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Re: Test for an empty directory that could be very large if it is not empty?

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Virgil Stokes wrote:
> How can I 
> determine if the directory is empty WITHOUT the generation of a list of 
> the file names

Which platform?

On Windows, I have no idea.

On Unix you can't really do this properly without access
to opendir() and readdir(), which Python doesn't currently
wrap.

Will the empty directories be newly created, or could they
be ones that *used* to contain 200000 files that have since
been deleted?

If they're new or nearly new, you could probably tell from
looking at the size reported by stat() on the directory.
The difference between a fresh empty directory and one with
200000 files in it should be fairly obvious.

A viable strategy might be: If the directory is very large,
assume it's not empty. If it's smallish, list its contents
to find out for sure.

-- 
Greg

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Thread

Test for an empty directory that could be very large if it is not empty? Virgil Stokes <vs@it.uu.se> - 2014-08-06 23:46 +0200
  Re: Test for an empty directory that could be very large if it is not   empty? Gregory Ewing <greg.ewing@canterbury.ac.nz> - 2014-08-07 18:14 +1200
    Re: Test for an empty directory that could be very large if it is not   empty? Cameron Simpson <cs@zip.com.au> - 2014-08-07 17:08 +1000
    Re: Test for an empty directory that could be very large if it is not   empty? Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2014-08-07 07:54 -0400
      Re: Test for an empty directory that could be very large if it is not empty? Peter Otten <__peter__@web.de> - 2014-08-07 14:06 +0200
      Re: Test for an empty directory that could be very large if it is not empty? Tim Chase <python.list@tim.thechases.com> - 2014-08-07 07:05 -0500
        Re: Test for an empty directory that could be very large if it is not empty? Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2014-08-07 08:19 -0400
          Re: Test for an empty directory that could be very large if it is not empty? Tim Chase <python.list@tim.thechases.com> - 2014-08-07 12:37 -0500
            Re: Test for an empty directory that could be very large if it is not empty? Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2014-08-07 21:10 -0400
  Re: Test for an empty directory that could be very large if it is not empty? John Gordon <gordon@panix.com> - 2014-08-07 20:15 +0000

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