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GNU Info (python2.1-lib.info)osMiscellaneous OS interfaces =========================== Miscellaneous OS interfaces. This module provides a more portable way of using operating system (OS) dependent functionality than importing an OS dependent built-in module like `posix' or `nt'. This module searches for an OS dependent built-in module like `mac' or `posix' and exports the same functions and data as found there. The design of all Python's built-in OS dependent modules is such that as long as the same functionality is available, it uses the same interface; e.g., the function `os.stat(PATH)' returns stat information about PATH in the same format (which happens to have originated with the POSIX interface). Extensions peculiar to a particular OS are also available through the `os' module, but using them is of course a threat to portability! Note that after the first time `os' is imported, there is _no_ performance penalty in using functions from `os' instead of directly from the OS dependent built-in module, so there should be _no_ reason not to use `os'! The `os' module contains many functions and data values. The items below and in the following sub-sections are all available directly from the `os' module. `error' This exception is raised when a function returns a system-related error (e.g., not for illegal argument types). This is also known as the built-in exception `OSError'. The accompanying value is a pair containing the numeric error code from `errno' and the corresponding string, as would be printed by the C function `perror()'. See the module `errno' , which contains names for the error codes defined by the underlying operating system. When exceptions are classes, this exception carries two attributes, `errno' and `strerror'. The first holds the value of the C `errno' variable, and the latter holds the corresponding error message from `strerror()'. For exceptions that involve a file system path (e.g. `chdir()' or `unlink()'), the exception instance will contain a third attribute, `filename', which is the file name passed to the function. When exceptions are strings, the string for the exception is `'OSError''. `name' The name of the OS dependent module imported. The following names have currently been registered: `'posix'', `'nt'', `'dos'', `'mac'', `'os2'', `'ce'', `'java''. `path' The corresponding OS dependent standard module for pathname operations, e.g., `posixpath' or `macpath'. Thus, given the proper imports, `os.path.split(FILE)' is equivalent to but more portable than `posixpath.split(FILE)'. Note that this is also a valid module: it may be imported directly as `os.path'.
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