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Creates a directory at the specified path, including any necessary parent directories, without raising an error if the directory already exists.

Purpose

This utility function ensures that a download directory (or any directory) exists before attempting to write files to it. It's commonly used in file download workflows, data processing pipelines, or any scenario where output directories need to be created dynamically. The function handles the creation of nested directory structures and is idempotent, meaning it can be called multiple times safely without side effects.

Source Code

def ensure_download_dir(path: str):
    Path(path).mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)

Parameters

Parameter Details

path: A string representing the file system path where the directory should be created. Can be an absolute path (e.g., '/home/user/downloads') or a relative path (e.g., './data/downloads'). The path can include multiple nested directories that don't exist yet, and they will all be created.

Return Value

This function returns None (implicitly). It performs a side effect of creating the directory structure on the file system but does not return any value.

Dependencies

• pathlib

Required Imports

from pathlib import Path

Usage Example

from pathlib import Path

def ensure_download_dir(path: str):
    Path(path).mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)

# Example 1: Create a simple directory
ensure_download_dir('./downloads')

# Example 2: Create nested directories
ensure_download_dir('./data/downloads/images/2024')

# Example 3: Use with absolute path
ensure_download_dir('/tmp/my_app/downloads')

# Example 4: Safe to call multiple times
ensure_download_dir('./downloads')
ensure_download_dir('./downloads')  # No error raised

Best Practices

• Always call this function before attempting to write files to a directory to avoid FileNotFoundError
• Use forward slashes (/) in paths for cross-platform compatibility, or use pathlib.Path for path construction
• Consider validating the path string before passing it to avoid creating unintended directory structures
• Be aware that this function will create all parent directories in the path, which may not always be desired behavior
• Ensure the application has appropriate permissions to create directories at the specified location
• For production code, consider adding error handling around this function to catch PermissionError or OSError exceptions
• The function is thread-safe due to exist_ok=True, making it suitable for concurrent operations

Tags

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