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classification
Title: new os.path function to extract common prefix based on path components
Type: enhancement Stage: resolved
Components: Library (Lib) Versions: Python 3.5
process
Status: closed Resolution: fixed
Dependencies: Superseder:
Assigned To: serhiy.storchaka Nosy List: Paddy McCarthy, Roman.Evstifeev, eric.araujo, eric.smith, eric.snow, ezio.melotti, loewis, paul.moore, python-dev, r.david.murray, rafik, rhettinger, ronaldoussoren, santoso.wijaya, serhiy.storchaka
Priority: low Keywords: patch

Created on 2010-11-12 15:14 by ronaldoussoren, last changed 2022-04-11 14:57 by admin. This issue is now closed.

Files
File name Uploaded Description Edit
patch10395 rafik, 2012-11-04 16:10 Implementation of os.path.commonpath review
patch10395-2 rafik, 2012-11-05 20:45 Updated implementation of {posix,nt}path.commonpath review
patch10395-3 rafik, 2012-11-13 00:18 New version of ntpath.commonpath review
ospath_commonpath.patch serhiy.storchaka, 2014-07-13 18:56 review
Messages (18)
msg121038 - (view) Author: Ronald Oussoren (ronaldoussoren) * (Python committer) Date: 2010-11-12 15:14
The documentation for os.path.commonprefix notes:

os.path.commonprefix(list)
Return the longest path prefix (taken character-by-character) that is a prefix of all paths in list. If list is empty, return the empty string (''). Note that this may return invalid paths because it works a character at a time.

And indeed:


>>> os.path.commonprefix(['/usr/bin', '/usr/bicycle'])
'/usr/bi'


This is IMHO useless behaviour for a function in the os.path namespace, I'd expect that os.path.commonprefix works with path elements (e.g. that the call above would have returned '/usr').
msg121039 - (view) Author: Eric V. Smith (eric.smith) * (Python committer) Date: 2010-11-12 15:37
Indeed, that behavior seems completely useless.

I've verified that it works the same in 2.5.1.
msg121040 - (view) Author: Eric V. Smith (eric.smith) * (Python committer) Date: 2010-11-12 15:48
Although there are test cases in test_genericpath that verify this behavior, so apparently it's intentional.
msg121043 - (view) Author: Ronald Oussoren (ronaldoussoren) * (Python committer) Date: 2010-11-12 16:18
That's why I write 'broken by design' in the title.

A "fix" for this will have to a new function, if any get added (I've written a unix implementation that finds the longest shared path several times and can provide an implementation and tests when others agree that this would be useful)
msg121063 - (view) Author: Martin v. Löwis (loewis) * (Python committer) Date: 2010-11-12 19:35
This goes back to issue400788 and

http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2000-July/005897.html
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2000-August/008385.html

Skip changed it to do something meaningful (more than ten years ago), Mark Hammond complained that it was backwards incompatible, Tim Peters argued that you shouldn't change a function if the documented behavior matches the implementation, and Skip reverted the change and added more documentation to make the actual behavior more explicit.

It may be useless, but it's certainly not broken. In addition, it's very likely that applications of it rely on the very semantics that it has.

In any case, anybody proposing a change should go back and re-read the old threads.
msg121106 - (view) Author: R. David Murray (r.david.murray) * (Python committer) Date: 2010-11-13 03:12
Indeed, as I remember it there are people using commonprefix as a string function in situations having nothing to do with os paths.

I'm changing the title to reflect the fact that this is really a feature request for a new function.  IMO it is a reasonable feature request.  Finding a name for it ought to be an interesting exercise.

I think that this should only be accepted if there is also a windows implementation.
msg141535 - (view) Author: Eric Snow (eric.snow) * (Python committer) Date: 2011-08-01 21:21
You can already get the better prefix using os.path, albeit less efficiently.  Here's an example:

def commondirname(paths):
    subpath = os.path.commonprefix(paths)
    for path in paths:
        if path == subpath:
            return subpath
    else:
        return os.path.join(os.path.split(subpath)[0], "")

However, would it be better to implicitly normalize paths first rather than doing a character-by-character comparison?  Here is an unoptimized demonstration of what I mean:

def commondirname(paths):
    result = ""
    for path in paths:
        path = os.path.normcase(os.path.abspath(path))
        if not result:
            result = path
        else:
            while not path.startswith(result + os.path.sep):
                result, _ = os.path.split(result)
                if os.path.splitdrive(result)[1] == os.path.sep:
                    return result
    return result
msg174663 - (view) Author: Éric Araujo (eric.araujo) * (Python committer) Date: 2012-11-03 18:34
Rafik is working on os.path.commonpath for the bug day.
msg174818 - (view) Author: Rafik Draoui (rafik) Date: 2012-11-04 16:10
Here is a patch with an implementation of os.path.commonpath, along with tests and documentation. At the moment, this is only implemented for POSIX, as I don't feel like I know enough about Windows to tackle drive letters and UNC in paths without spending some more time on it.

This probably needs more tests for corner cases.
msg174819 - (view) Author: Serhiy Storchaka (serhiy.storchaka) * (Python committer) Date: 2012-11-04 16:44
> At the moment, this is only implemented for POSIX, as I don't feel like I know enough about Windows to tackle drive letters and UNC in paths without spending some more time on it.

Just use splitdrive() and first ensure that all drivespecs are same, then find common prefix for pathspecs.
msg174941 - (view) Author: Rafik Draoui (rafik) Date: 2012-11-05 20:45
Here is a new patch addressing some of storchaka review comments, and implementing a version in ntpath.

For the Windows version, I did as proposed in msg174819, but as I am not familiar with the semantics and subtleties of paths in Windows maybe this version of ntpath.commonpath is too simplistic and would return wrong results in some cases. I would like someone more knowledgeable in Windows to take care of it, or maybe just provide a test suite with lots of different corner cases that I could use to provide a better implementation.
msg175493 - (view) Author: Serhiy Storchaka (serhiy.storchaka) * (Python committer) Date: 2012-11-13 09:24
Some conclusions of discussion at Python-ideas (http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.comp.python.ideas/17719):

1. commonpath() should eat double slashes in input (['/usr/bin', '/usr//bin'] -> '/usr/bin').  In any case the current implementation eats slashes on output (['/usr//bin', '/usr//bin'] -> '/usr/bin', not '/usr//bin').

2. commonpath() should raise an exception instead of returning None on incompatible input.

3. May be commonpath() should eat also '.' components and return '.' instead of '' when relative paths have no common prefix. I am not sure.

In general the current patch looks good enough.
msg222966 - (view) Author: Serhiy Storchaka (serhiy.storchaka) * (Python committer) Date: 2014-07-13 18:56
Here is revised patch. The behavior is changed in correspondence with results of Python-ideas discussion, extended tests, fixed several bugs.
msg222986 - (view) Author: Raymond Hettinger (rhettinger) * (Python committer) Date: 2014-07-14 00:49
This patch looks reasonable except for the doc change to os.path.commonprefix().   Remember, that function IS working as documented and that our policy is to document in an affirmative manner (here is what the function does and how to use it versus being preachy about "broken-by-design" etc.)
msg238766 - (view) Author: Paddy McCarthy (Paddy McCarthy) Date: 2015-03-21 05:42
Can we now:
 1. Move os.path.commonprefix to str.commonprefix or string.commonprefix
 2. Deprecate the use of os.path.commonprefix
 3. Add os.path.commonpath
 4. Update the documentation.

This seems to have lingered for too long and yet people have been willing to do the work it seems (from 1999).
msg239675 - (view) Author: Paul Moore (paul.moore) * (Python committer) Date: 2015-03-31 09:25
The patch looks good to me.

rhettinger: I'm not sure I see a problem with the doc changes in the latest patch - noting that commonprefix may return an invalid path is fine, and what the current docs say. Directing people to commonpath if they don't want invalid paths also seems fine.

Paddy McCarthy: I don't think that the backward compatibility cost of moving os.path.commonprefix is worth it.
msg239691 - (view) Author: Serhiy Storchaka (serhiy.storchaka) * (Python committer) Date: 2015-03-31 12:14
The patch only adds a reference to commonpath() in commonprefix() documentation. The note about invalid paths already was here.
msg239694 - (view) Author: Roundup Robot (python-dev) (Python triager) Date: 2015-03-31 12:32
New changeset ec6c812fbc1f by Serhiy Storchaka in branch 'default':
Issue #10395: Added os.path.commonpath().  Implemented in posixpath and ntpath.
https://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/ec6c812fbc1f
History
Date User Action Args
2022-04-11 14:57:08adminsetgithub: 54604
2017-05-05 21:53:15martin.panterlinkissue4755 superseder
2015-04-02 12:42:22serhiy.storchakasetstatus: open -> closed
resolution: fixed
stage: patch review -> resolved
2015-03-31 12:32:56python-devsetnosy: + python-dev
messages: + msg239694
2015-03-31 12:14:27serhiy.storchakasetmessages: + msg239691
2015-03-31 09:25:18paul.mooresetnosy: + paul.moore
messages: + msg239675
2015-03-21 05:42:33Paddy McCarthysetnosy: + Paddy McCarthy
messages: + msg238766
2014-07-14 00:49:09rhettingersetnosy: + rhettinger
messages: + msg222986
2014-07-13 18:56:44serhiy.storchakasetfiles: + ospath_commonpath.patch
keywords: + patch
messages: + msg222966

stage: commit review -> patch review
2014-07-05 19:56:38eric.araujosetstage: patch review -> commit review
versions: + Python 3.5, - Python 3.4
2012-12-29 22:12:25serhiy.storchakasetassignee: serhiy.storchaka
2012-11-13 09:24:17serhiy.storchakasetmessages: + msg175493
2012-11-13 00:18:05rafiksetfiles: + patch10395-3
2012-11-05 20:45:58rafiksetfiles: + patch10395-2

messages: + msg174941
2012-11-04 16:44:13serhiy.storchakasetnosy: + serhiy.storchaka
messages: + msg174819
2012-11-04 16:13:09serhiy.storchakasetstage: needs patch -> patch review
2012-11-04 16:10:38rafiksetfiles: + patch10395
nosy: + rafik
messages: + msg174818

2012-11-03 18:34:30eric.araujosetmessages: + msg174663
versions: + Python 3.4, - Python 3.3
2011-08-01 21:21:59eric.snowsetnosy: + eric.snow
messages: + msg141535
2011-08-01 18:11:05santoso.wijayasetnosy: + santoso.wijaya

versions: + Python 3.3, - Python 3.2
2011-07-31 02:39:52Roman.Evstifeevsetnosy: + Roman.Evstifeev
2010-11-19 15:49:24eric.araujosetnosy: + eric.araujo
2010-11-13 03:12:31r.david.murraysetnosy: + r.david.murray
title: os.path.commonprefix broken by design -> new os.path function to extract common prefix based on path components
messages: + msg121106

type: enhancement
stage: needs patch
2010-11-12 23:53:31ezio.melottisetnosy: + ezio.melotti
2010-11-12 19:35:22loewissetnosy: + loewis
messages: + msg121063
2010-11-12 16:18:01ronaldoussorensetmessages: + msg121043
2010-11-12 15:48:04eric.smithsetmessages: + msg121040
2010-11-12 15:37:44eric.smithsetnosy: + eric.smith
messages: + msg121039
2010-11-12 15:14:04ronaldoussorencreate