Chapter 10. File and Text Operations

This chapter covers dealing with files and the filesystem in Python. A file is a stream of bytes that a program can read and/or write, while a filesystem is a hierarchical repository of files on a particular computer system. Because files are such a core programming concept, several other chapters also contain material about handling files of specific kinds.

In Python, the os module supplies many of the functions that operate on the filesystem, so this chapter starts by introducing the os module. The chapter then proceeds to cover operations on the filesystem, including comparing, copying, and deleting directories and files, working with file paths, and accessing low-level file descriptors.

Next, this chapter discusses the typical ways Python programs read and write data, via built-in file objects and the polymorphic concept of file-like objects (i.e., objects that are not files, but still behave to some extent like files). Python file objects directly support the concept of text files, which are streams of characters encoded as bytes. The chapter also covers Python's support for data in compressed form, such as archives in the popular ZIP format.

While many modern programs rely on a graphical user interface (GUI), text-based, non-graphical user interfaces are often still useful, as they are simple, fast to program, and lightweight. This chapter concludes with material about text input and output in Python, including information about presenting text that is understandable to different users, no matter where they are or what language they speak. This is known as internationalization (often abbreviated i18n).