile() .

See also

cd() isReadable() exists() path()

static cleanPath(path)
Parameters:

path – str

Return type:

str

Returns path with directory separators normalized (that is, platform-native separators converted to “/”) and redundant ones removed, and “.”s and “..”s resolved (as far as possible).

Symbolic links are kept. This function does not return the canonical path, but rather the simplest version of the input. For example, “./local” becomes “local”, “local/../bin” becomes “bin” and “/local/usr/../bin” becomes “/local/bin”.

count()
Return type:

int

Returns the total number of directories and files in the directory.

Equivalent to entryList() .count().

Note

In Qt versions prior to 6.5, this function returned uint, not qsizetype.

See also

operator[]() entryList()

static current()
Return type:

QDir

Returns the application’s current directory.

The directory is constructed using the absolute path of the current directory, ensuring that its path() will be the same as its absolutePath() .

static currentPath()
Return type:

str

Returns the absolute path of the application’s current directory. The current directory is the last directory set with setCurrent() or, if that was never called, the directory at which this application was started at by the parent process.

dirName()
Return type:

str

Returns the name of the directory; this is not the same as the path, e.g. a directory with the name “mail”, might have the path “/var/spool/mail”. If the directory has no name (e.g. it is the root directory) an empty string is returned.

No check is made to ensure that a directory with this name actually exists; but see exists() .

static drives()
Return type:

.list of QFileInfo

Returns a list of the root directories on this system.

On Windows this returns a list of QFileInfo objects containing “C:/”, “D:/”, etc. This does not return drives with ejectable media that are empty. On other operating systems, it returns a list containing just one root directory (i.e. “/”).

See also

root() rootPath()

entryInfoList([filters=QDir.Filter.NoFilter[, sort=QDir.SortFlag.NoSort]])
Parameters:
Return type:

.list of QFileInfo

This is an overloaded function.

Returns a list of QFileInfo objects for all the files and directories in the directory, ordered according to the name and attribute filters previously set with setNameFilters() and setFilter() , and sorted according to the flags set with setSorting() .

The attribute filter and sorting specifications can be overridden using the filters and sort arguments.

Returns an empty list if the directory is unreadable, does not exist, or if nothing matches the specification.

entryInfoList(nameFilters[, filters=QDir.Filter.NoFilter[, sort=QDir.SortFlag.NoSort]])
Parameters:

  • nameFilters – list of strings

  • filters – Combination of Filter

  • sort – Combination of SortFlag

Return type:

.list of QFileInfo

Returns a list of QFileInfo objects for all the files and directories in the directory, ordered according to the name and attribute filters previously set with setNameFilters() and setFilter() , and sorted according to the flags set with setSorting() .

The name filter, file attribute filter, and sorting specification can be overridden using the nameFilters, filters, and sort arguments.

Returns an empty list if the directory is unreadable, does not exist, or if nothing matches the specification.

entryList([filters=QDir.Filter.NoFilter[, sort=QDir.SortFlag.NoSort]])
Parameters:
Return type:

list of strings

This is an overloaded function.

Returns a list of the names of all the files and directories in the directory, ordered according to the name and attribute filters previously set with setNameFilters() and setFilter() , and sorted according to the flags set with setSorting() .

The attribute filter and sorting specifications can be overridden using the filters and sort arguments.

Returns an empty list if the directory is unreadable, does not exist, or if nothing matches the specification.

Note

To list symlinks that point to non existing files, System must be passed to the filter.

See also

entryInfoList() setNameFilters() setSorting() setFilter()

entryList(nameFilters[, filters=QDir.Filter.NoFilter[, sort=QDir.SortFlag.NoSort]])
Parameters:

  • nameFilters – list of strings

  • filters – Combination of Filter

  • sort – Combination of SortFlag

Return type:

list of strings

Returns a list of the names of all the files and directories in the directory, ordered according to the name and attribute filters previously set with setNameFilters() and setFilter() , and sorted according to the flags set with setSorting() .

The name filter, file attribute filter, and sorting specification can be overridden using the nameFilters, filters, and sort arguments.

Returns an empty list if the directory is unreadable, does not exist, or if nothing matches the specification.

exists()
Return type:

bool

This is an overloaded function.

Returns true if the directory exists; otherwise returns false. (If a file with the same name is found this function will return false).

The overload of this function that accepts an argument is used to test for the presence of files and directories within a directory.

See also

exists() exists()

exists(name)
Parameters:

name – str

Return type:

bool

Returns true if the file called name exists; otherwise returns false.

Unless name contains an absolute file path, the file name is assumed to be relative to the directory itself, so this function is typically used to check for the presence of files within a directory.

See also

exists() exists()

filePath(fileName)
Parameters:

fileName – str

Return type:

str

Returns the path name of a file in the directory. Does not check if the file actually exists in the directory; but see exists() . If the QDir is relative the returned path name will also be relative. Redundant multiple separators or “.” and “..” directories in fileName are not removed (see cleanPath() ).

filter()
Return type:

Combination of Filter

Returns the value set by setFilter()

See also

setFilter()

static fromNativeSeparators(pathName)
Parameters:

pathName – str

Return type:

str

Returns pathName using ‘/’ as file separator. On Windows, for instance, fromNativeSeparators(”c:\\winnt\\system32") returns “c:/winnt/system32”.

The returned string may be the same as the argument on some operating systems, for example on Unix.

static home()
Return type:

QDir

Returns the user’s home directory.

The directory is constructed using the absolute path of the home directory, ensuring that its path() will be the same as its absolutePath() .

See homePath() for details.

static homePath()
Return type:

str

Warning

This section contains snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python and may contain errors.

Returns the absolute path of the user’s home directory.

Under Windows this function will return the directory of the current user’s profile. Typically, this is:

C:/Users/Username

Use the toNativeSeparators() function to convert the separators to the ones that are appropriate for the underlying operating system.

If the directory of the current user’s profile does not exist or cannot be retrieved, the following alternatives will be checked (in the given order) until an existing and available path is found:

  1. The path specified by the USERPROFILE environment variable.

  2. The path formed by concatenating the HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH environment variables.

  3. The path specified by the HOME environment variable.

  4. The path returned by the rootPath() function (which uses the SystemDrive environment variable)

  5. The C:/ directory.

Under non-Windows operating systems the HOME environment variable is used if it exists, otherwise the path returned by the rootPath() .

isAbsolute()
Return type:

bool

Returns true if the directory’s path is absolute; otherwise returns false. See isAbsolutePath() .

Note

Paths starting with a colon (:) are always considered absolute, as they denote a QResource .

See also

isRelative() makeAbsolute() cleanPath()

static isAbsolutePath(path)
Parameters:

path – str

Return type:

bool

Returns true if path is absolute; returns false if it is relative.

Note

Paths starting with a colon (:) are always considered absolute, as they denote a QResource .

See also

isAbsolute() isRelativePath() makeAbsolute() cleanPath() QResource

isEmpty([filters=QDir.Filters(QDir.Filter.AllEntries | QDir.Filter.NoDotAndDotDot)])
Parameters:

filters – Combination of Filter

Return type:

bool

Returns whether the directory is empty.

Equivalent to count() == 0 with filters QDir::AllEntries | QDir::NoDotAndDotDot, but faster as it just checks whether the directory contains at least one entry.

Note

Unless you set the filters flags to include QDir::NoDotAndDotDot (as the default value does), no directory is empty.

See also

count() entryList() setFilter()

isReadable()
Return type:

bool

Returns true if the directory is readable and we can open files by name; otherwise returns false.

Warning

A false value from this function is not a guarantee that files in the directory are not accessible.

See also

isReadable()

isRelative()
Return type:

bool

Returns true if the directory path is relative; otherwise returns false. (Under Unix a path is relative if it does not start with a “/”).

Note

Paths starting with a colon (:) are always considered absolute, as they denote a QResource .

See also

makeAbsolute() isAbsolute() isAbsolutePath() cleanPath()

static isRelativePath(path)
Parameters:

path – str

Return type:

bool

Returns true if path is relative; returns false if it is absolute.

Note

Paths starting with a colon (:) are always considered absolute, as they denote a QResource .

See also

isRelative() isAbsolutePath() makeAbsolute()

isRoot()
Return type:

bool

Warning

This section contains snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python and may contain errors.

Returns true if the directory is the root directory; otherwise returns false.

Note

If the directory is a symbolic link to the root directory this function returns false. If you want to test for this use canonicalPath() , e.g.

dir = QDir("/tmp/root_link")
dir = dir.canonicalPath()
if dir.isRoot():
    qWarning("It is a root link")

See also

root() rootPath()

static listSeparator()
Return type:

QChar

Returns the native path list separator: ‘:’ under Unix and ‘;’ under Windows.

See also

separator()

makeAbsolute()
Return type:

bool

Converts the directory path to an absolute path. If it is already absolute nothing happens. Returns true if the conversion succeeded; otherwise returns false.

static match(filter, fileName)
Parameters:

  • filter – str

  • fileName – str

Return type:

bool

Returns true if the fileName matches the wildcard (glob) pattern filter; otherwise returns false. The filter may contain multiple patterns separated by spaces or semicolons. The matching is case insensitive.

static match(filters, fileName)
Parameters:

  • filters – list of strings

  • fileName – str

Return type:

bool

This is an overloaded function.

Returns true if the fileName matches any of the wildcard (glob) patterns in the list of filters; otherwise returns false. The matching is case insensitive.

mkdir(dirName)
Parameters:

dirName – str

Return type:

bool

This is an overloaded function.

Creates a sub-directory called dirName with default permissions.

On POSIX systems the default is to grant all permissions allowed by umask. On Windows, the new directory inherits its permissions from its parent directory.

mkdir(dirName, permissions)
Parameters:

  • dirName – str

  • permissions – Combination of Permission

Return type:

bool

Creates a sub-directory called dirName.

Returns true on success; otherwise returns false.

If the directory already exists when this function is called, it will return false.

The permissions of the created directory are set to permissions.

On POSIX systems the permissions are influenced by the value of umask.

On Windows the permissions are emulated using ACLs. These ACLs may be in non-canonical order when the group is granted less permissions than others. Files and directories with such permissions will generate warnings when the Security tab of the Properties dialog is opened. Granting the group all permissions granted to others avoids such warnings.

See also

rmdir()

mkpath(dirPath)
Parameters:

dirPath – str

Return type:

bool

Creates the directory path dirPath.

The function will create all parent directories necessary to create the directory.

Returns true if successful; otherwise returns false.

If the path already exists when this function is called, it will return true.

See also

rmpath()

nameFilters()
Return type:

list of strings

Returns the string list set by setNameFilters()

See also

setNameFilters()

static nameFiltersFromString(nameFilter)
Parameters:

nameFilter – str

Return type:

list of strings

__ne__(rhs)
Parameters:

rhs – QDir

Return type:

bool

Warning

This section contains snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python and may contain errors.

Returns true if directory lhs and directory rhs have different paths or different sort or filter settings; otherwise returns false.

Example:

# The current directory is "/usr/local"
d1 = QDir("/usr/local/bin")
d1.setFilter(QDir.Executable)
d2 = QDir("bin")
if d1 != d2:
    qDebug("They differ")
__eq__(rhs)
Parameters:

rhs – QDir

Return type:

bool

Warning

This section contains snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python and may contain errors.

Returns true if directory lhs and directory rhs have the same path and their sort and filter settings are the same; otherwise returns false.

Example:

# The current directory is "/usr/local"
d1 = QDir("/usr/local/bin")
d2 = QDir("bin")
if d1 == d2:
    qDebug("They're the same")
operator(arg__1)
Parameters:

arg__1 – int

Return type:

str

Returns the file name at position pos in the list of file names. Equivalent to entryList() .at(index). pos must be a valid index position in the list (i.e., 0 <= pos < count() ).

Note

In Qt versions prior to 6.5, pos was an int, not qsizetype.

See also

count() entryList()

path()
Return type:

str

Returns the path. This may contain symbolic links, but never contains redundant “.”, “..” or multiple separators.

The returned path can be either absolute or relative (see setPath() ).

refresh()

Refreshes the directory information.

relativeFilePath(fileName)
Parameters:

fileName – str

Return type:

str

Warning

This section contains snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python and may contain errors.

Returns the path to fileName relative to the directory.

dir = QDir("/home/bob")
s = QString()
s = dir.relativeFilePath("images/file.jpg") # s is "images/file.jpg"
s = dir.relativeFilePath("/home/mary/file.txt") # s is "../mary/file.txt"

See also

absoluteFilePath() filePath() canonicalPath()

remove(fileName)
Parameters:

fileName – str

Return type:

bool

Removes the file, fileName.

Returns true if the file is removed successfully; otherwise returns false.

removeRecursively()
Return type:

bool

Removes the directory, including all its contents.

Returns true if successful, otherwise false.

If a file or directory cannot be removed, removeRecursively() keeps going and attempts to delete as many files and sub-directories as possible, then returns false.

If the directory was already removed, the method returns true (expected result already reached).

Note

This function is meant for removing a small application-internal directory (such as a temporary directory), but not user-visible directories. For user-visible operations, it is rather recommended to report errors more precisely to the user, to offer solutions in case of errors, to show progress during the deletion since it could take several minutes, etc.

rename(oldName, newName)
Parameters:

  • oldName – str

  • newName – str

Return type:

bool

Renames a file or directory from oldName to newName, and returns true if successful; otherwise returns false.

On most file systems, rename() fails only if oldName does not exist, or if a file with the new name already exists. However, there are also other reasons why rename() can fail. For example, on at least one file system rename() fails if newName points to an open file.

If oldName is a file (not a directory) that can’t be renamed right away, Qt will try to copy oldName to newName and remove oldName.

See also

rename()

rmdir(dirName)
Parameters:

dirName – str

Return type:

bool

Removes the directory specified by dirName.

The directory must be empty for rmdir() to succeed.

Returns true if successful; otherwise returns false.

See also

mkdir()

rmpath(dirPath)
Parameters:

dirPath – str

Return type:

bool

Removes the directory path dirPath.

The function will remove all parent directories in dirPath, provided that they are empty. This is the opposite of mkpath(dirPath).

Returns true if successful; otherwise returns false.

See also

mkpath()

static root()
Return type:

QDir

Returns the root directory.

The directory is constructed using the absolute path of the root directory, ensuring that its path() will be the same as its absolutePath() .

See rootPath() for details.

static rootPath()
Return type:

str

Returns the absolute path of the root directory.

For Unix operating systems this returns “/”. For Windows file systems this normally returns “c:/”.

static searchPaths(prefix)
Parameters:

prefix – str

Return type:

list of strings

Returns the search paths for prefix.

static separator()
Return type:

QChar

Returns the native directory separator: “/” under Unix and “\” under Windows.

You do not need to use this function to build file paths. If you always use “/”, Qt will translate your paths to conform to the underlying operating system. If you want to display paths to the user using their operating system’s separator use toNativeSeparators() .

See also

listSeparator()

static setCurrent(path)
Parameters:

path – str

Return type:

bool

Warning

This section contains snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python and may contain errors.

Sets the application’s current working directory to path. Returns true if the directory was successfully changed; otherwise returns false.

absolute = "/local/bin"
relative = "local/bin"
absFile = QFileInfo(absolute)
relFile = QFileInfo(relative)
QDir.setCurrent(QDir.rootPath())
# absFile and relFile now point to the same file
QDir.setCurrent("/tmp")
# absFile now points to "/local/bin",
# while relFile points to "/tmp/local/bin"

See also

current() currentPath() home() root() temp()

setFilter(filter)
Parameters:

filter – Combination of Filter

Sets the filter used by entryList() and entryInfoList() to filters. The filter is used to specify the kind of files that should be returned by entryList() and entryInfoList() . See Filter .

setNameFilters(nameFilters)
Parameters:

nameFilters – list of strings

Warning

This section contains snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python and may contain errors.

Sets the name filters used by entryList() and entryInfoList() to the list of filters specified by nameFilters.

Each name filter is a wildcard (globbing) filter that understands * and ? wildcards. See fromWildcard() .

For example, the following code sets three name filters on a QDir to ensure that only files with extensions typically used for C++ source files are listed:

filters = QStringList()
filters << "*.cpp" << "*.cxx" << "*.cc"
dir.setNameFilters(filters)

See also

nameFilters() setFilter()

setPath(path)
Parameters:

path – str

Sets the path of the directory to path. The path is cleaned of redundant “.”, “..” and of multiple separators. No check is made to see whether a directory with this path actually exists; but you can check for yourself using exists() .

The path can be either absolute or relative. Absolute paths begin with the directory separator “/” (optionally preceded by a drive specification under Windows). Relative file names begin with a directory name or a file name and specify a path relative to the current directory. An example of an absolute path is the string “/tmp/quartz”, a relative path might look like “src/fatlib”.

static setSearchPaths(prefix, searchPaths)
Parameters:

  • prefix – str

  • searchPaths – list of strings

Warning

This section contains snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python and may contain errors.

Sets or replaces Qt’s search paths for file names with the prefix prefix to searchPaths.

To specify a prefix for a file name, prepend the prefix followed by a single colon (e.g., “images:undo.png”, “xmldocs:books.xml”). prefix can only contain letters or numbers (e.g., it cannot contain a colon, nor a slash).

Qt uses this search path to locate files with a known prefix. The search path entries are tested in order, starting with the first entry.

QDir.setSearchPaths("icons", QStringList(QDir.homePath() + "/images"))
QDir.setSearchPaths("docs", QStringList(":/embeddedDocuments"))
...
QPixmap pixmap("icons:undo.png") # will look for undo.png in QDir.homePath() + "/images"
QFile file("docs:design.odf") # will look in the :/embeddedDocuments resource path

File name prefix must be at least 2 characters long to avoid conflicts with Windows drive letters.

Search paths may contain paths to The Qt Resource System .

See also

searchPaths()

setSorting(sort)
Parameters:

sort – Combination of SortFlag

Sets the sort order used by entryList() and entryInfoList() .

The sort is specified by OR-ing values from the enum SortFlag .

See also

sorting() SortFlag

sorting()
Return type:

Combination of SortFlag

Returns the value set by setSorting()

swap(other)
Parameters:

other – QDir

Swaps this QDir instance with other. This function is very fast and never fails.

static temp()
Return type:

QDir

Returns the system’s temporary directory.

The directory is constructed using the absolute canonical path of the temporary directory, ensuring that its path() will be the same as its absolutePath() .

See tempPath() for details.

static tempPath()
Return type:

str

Returns the absolute canonical path of the system’s temporary directory.

On Unix/Linux systems this is the path in the TMPDIR environment variable or /tmp if TMPDIR is not defined. On Windows this is usually the path in the TEMP or TMP environment variable. The path returned by this method doesn’t end with a directory separator unless it is the root directory (of a drive).

static toNativeSeparators(pathName)
Parameters:

pathName – str

Return type:

str

Returns pathName with the ‘/’ separators converted to separators that are appropriate for the underlying operating system.

On Windows, toNativeSeparators(“c:/winnt/system32”) returns “c:\winnt\system32”.

The returned string may be the same as the argument on some operating systems, for example on Unix.