QFileInfo

The QFileInfo class provides system-independent file information. More…

Inheritance diagram of PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo

Synopsis

Functions

Static functions

Detailed Description

QFileInfo provides information about a file’s name and position (path) in the file system, its access rights and whether it is a directory or symbolic link, etc. The file’s size and last modified/read times are also available. QFileInfo can also be used to obtain information about a Qt resource .

A QFileInfo can point to a file with either a relative or an absolute file path. Absolute file paths begin with the directory separator “/” (or with a drive specification on Windows). Relative file names begin with a directory name or a file name and specify a path relative to the current working directory. An example of an absolute path is the string “/tmp/quartz”. A relative path might look like “src/fatlib”. You can use the function isRelative() to check whether a QFileInfo is using a relative or an absolute file path. You can call the function makeAbsolute() to convert a relative QFileInfo ‘s path to an absolute path.

Note

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

The file that the QFileInfo works on is set in the constructor or later with setFile() . Use exists() to see if the file exists and size() to get its size.

The file’s type is obtained with isFile() , isDir() and isSymLink() . The symLinkTarget() function provides the name of the file the symlink points to.

On Unix (including macOS and iOS), the property getter functions in this class return the properties such as times and size of the target file, not the symlink, because Unix handles symlinks transparently. Opening a symlink using QFile effectively opens the link’s target. For example:

#ifdef Q_OS_UNIX
info1 = QFileInfo("/home/bob/bin/untabify")
info1.isSymLink() # returns true
info1.absoluteFilePath() # returns "/home/bob/bin/untabify"
info1.size() # returns 56201
info1.symLinkTarget() # returns "/opt/pretty++/bin/untabify"
info2 = QFileInfo(info1.symLinkTarget())
info2.isSymLink() # returns false
info2.absoluteFilePath() # returns "/opt/pretty++/bin/untabify"
info2.size() # returns 56201
#endif

On Windows, shortcuts (.lnk files) are currently treated as symlinks. As on Unix systems, the property getters return the size of the targeted file, not the .lnk file itself. This behavior is deprecated and will likely be removed in a future version of Qt, after which .lnk files will be treated as regular files.

#ifdef Q_OS_WIN
info1 = QFileInfo("C:\\Documents and Settings\\Bob\\untabify.lnk")
info1.isSymLink() # returns true
info1.absoluteFilePath() # returns "C:/Documents and Settings/Bob/untabify.lnk"
info1.size() # returns 743
info1.symLinkTarget() # returns "C:/Pretty++/untabify"
info2 = QFileInfo(info1.symLinkTarget())
info2.isSymLink() # returns false
info2.absoluteFilePath() # returns "C:/Pretty++/untabify"
info2.size() # returns 63942
#endif

Elements of the file’s name can be extracted with path() and fileName() . The fileName() ‘s parts can be extracted with baseName() , suffix() or completeSuffix() . QFileInfo objects to directories created by Qt classes will not have a trailing file separator. If you wish to use trailing separators in your own file info objects, just append one to the file name given to the constructors or setFile() .

The file’s dates are returned by birthTime() , lastModified() , lastRead() and fileTime() . Information about the file’s access permissions is obtained with isReadable() , isWritable() and isExecutable() . The file’s ownership is available from owner() , ownerId() , group() and groupId() . You can examine a file’s permissions and ownership in a single statement using the permission() function.

Note

On NTFS file systems, ownership and permissions checking is disabled by default for performance reasons. To enable it, include the following line:

Q_CORE_EXPORT = extern()

Permission checking is then turned on and off by incrementing and decrementing qt_ntfs_permission_lookup by 1.

qt_ntfs_permission_lookup++ # turn checking on
qt_ntfs_permission_lookup-- # turn it off again

Performance Issues

Some of QFileInfo ‘s functions query the file system, but for performance reasons, some functions only operate on the file name itself. For example: To return the absolute path of a relative file name, absolutePath() has to query the file system. The path() function, however, can work on the file name directly, and so it is faster.

Note

To speed up performance, QFileInfo caches information about the file.

Because files can be changed by other users or programs, or even by other parts of the same program, there is a function that refreshes the file information: refresh() . If you want to switch off a QFileInfo ‘s caching and force it to access the file system every time you request information from it call setCaching (false). If you want to make sure that all information is read from the file system, use stat() .

See also

QDir QFile

class PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo(dir, file)

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo(file)

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo(fileinfo)

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo(file)

Parameters

Constructs an empty QFileInfo object.

Note that an empty QFileInfo object contain no file reference.

See also

setFile()

Constructs a new QFileInfo that gives information about the given file relative to the directory dir.

If dir has a relative path, the QFileInfo will also have a relative path.

If file is an absolute path, then the directory specified by dir will be disregarded.

See also

isRelative()

Constructs a new QFileInfo that gives information about file file.

If the file has a relative path, the QFileInfo will also have a relative path.

See also

isRelative()

Constructs a new QFileInfo that is a copy of the given fileinfo.

Constructs a new QFileInfo that gives information about the given file. The file can also include an absolute or relative path.

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.__reduce__()
Return type

object

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.absoluteDir()
Return type

PySide6.QtCore.QDir

Returns the file’s absolute path as a QDir object.

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.absoluteFilePath()
Return type

str

Returns an absolute path including the file name.

The absolute path name consists of the full path and the file name. On Unix this will always begin with the root, ‘/’, directory. On Windows this will always begin ‘D:/’ where D is a drive letter, except for network shares that are not mapped to a drive letter, in which case the path will begin ‘//sharename/’. QFileInfo will uppercase drive letters. Note that QDir does not do this. The code snippet below shows this.

QFileInfo fi("c:/temp/foo"); => fi.absoluteFilePath() => "C:/temp/foo"

This function returns the same as filePath() , unless isRelative() is true. In contrast to canonicalFilePath() , symbolic links or redundant “.” or “..” elements are not necessarily removed.

Warning

If filePath() is empty the behavior of this function is undefined.

See also

filePath() canonicalFilePath() isRelative()

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.absolutePath()
Return type

str

Returns a file’s path absolute path. This doesn’t include the file name.

On Unix the absolute path will always begin with the root, ‘/’, directory. On Windows this will always begin ‘D:/’ where D is a drive letter, except for network shares that are not mapped to a drive letter, in which case the path will begin ‘//sharename/’.

In contrast to canonicalPath() symbolic links or redundant “.” or “..” elements are not necessarily removed.

Warning

If filePath() is empty the behavior of this function is undefined.

See also

absoluteFilePath() path() canonicalPath() fileName() isRelative()

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.baseName()
Return type

str

Returns the base name of the file without the path.

The base name consists of all characters in the file up to (but not including) the first ‘.’ character.

Example:

fi = QFileInfo("/tmp/archive.tar.gz")
base = fi.baseName() # base = "archive"

The base name of a file is computed equally on all platforms, independent of file naming conventions (e.g., “.bashrc” on Unix has an empty base name, and the suffix is “bashrc”).

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.birthTime()
Return type

PySide6.QtCore.QDateTime

Returns the date and time when the file was created / born.

If the file birth time is not available, this function returns an invalid QDateTime .

If the file is a symlink, the time of the target file is returned (not the symlink).

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.bundleName()
Return type

str

Returns the name of the bundle.

On macOS and iOS this returns the proper localized name for a bundle if the path isBundle() . On all other platforms an empty QString is returned.

Example:

fi = QFileInfo("/Applications/Safari.app")
bundle = fi.bundleName() # name = "Safari"

See also

isBundle() filePath() baseName() suffix()

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.caching()
Return type

bool

Returns true if caching is enabled; otherwise returns false.

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.canonicalFilePath()
Return type

str

Returns the canonical path including the file name, i.e. an absolute path without symbolic links or redundant “.” or “..” elements.

If the file does not exist, returns an empty string.

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.canonicalPath()
Return type

str

Returns the file’s path canonical path (excluding the file name), i.e. an absolute path without symbolic links or redundant “.” or “..” elements.

If the file does not exist, returns an empty string.

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.completeBaseName()
Return type

str

Returns the complete base name of the file without the path.

The complete base name consists of all characters in the file up to (but not including) the last ‘.’ character.

Example:

fi = QFileInfo("/tmp/archive.tar.gz")
base = fi.completeBaseName() # base = "archive.tar"

See also

fileName() suffix() completeSuffix() baseName()

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.completeSuffix()
Return type

str

Returns the complete suffix (extension) of the file.

The complete suffix consists of all characters in the file after (but not including) the first ‘.’.

Example:

fi = QFileInfo("/tmp/archive.tar.gz")
ext = fi.completeSuffix() # ext = "tar.gz"

See also

fileName() suffix() baseName() completeBaseName()

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.dir()
Return type

PySide6.QtCore.QDir

Returns the path of the object’s parent directory as a QDir object.

Note

The QDir returned always corresponds to the object’s parent directory, even if the QFileInfo represents a directory.

For each of the following, returns the QDir "~/examples/191697".

fileInfo1 = QFileInfo("~/examples/191697/.")
fileInfo2 = QFileInfo("~/examples/191697/..")
fileInfo3 = QFileInfo("~/examples/191697/main.cpp")

For each of the following, returns the QDir ".".

fileInfo4 = QFileInfo(".")
fileInfo5 = QFileInfo("..")
fileInfo6 = QFileInfo("main.cpp")

See also

absolutePath() filePath() fileName() isRelative() absoluteDir()

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.exists()
Return type

bool

Returns true if the file exists; otherwise returns false.

Note

If the file is a symlink that points to a non-existing file, false is returned.

static PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.exists(file)
Parameters

file – str

Return type

bool

Returns true if the file exists; otherwise returns false.

Note

If file is a symlink that points to a non-existing file, false is returned.

Note

Using this function is faster than using QFileInfo(file).exists() for file system access.

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.fileName()
Return type

str

Returns the name of the file, excluding the path.

Example:

fi = QFileInfo("/tmp/archive.tar.gz")
name = fi.fileName() # name = "archive.tar.gz"

Note that, if this QFileInfo object is given a path ending in a slash, the name of the file is considered empty.

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.filePath()
Return type

str

Returns the file name, including the path (which may be absolute or relative).

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.group()
Return type

str

Returns the group of the file. On Windows, on systems where files do not have groups, or if an error occurs, an empty string is returned.

This function can be time consuming under Unix (in the order of milliseconds).

If the file is a symlink, this function returns the owning group of the target (not the symlink).

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.groupId()
Return type

uint

Returns the id of the group the file belongs to.

On Windows and on systems where files do not have groups this function always returns (uint) -2.

If the file is a symlink, this function returns the id of the group owning the target (not the symlink).

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.isAbsolute()
Return type

bool

Returns true if the file path is absolute, otherwise returns false (i.e. the path is relative).

Note

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

See also

isRelative()

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.isBundle()
Return type

bool

Returns true if this object points to a bundle or to a symbolic link to a bundle on macOS and iOS; otherwise returns false.

If the file is a symlink, this function returns true if the target is a bundle (not the symlink).

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.isDir()
Return type

bool

Returns true if this object points to a directory or to a symbolic link to a directory; otherwise returns false.

If the file is a symlink, this function returns true if the target is a directory (not the symlink).

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.isExecutable()
Return type

bool

Returns true if the file is executable; otherwise returns false.

If the file is a symlink, this function returns true if the target is executable (not the symlink).

See also

isReadable() isWritable() permission()

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.isFile()
Return type

bool

Returns true if this object points to a file or to a symbolic link to a file. Returns false if the object points to something which isn’t a file, such as a directory.

If the file is a symlink, this function returns true if the target is a regular file (not the symlink).

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.isHidden()
Return type

bool

Returns true if this is a `hidden’ file; otherwise returns false.

Note

This function returns true for the special entries “.” and “..” on Unix, even though entryList threats them as shown. And note that, since this function inspects the file name, on Unix it will inspect the name of the symlink, if this file is a symlink, not the target’s name.

On Windows, this function returns true if the target file is hidden (not the symlink).

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.isJunction()
Return type

bool

Returns true if the object points to a junction; otherwise returns false.

Junctions only exist on Windows’ NTFS file system, and are typically created by the mklink command. They can be thought of as symlinks for directories, and can only be created for absolute paths on the local volume.

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.isNativePath()
Return type

bool

Returns true if the file path can be used directly with native APIs. Returns false if the file is otherwise supported by a virtual file system inside Qt, such as the Qt Resource System .

Note

Native paths may still require conversion of path separators and character encoding, depending on platform and input requirements of the native API.

See also

toNativeSeparators() encodeName() filePath() absoluteFilePath() canonicalFilePath()

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.isReadable()
Return type

bool

Returns true if the user can read the file; otherwise returns false.

If the file is a symlink, this function returns true if the target is readable (not the symlink).

Note

If the NTFS permissions check has not been enabled, the result on Windows will merely reflect whether the file exists.

See also

isWritable() isExecutable() permission()

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.isRelative()
Return type

bool

Returns true if the file path is relative, otherwise returns false (i.e. the path is absolute). (E.g. under Unix a path is absolute if it begins with a “/”).

Note

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

See also

isAbsolute()

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.isRoot()
Return type

bool

Returns true if the object points to a directory or to a symbolic link to a directory, and that directory is the root directory; otherwise returns false.

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.isShortcut()
Return type

bool

Returns true if this object points to a shortcut; otherwise returns false.

Shortcuts only exist on Windows and are typically .lnk files. For instance, true will be returned for shortcuts (*.lnk files) on Windows, but false will be returned on Unix (including macOS and iOS).

The shortcut (.lnk) files are treated as regular files. Opening those will open the .lnk file itself. In order to open the file a shortcut references to, it must uses symLinkTarget() on a shortcut.

Note

Even if a shortcut (broken shortcut) points to a non existing file, returns true.

See also

isFile() isDir() isSymbolicLink() symLinkTarget()

Return type

bool

Returns true if this object points to a symbolic link or shortcut; otherwise returns false.

Symbolic links exist on Unix (including macOS and iOS) and Windows and are typically created by the ln -s or mklink commands, respectively. Opening a symbolic link effectively opens the link's target .

In addition, true will be returned for shortcuts (*.lnk files) on Windows. This behavior is deprecated and will likely change in a future version of Qt. Opening those will open the .lnk file itself.

Example:

info = QFileInfo(fileName)
if info.isSymLink():
    fileName = info.symLinkTarget()

Note

If the symlink points to a non existing file, exists() returns false.

See also

isFile() isDir() symLinkTarget()

Return type

bool

Returns true if this object points to a symbolic link; otherwise returns false.

Symbolic links exist on Unix (including macOS and iOS) and Windows (NTFS-symlink) and are typically created by the ln -s or mklink commands, respectively.

Unix handles symlinks transparently. Opening a symbolic link effectively opens the link's target .

In contrast to isSymLink() , false will be returned for shortcuts (*.lnk files) on Windows. Use isShortcut() instead.

Note

If the symlink points to a non existing file, exists() returns false.

See also

isFile() isDir() isShortcut() symLinkTarget()

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.isWritable()
Return type

bool

Returns true if the user can write to the file; otherwise returns false.

If the file is a symlink, this function returns true if the target is writeable (not the symlink).

Note

If the NTFS permissions check has not been enabled, the result on Windows will merely reflect whether the file is marked as Read Only.

See also

isReadable() isExecutable() permission()

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.junctionTarget()
Return type

str

Resolves an NTFS junction to the path it references.

Returns the absolute path to the directory an NTFS junction points to, or an empty string if the object is not an NTFS junction.

There is no guarantee that the directory named by the NTFS junction actually exists.

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.lastModified()
Return type

PySide6.QtCore.QDateTime

Returns the date and local time when the file was last modified.

If the file is a symlink, the time of the target file is returned (not the symlink).

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.lastRead()
Return type

PySide6.QtCore.QDateTime

Returns the date and local time when the file was last read (accessed).

On platforms where this information is not available, returns the same as lastModified() .

If the file is a symlink, the time of the target file is returned (not the symlink).

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.makeAbsolute()
Return type

bool

Converts the file’s path to an absolute path if it is not already in that form. Returns true to indicate that the path was converted; otherwise returns false to indicate that the path was already absolute.

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.metadataChangeTime()
Return type

PySide6.QtCore.QDateTime

Returns the date and time when the file metadata was changed. A metadata change occurs when the file is created, but it also occurs whenever the user writes or sets inode information (for example, changing the file permissions).

If the file is a symlink, the time of the target file is returned (not the symlink).

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.__ne__(fileinfo)
Parameters

fileinfo – PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo

Return type

bool

Returns true if this QFileInfo object refers to a different file than the one specified by fileinfo; otherwise returns false.

See also

operator==()

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.__eq__(fileinfo)
Parameters

fileinfo – PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo

Return type

bool

Returns true if this QFileInfo object refers to a file in the same location as fileinfo; otherwise returns false.

Note that the result of comparing two empty QFileInfo objects, containing no file references (file paths that do not exist or are empty), is undefined.

Warning

This will not compare two different symbolic links pointing to the same file.

Warning

Long and short file names that refer to the same file on Windows are treated as if they referred to different files.

See also

operator!=()

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.owner()
Return type

str

Returns the owner of the file. On systems where files do not have owners, or if an error occurs, an empty string is returned.

This function can be time consuming under Unix (in the order of milliseconds). On Windows, it will return an empty string unless the NTFS permissions check has been enabled.

If the file is a symlink, this function returns the owner of the target (not the symlink).

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.ownerId()
Return type

uint

Returns the id of the owner of the file.

On Windows and on systems where files do not have owners this function returns ((uint) -2).

If the file is a symlink, this function returns the id of the owner of the target (not the symlink).

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.path()
Return type

str

Returns the file’s path. This doesn’t include the file name.

Note that, if this QFileInfo object is given a path ending in a slash, the name of the file is considered empty and this function will return the entire path.

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.refresh()

Refreshes the information about the file, i.e. reads in information from the file system the next time a cached property is fetched.

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.setCaching(on)
Parameters

on – bool

If enable is true, enables caching of file information. If enable is false caching is disabled.

When caching is enabled, QFileInfo reads the file information from the file system the first time it’s needed, but generally not later.

Caching is enabled by default.

See also

refresh() caching()

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.setFile(dir, file)
Parameters

This is an overloaded function.

Sets the file that the QFileInfo provides information about to file in directory dir.

If file includes a relative path, the QFileInfo will also have a relative path.

See also

isRelative()

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.setFile(file)
Parameters

file – PySide6.QtCore.QFileDevice

This is an overloaded function.

Sets the file that the QFileInfo provides information about to file.

If file includes a relative path, the QFileInfo will also have a relative path.

See also

isRelative()

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.setFile(file)
Parameters

file – str

Sets the file that the QFileInfo provides information about to file.

The file can also include an absolute or relative file path. Absolute paths begin with the directory separator (e.g. “/” under Unix) or 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.

Example:

info = QFileInfo("/usr/bin/env")
path = info.absolutePath() # path = /usr/bin
base = info.baseName() # base = env
info.setFile("/etc/hosts")
path = info.absolutePath() # path = /etc
base = info.baseName() # base = hosts

See also

isFile() isRelative() setCurrent() isRelativePath()

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.size()
Return type

int

Returns the file size in bytes. If the file does not exist or cannot be fetched, 0 is returned.

If the file is a symlink, the size of the target file is returned (not the symlink).

See also

exists()

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.stat()

Reads all attributes from the file system.

This is useful when information about the file system is collected in a worker thread, and then passed to the UI in the form of caching QFileInfo instances.

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.suffix()
Return type

str

Returns the suffix (extension) of the file.

The suffix consists of all characters in the file after (but not including) the last ‘.’.

Example:

fi = QFileInfo("/tmp/archive.tar.gz")
ext = fi.suffix() # ext = "gz"

The suffix of a file is computed equally on all platforms, independent of file naming conventions (e.g., “.bashrc” on Unix has an empty base name, and the suffix is “bashrc”).

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.swap(other)
Parameters

other – PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo

Swaps this file info with other. This function is very fast and never fails.

PySide6.QtCore.QFileInfo.symLinkTarget()
Return type

str

Returns the absolute path to the file or directory a symbolic link points to, or an empty string if the object isn’t a symbolic link.

This name may not represent an existing file; it is only a string. exists() returns true if the symlink points to an existing file.