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os-path-abspath (PTH100)

Added in v0.0.231 · Related issues · View source

Derived from the flake8-use-pathlib linter.

Fix is sometimes available.

What it does

Checks for uses of os.path.abspath.

Why is this bad?

pathlib offers a high-level API for path manipulation, as compared to the lower-level API offered by os.path. When possible, using Path object methods such as Path.resolve() can improve readability over the os.path module's counterparts (e.g., os.path.abspath()).

Examples

import os

file_path = os.path.abspath("../path/to/file")

Use instead:

from pathlib import Path

file_path = Path("../path/to/file").resolve()

Known issues

While using pathlib can improve the readability and type safety of your code, it can be less performant than the lower-level alternatives that work directly with strings, especially on older versions of Python.

Fix Safety

This rule's fix is always marked as unsafe because Path.resolve() resolves symlinks, while os.path.abspath() does not. If resolving symlinks is important, you may need to use Path.absolute(). However, Path.absolute() also does not remove any .. components in a path, unlike os.path.abspath() and Path.resolve(), so if that specific combination of behaviors is required, there's no existing pathlib alternative. See CPython issue #69200.

References