QStandardPaths¶
The
QStandardPaths
class provides methods for accessing standard paths. More…
New in version 5.0.
Synopsis¶
Static functions¶
def
displayName
(type)def
enableTestMode
(testMode)def
findExecutable
(executableName[, paths=list()])def
isTestModeEnabled
()def
locate
(type, fileName[, options=QStandardPaths.LocateFile])def
locateAll
(type, fileName[, options=QStandardPaths.LocateFile])def
setTestModeEnabled
(testMode)def
standardLocations
(type)def
writableLocation
(type)
Detailed Description¶
This class contains functions to query standard locations on the local filesystem, for common tasks such as user-specific directories or system-wide configuration directories.
-
PySide2.QtCore.QStandardPaths.
StandardLocation
¶ This enum describes the different locations that can be queried using methods such as
writableLocation
,standardLocations
, anddisplayName
.Some of the values in this enum represent a user configuration. Such enum values will return the same paths in different applications, so they could be used to share data with other applications. Other values are specific to this application. Each enum value in the table below describes whether it’s application-specific or generic.
Application-specific directories should be assumed to be unreachable by other applications. Therefore, files placed there might not be readable by other applications, even if run by the same user. On the other hand, generic directories should be assumed to be accessible by all applications run by this user, but should still be assumed to be unreachable by applications by other users.
Data interchange with other users is out of the scope of
QStandardPaths
.Constant
Description
QStandardPaths.DesktopLocation
Returns the user’s desktop directory. This is a generic value. On systems with no concept of a desktop, this is the same as .
QStandardPaths.DocumentsLocation
Returns the directory containing user document files. This is a generic value. The returned path is never empty.
QStandardPaths.FontsLocation
Returns the directory containing user’s fonts. This is a generic value. Note that installing fonts may require additional, platform-specific operations.
QStandardPaths.ApplicationsLocation
Returns the directory containing the user applications (either executables, application bundles, or shortcuts to them). This is a generic value. Note that installing applications may require additional, platform-specific operations. Files, folders or shortcuts in this directory are platform-specific.
QStandardPaths.MusicLocation
Returns the directory containing the user’s music or other audio files. This is a generic value. If no directory specific for music files exists, a sensible fallback for storing user documents is returned.
QStandardPaths.MoviesLocation
Returns the directory containing the user’s movies and videos. This is a generic value. If no directory specific for movie files exists, a sensible fallback for storing user documents is returned.
QStandardPaths.PicturesLocation
Returns the directory containing the user’s pictures or photos. This is a generic value. If no directory specific for picture files exists, a sensible fallback for storing user documents is returned.
QStandardPaths.TempLocation
Returns a directory where temporary files can be stored. The returned value might be application-specific, shared among other applications for this user, or even system-wide. The returned path is never empty.
QStandardPaths.HomeLocation
Returns the user’s home directory (the same as
homePath()
). On Unix systems, this is equal to the HOME environment variable. This value might be generic or application-specific, but the returned path is never empty.QStandardPaths.DataLocation
Returns the same value as . This enumeration value is deprecated. Using is preferable since on Windows, the roaming path is recommended.
QStandardPaths.CacheLocation
Returns a directory location where user-specific non-essential (cached) data should be written. This is an application-specific directory. The returned path is never empty.
QStandardPaths.GenericCacheLocation
Returns a directory location where user-specific non-essential (cached) data, shared across applications, should be written. This is a generic value. Note that the returned path may be empty if the system has no concept of shared cache.
QStandardPaths.GenericDataLocation
Returns a directory location where persistent data shared across applications can be stored. This is a generic value. The returned path is never empty.
QStandardPaths.RuntimeLocation
Returns a directory location where runtime communication files should be written, like Unix local sockets. This is a generic value. The returned path may be empty on some systems.
QStandardPaths.ConfigLocation
Returns a directory location where user-specific configuration files should be written. This may be either a generic value or application-specific, and the returned path is never empty.
QStandardPaths.DownloadLocation
Returns a directory for user’s downloaded files. This is a generic value. If no directory specific for downloads exists, a sensible fallback for storing user documents is returned.
QStandardPaths.GenericConfigLocation
Returns a directory location where user-specific configuration files shared between multiple applications should be written. This is a generic value and the returned path is never empty.
QStandardPaths.AppDataLocation
Returns a directory location where persistent application data can be stored. This is an application-specific directory. To obtain a path to store data to be shared with other applications, use . The returned path is never empty. On the Windows operating system, this returns the roaming path. This enum value was added in Qt 5.4.
QStandardPaths.AppLocalDataLocation
Returns the local settings path on the Windows operating system. On all other platforms, it returns the same value as . This enum value was added in Qt 5.4.
QStandardPaths.AppConfigLocation
Returns a directory location where user-specific configuration files should be written. This is an application-specific directory, and the returned path is never empty. This enum value was added in Qt 5.5.
The following table gives examples of paths on different operating systems. The first path is the writable path (unless noted). Other, additional paths, if any, represent non-writable locations.
Path type
macOS
Windows
“~/Desktop”
“C:/Users/<USER>/Desktop”
“~/Documents”
“C:/Users/<USER>/Documents”
“/System/Library/Fonts” (not writable)
“C:/Windows/Fonts” (not writable)
“/Applications” (not writable)
“C:/Users/<USER>/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Windows/Start Menu/Programs”
“~/Music”
“C:/Users/<USER>/Music”
“~/Movies”
“C:/Users/<USER>/Videos”
“~/Pictures”
“C:/Users/<USER>/Pictures”
randomly generated by the OS
“C:/Users/<USER>/AppData/Local/Temp”
“~”
“C:/Users/<USER>”
“~/Library/Application Support/<APPNAME>”, “/Library/Application Support/<APPNAME>”. “<APPDIR>/../Resources”
“C:/Users/<USER>/AppData/Local/<APPNAME>”, “C:/ProgramData/<APPNAME>”, “<APPDIR>”, “<APPDIR>/data”, “<APPDIR>/data/<APPNAME>”
“~/Library/Caches/<APPNAME>”, “/Library/Caches/<APPNAME>”
“C:/Users/<USER>/AppData/Local/<APPNAME>/cache”
“~/Library/Application Support”, “/Library/Application Support”
“C:/Users/<USER>/AppData/Local”, “C:/ProgramData”, “<APPDIR>”, “<APPDIR>/data”
“~/Library/Application Support”
“C:/Users/<USER>”
“~/Library/Preferences”
“C:/Users/<USER>/AppData/Local/<APPNAME>”, “C:/ProgramData/<APPNAME>”
“~/Library/Preferences”
“C:/Users/<USER>/AppData/Local”, “C:/ProgramData”
“~/Downloads”
“C:/Users/<USER>/Documents”
“~/Library/Caches”, “/Library/Caches”
“C:/Users/<USER>/AppData/Local/cache”
“~/Library/Application Support/<APPNAME>”, “/Library/Application Support/<APPNAME>”. “<APPDIR>/../Resources”
“C:/Users/<USER>/AppData/Roaming/<APPNAME>”, “C:/ProgramData/<APPNAME>”, “<APPDIR>”, “<APPDIR>/data”, “<APPDIR>/data/<APPNAME>”
“~/Library/Application Support/<APPNAME>”, “/Library/Application Support/<APPNAME>”. “<APPDIR>/../Resources”
“C:/Users/<USER>/AppData/Local/<APPNAME>”, “C:/ProgramData/<APPNAME>”, “<APPDIR>”, “<APPDIR>/data”, “<APPDIR>/data/<APPNAME>”
“~/Library/Preferences/<APPNAME>”
“C:/Users/<USER>/AppData/Local/<APPNAME>”, “C:/ProgramData/<APPNAME>”
Path type
Linux
“~/Desktop”
“~/Documents”
“~/.fonts”
“~/.local/share/applications”, “/usr/local/share/applications”, “/usr/share/applications”
“~/Music”
“~/Videos”
“~/Pictures”
“/tmp”
“~”
“~/.local/share/<APPNAME>”, “/usr/local/share/<APPNAME>”, “/usr/share/<APPNAME>”
“~/.cache/<APPNAME>”
“~/.local/share”, “/usr/local/share”, “/usr/share”
“/run/user/<USER>”
“~/.config”, “/etc/xdg”
“~/.config”, “/etc/xdg”
“~/Downloads”
“~/.cache”
“~/.local/share/<APPNAME>”, “/usr/local/share/<APPNAME>”, “/usr/share/<APPNAME>”
“~/.local/share/<APPNAME>”, “/usr/local/share/<APPNAME>”, “/usr/share/<APPNAME>”
“~/.config/<APPNAME>”, “/etc/xdg/<APPNAME>”
Path type
Android
iOS
“<APPROOT>/files”
“<APPROOT>/Documents/Desktop”
“<USER>/Documents”, “<USER>/<APPNAME>/Documents”
“<APPROOT>/Documents”
“/system/fonts” (not writable)
“<APPROOT>/Library/Fonts”
not supported (directory not readable)
not supported
“<USER>/Music”, “<USER>/<APPNAME>/Music”
“<APPROOT>/Documents/Music”
“<USER>/Movies”, “<USER>/<APPNAME>/Movies”
“<APPROOT>/Documents/Movies”
“<USER>/Pictures”, “<USER>/<APPNAME>/Pictures”
“<APPROOT>/Documents/Pictures”, “assets-library://”
“<APPROOT>/cache”
“<APPROOT>/tmp”
“<APPROOT>/files”
“<APPROOT>” (not writable)
“<APPROOT>/files”, “<USER>/<APPNAME>/files”
“<APPROOT>/Library/Application Support”
“<APPROOT>/cache”, “<USER>/<APPNAME>/cache”
“<APPROOT>/Library/Caches”
“<USER>”
“<APPROOT>/Documents”
“<APPROOT>/cache”
not supported
“<APPROOT>/files/settings”
“<APPROOT>/Library/Preferences”
“<APPROOT>/files/settings” (there is no shared settings)
“<APPROOT>/Library/Preferences”
“<USER>/Downloads”, “<USER>/<APPNAME>/Downloads”
“<APPROOT>/Documents/Downloads”
“<APPROOT>/cache” (there is no shared cache)
“<APPROOT>/Library/Caches”
“<APPROOT>/files”, “<USER>/<APPNAME>/files”
“<APPROOT>/Library/Application Support”
“<APPROOT>/files/settings”
“<APPROOT>/Library/Preferences/<APPNAME>”
“<APPROOT>/files”, “<USER>/<APPNAME>/files”
“<APPROOT>/Library/Application Support”
In the table above,
<APPNAME>
is usually the organization name, the application name, or both, or a unique name generated at packaging. Similarly, <APPROOT> is the location where this application is installed (often a sandbox). <APPDIR> is the directory containing the application executable.The paths above should not be relied upon, as they may change according to OS configuration, locale, or they may change in future Qt versions.
Note
On Android, applications with open files on the external storage (<USER> locations), will be killed if the external storage is unmounted.
Note
On iOS, if you do pass
QStandardPaths::standardLocations(QStandardPaths::PicturesLocation).last()
as argument tosetDirectory()
, a native image picker dialog will be used for accessing the user’s photo album. The filename returned can be loaded usingQFile
and related APIs. This feature was added in Qt 5.5.
-
PySide2.QtCore.QStandardPaths.
LocateOption
¶ This enum describes the different flags that can be used for controlling the behavior of
locate
andlocateAll
.Constant
Description
QStandardPaths.LocateFile
return only files
QStandardPaths.LocateDirectory
return only directories
-
static
PySide2.QtCore.QStandardPaths.
displayName
(type)¶ - Parameters
type –
StandardLocation
- Return type
unicode
Returns a localized display name for the given location
type
or an emptyQString
if no relevant location can be found.
-
static
PySide2.QtCore.QStandardPaths.
enableTestMode
(testMode)¶ - Parameters
testMode –
bool
-
static
PySide2.QtCore.QStandardPaths.
findExecutable
(executableName[, paths=list()])¶ - Parameters
executableName – unicode
paths – list of strings
- Return type
unicode
Finds the executable named
executableName
in the paths specified bypaths
, or the system paths ifpaths
is empty.On most operating systems the system path is determined by the PATH environment variable.
The directories where to search for the executable can be set in the
paths
argument. To search in both your own paths and the system paths, call twice, once withpaths
set and once withpaths
empty.Symlinks are not resolved, in order to preserve behavior for the case of executables whose behavior depends on the name they are invoked with.
Note
On Windows, the usual executable extensions (from the PATHEXT environment variable) are automatically appended, so that for instance (“foo”) will find foo.exe or foo.bat if present.
Returns the absolute file path to the executable, or an empty string if not found.
-
static
PySide2.QtCore.QStandardPaths.
isTestModeEnabled
()¶ - Return type
bool
Returns
true
if test mode is enabled inQStandardPaths
; otherwise returnsfalse
.
-
static
PySide2.QtCore.QStandardPaths.
locate
(type, fileName[, options=QStandardPaths.LocateFile])¶ - Parameters
type –
StandardLocation
fileName – unicode
options –
LocateOptions
- Return type
unicode
Tries to find a file or directory called
fileName
in the standard locations fortype
.The full path to the first file or directory (depending on
options
) found is returned. If no such file or directory can be found, an empty string is returned.
-
static
PySide2.QtCore.QStandardPaths.
locateAll
(type, fileName[, options=QStandardPaths.LocateFile])¶ - Parameters
type –
StandardLocation
fileName – unicode
options –
LocateOptions
- Return type
list of strings
Tries to find all files or directories called
fileName
in the standard locations fortype
.The
options
flag allows to specify whether to look for files or directories.Returns the list of all the files that were found.
-
static
PySide2.QtCore.QStandardPaths.
setTestModeEnabled
(testMode)¶ - Parameters
testMode –
bool
If
testMode
is true, this enables a special “test mode” inQStandardPaths
, which changes writable locations to point to test directories, in order to prevent auto tests from reading from or writing to the current user’s configuration.This affects the locations into which test programs might write files:
GenericDataLocation
,DataLocation
,ConfigLocation
,GenericConfigLocation
,AppConfigLocation
,GenericCacheLocation
,CacheLocation
. Other locations are not affected.On Unix,
XDG_DATA_HOME
is set to ~/.qttest/share ,XDG_CONFIG_HOME
is set to ~/.qttest/config , andXDG_CACHE_HOME
is set to ~/.qttest/cache .On macOS , data goes to ~/.qttest/Application Support, cache goes to ~/.qttest/Cache , and config goes to ~/.qttest/Preferences .
On Windows, everything goes to a “qttest” directory under Application Data.
-
static
PySide2.QtCore.QStandardPaths.
standardLocations
(type)¶ - Parameters
type –
StandardLocation
- Return type
list of strings
Returns all the directories where files of
type
belong.The list of directories is sorted from high to low priority, starting with
writableLocation()
if it can be determined. This list is empty if no locations fortype
are defined.See also
-
static
PySide2.QtCore.QStandardPaths.
writableLocation
(type)¶ - Parameters
type –
StandardLocation
- Return type
unicode
Returns the directory where files of
type
should be written to, or an empty string if the location cannot be determined.Note
The storage location returned can be a directory that does not exist; i.e., it may need to be created by the system or the user.
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