QFileInfo

PyQt5.QtCore.QFileInfo

Description

The QFileInfo class provides system-independent file information.

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.

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 symlink has the same size() has the file it points to, because Unix handles symlinks transparently; similarly, opening a symlink using QFile effectively opens the link’s target. For example:

# #ifdef Q_OS_UNIX

# QFileInfo info1("/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"

# QFileInfo info2(info1.symLinkTarget());
# info2.isSymLink();          // returns false
# info2.absoluteFilePath();   // returns "/opt/pretty++/bin/untabify"
# info2.size();               // returns 56201

# #endif

On Windows, symlinks (shortcuts) are .lnk files. The reported size() is that of the symlink (not the link’s target), and opening a symlink using QFile opens the .lnk file. For example:

# #ifdef Q_OS_WIN

# QFileInfo info1("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"

# QFileInfo info2(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 created(), 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:

# extern Q_CORE_EXPORT int qt_ntfs_permission_lookup;

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).

See also

QDir, QFile.

Methods

__init__()

Constructs an empty QFileInfo object.

Note that an empty QFileInfo object contain no file reference.

See also

setFile().

---

__init__(str)

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

See also

setFile(), isRelative(), setCurrent(), isRelativePath().

---

__init__(QFile)

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().

---

__init__(QFileInfo)

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

---

__init__(QDir, str)

Constructs a new QFileInfo that gives information about the given file in 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().

---

absoluteDir() → QDir

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

See also

dir(), filePath(), fileName(), isRelative().

---

absoluteFilePath() → 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.

# This code needs porting to Python.

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# //![newstuff]
#     QFileInfo fi("c:/temp/foo"); => fi.absoluteFilePath() => "C:/temp/foo"
# //![newstuff]

# #! [0]
# #ifdef Q_OS_UNIX

# QFileInfo info1("/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"

# QFileInfo info2(info1.symLinkTarget());
# info2.isSymLink();          // returns false
# info2.absoluteFilePath();   // returns "/opt/pretty++/bin/untabify"
# info2.size();               // returns 56201

# #endif
# #! [0]


# #! [1]
# #ifdef Q_OS_WIN

# QFileInfo info1("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"

# QFileInfo info2(info1.symLinkTarget());
# info2.isSymLink();          // returns false
# info2.absoluteFilePath();   // returns "C:/Pretty++/untabify"
# info2.size();               // returns 63942

# #endif
# #! [1]


# #! [2]
# QString absolute = "/local/bin";
# QString relative = "local/bin";
# QFileInfo absFile(absolute);
# QFileInfo relFile(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"
# #! [2]


# #! [3]
# QFileInfo fi("/tmp/archive.tar.gz");
# QString name = fi.fileName();                // name = "archive.tar.gz"
# #! [3]


# #! [4]
# QFileInfo fi("/Applications/Safari.app");
# QString bundle = fi.bundleName();                // name = "Safari"
# #! [4]


# #! [5]
# QFileInfo fi("/tmp/archive.tar.gz");
# QString base = fi.baseName();  // base = "archive"
# #! [5]


# #! [6]
# QFileInfo fi("/tmp/archive.tar.gz");
# QString base = fi.completeBaseName();  // base = "archive.tar"
# #! [6]


# #! [7]
# QFileInfo fi("/tmp/archive.tar.gz");
# QString ext = fi.completeSuffix();  // ext = "tar.gz"
# #! [7]


# #! [8]
# QFileInfo fi("/tmp/archive.tar.gz");
# QString ext = fi.suffix();  // ext = "gz"
# #! [8]


# #! [9]
# QFileInfo info(fileName);
# if (info.isSymLink())
#     fileName = info.symLinkTarget();
# #! [9]


# #! [10]
# QFileInfo fi("/tmp/archive.tar.gz");
# if (fi.permission(QFile::WriteUser | QFile::ReadGroup))
#     qWarning("I can change the file; my group can read the file");
# if (fi.permission(QFile::WriteGroup | QFile::WriteOther))
#     qWarning("The group or others can change the file");
# #! [10]

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().

---

absolutePath() → 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().

---

baseName() → 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:

# QFileInfo fi("/tmp/archive.tar.gz");
# QString 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”).

See also

fileName(), suffix(), completeSuffix(), completeBaseName().

---

birthTime() → QDateTime

TODO

---

bundleName() → 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:

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

See also

isBundle(), filePath(), baseName(), suffix().

---

caching() → bool

Returns true if caching is enabled; otherwise returns false.

See also

setCaching(), refresh().

---

canonicalFilePath() → 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.

See also

filePath(), absoluteFilePath(), dir().

---

canonicalPath() → 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.

See also

path(), absolutePath().

---

completeBaseName() → 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:

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

See also

fileName(), suffix(), completeSuffix(), baseName().

---

completeSuffix() → 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:

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

See also

fileName(), suffix(), baseName(), completeBaseName().

---

created() → QDateTime

TODO

---

dir() → 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".

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

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

#     QFileInfo fileInfo4(".");
#     QFileInfo fileInfo5("..");
#     QFileInfo fileInfo6("main.cpp");

See also

absolutePath(), filePath(), fileName(), isRelative(), absoluteDir().

---

__eq__(QFileInfo) → bool

TODO

---

exists() → 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.

---

@staticmethod
exists(str) → bool

TODO

---

fileName() → str

Returns the name of the file, excluding the path.

Example:

# QFileInfo fi("/tmp/archive.tar.gz");
# QString 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.

See also

isRelative(), filePath(), baseName(), suffix().

---

filePath() → str

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

See also

absoluteFilePath(), canonicalFilePath(), isRelative().

---

fileTime(FileTime) → QDateTime

TODO

---

__fspath__() → object

TODO

---

group() → 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).

See also

groupId(), owner(), ownerId().

---

groupId() → int

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.

See also

group(), owner(), ownerId().

---

isAbsolute() → bool

TODO

---

isBundle() → 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.

See also

isDir(), isSymLink(), isFile().

---

isDir() → bool

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

See also

isFile(), isSymLink(), isBundle().

---

isExecutable() → bool

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

See also

isReadable(), isWritable(), permission().

---

isFile() → 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.

See also

isDir(), isSymLink(), isBundle().

---

isHidden() → 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.

---

isNativePath() → bool

TODO

---

isReadable() → bool

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

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().

---

isRelative() → bool

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

See also

isAbsolute().

---

isRoot() → 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.

---

isShortcut() → bool

TODO

---

isSymbolicLink() → bool

TODO

---

isSymLink() → 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 and are typically created by the ln -s or mklink commands, respectively. Opening a symbolic link effectively opens the symLinkTarget().

In addition, true will be returned for shortcuts (\*.lnk files) on Windows. Opening those will open the .lnk file itself.

Example:

# QFileInfo info(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().

---

isWritable() → bool

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

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().

---

lastModified() → QDateTime

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

See also

lastRead(), birthTime().

---

lastRead() → 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().

See also

lastModified(), birthTime().

---

makeAbsolute() → 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.

See also

filePath(), isRelative().

---

metadataChangeTime() → QDateTime

TODO

---

__ne__(QFileInfo) → bool

TODO

---

owner() → 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.

See also

ownerId(), group(), groupId().

---

ownerId() → int

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).

See also

owner(), group(), groupId().

---

path() → 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.

See also

filePath(), absolutePath(), canonicalPath(), dir(), fileName(), isRelative().

---

permission(Union[Permissions, Permission]) → bool

TODO

---

permissions() → Permissions

Returns the complete OR-ed together combination of QFile::Permissions for the file.

Note: The result might be inaccurate on Windows if the NTFS permissions check has not been enabled.

---

refresh()

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

---

setCaching(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().

---

setFile(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:

# QString absolute = "/local/bin";
# QString relative = "local/bin";
# QFileInfo absFile(absolute);
# QFileInfo relFile(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

isFile(), isRelative(), setCurrent(), isRelativePath().

---

setFile(QFile)

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().

---

setFile(QDir, str)

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().

---

size() → int

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

See also

exists().

---

suffix() → str

Returns the suffix (extension) of the file.

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

Example:

# QFileInfo fi("/tmp/archive.tar.gz");
# QString 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”).

See also

fileName(), completeSuffix(), baseName(), completeBaseName().

---

swap(QFileInfo)

TODO

---

symLinkTarget() → str

TODO