class QFileInfo#

The QFileInfo class provides an OS-independent API to retrieve information about file system entries. More…

Synopsis#

Methods#

def __init__()
def __reduce__()
def absoluteDir()
def absoluteFilePath()
def absolutePath()
def baseName()
def birthTime()
def bundleName()
def caching()
def canonicalFilePath()
def canonicalPath()
def completeBaseName()
def completeSuffix()
def dir()
def exists()
def fileName()
def filePath()
def fileTime()
def group()
def groupId()
def isAbsolute()
def isAlias()
def isBundle()
def isDir()
def isExecutable()
def isFile()
def isHidden()
def isJunction()
def isNativePath()
def isReadable()
def isRelative()
def isRoot()
def isShortcut()
def isSymLink()
def isSymbolicLink()
def isWritable()
def junctionTarget()
def lastModified()
def lastRead()
def makeAbsolute()
def metadataChangeTime()
def __ne__()
def __eq__()
def owner()
def ownerId()
def path()
def permission()
def permissions()
def readSymLink()
def refresh()
def setCaching()
def setFile()
def size()
def stat()
def suffix()
def swap()
def symLinkTarget()

Static functions#

def exists()

Note

This documentation may contain snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python. We always welcome contributions to the snippet translation. If you see an issue with the translation, you can also let us know by creating a ticket on https:/bugreports.qt.io/projects/PYSIDE

Detailed Description#

Warning

This section contains snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python and may contain errors.

QFileInfo provides information about a file system entry, such as its name, path, access rights and whether it is a regular file, directory or symbolic link. The entry’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 system entry with either an absolute or a relative path:

On Unix, absolute paths begin with the directory separator '/'. On Windows, absolute paths begin with a drive specification (for example, D:/).

Relative paths begin with a directory name or a regular file name and specify a file system entry’s path relative to the current working directory.

An example of an absolute path is the string "/tmp/quartz". A relative path may look like "src/fatlib". You can use the function isRelative() to check whether a QFileInfo is using a relative or an absolute path. You can call the function makeAbsolute() to convert a relative QFileInfo ‘s path to an absolute path.

Note

Paths starting with a colon (:) are always considered absolute, as they denote a QResource .

The file system entry path that the QFileInfo works on is set in the constructor or later with setFile() . Use exists() to see if the entry actually exists and size() to get its size.

The file system entry’s type is obtained with isFile() , isDir() , and isSymLink() . The symLinkTarget() function provides the absolute path of the target the symlink points to.

The path elements of the file system entry can be extracted with path() and fileName() . The fileName() ‘s parts can be extracted with baseName() , suffix() , or completeSuffix() . QFileInfo objects referring to directories created by Qt classes will not have a trailing directory separator '/'. If you wish to use trailing separators in your own file info objects, just append one to the entry’s path given to the constructors or setFile() .

Date and time related information are returned by birthTime() , fileTime() , lastModified() , lastRead() , and metadataChangeTime() . Information about access permissions can be obtained with isReadable() , isWritable() , and isExecutable() . Ownership information can be obtained with owner() , ownerId() , group() , and groupId() . You can also examine permissions and ownership in a single statement using the permission() function.

Symbolic Links and Shortcuts#

On Unix (including macOS and iOS), the property getter functions in this class return the properties such as times and size of the target, not the symlink, because Unix handles symlinks transparently. Opening a symlink using QFile effectively opens the link’s target. For example:

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

On Windows, shortcuts (.lnk files) are currently treated as symlinks. As on Unix systems, the property getters return the size of the target, not the .lnk file itself. This behavior is deprecated and will likely be removed in a future version of Qt, after which .lnk files will be treated as regular files.

#ifdef Q_OS_WIN
info1 = QFileInfo("C:\\Users\\Bob\\untabify.lnk")
info1.isSymLink() # returns true
info1.absoluteFilePath() # returns "C:/Users/Bob/untabify.lnk"
info1.size() # returns 63942
info1.symLinkTarget() # returns "C:/Pretty++/untabify"
info2 = QFileInfo(info1.symLinkTarget())
info2.isSymLink() # returns false
info2.absoluteFilePath() # returns "C:/Pretty++/untabify"
info2.size() # returns 63942
#endif

NTFS permissions#

On NTFS file systems, ownership and permissions checking is disabled by default for performance reasons. To enable it, include the following line:

Q_CORE_EXPORT = extern()

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

Note

Since this is a non-atomic global variable, it is only safe to increment or decrement qt_ntfs_permission_lookup before any threads other than the main thread have started or after every thread other than the main thread has ended.

Note

From Qt 6.6 the variable qt_ntfs_permission_lookup is deprecated. Please use the following alternatives.

The safe and easy way to manage permission checks is to use the RAII class QNtfsPermissionCheckGuard.

def complexFunction():

    QNtfsPermissionCheckGuard permissionGuard # check is enabled
    # do complex things here that need permission check enabled
} // as the guard goes out of scope the check is disabled

If you need more fine-grained control, it is possible to manage the permission with the following functions instead:

qAreNtfsPermissionChecksEnabled() # check status
qEnableNtfsPermissionChecks() # turn checking on
qDisableNtfsPermissionChecks() # turn it off again

Performance Considerations#

Some of QFileInfo ‘s functions have to query the file system, but for performance reasons, some functions only operate on the path string. For example: To return the absolute path of a relative entry’s path, absolutePath() has to query the file system. The path() function, however, can work on the file name directly, and so it is faster.

QFileInfo also caches information about the file system entry it refers to. Because the file system can be changed by other users or programs, or even by other parts of the same program, there is a function that refreshes the information stored in QFileInfo , namely refresh() . To switch off a QFileInfo ‘s caching (that is, force it to query the underlying file system every time you request information from it), call setCaching (false).

Fetching information from the file system is typically done by calling (possibly) expensive system functions, so QFileInfo (depending on the implementation) might not fetch all the information from the file system at construction. To make sure that all information is read from the file system immediately, use the stat() member function.

birthTime() , fileTime() , lastModified() , lastRead() , and metadataChangeTime() return times in local time by default. Since native file system API typically uses UTC, this requires a conversion. If you don’t actually need the local time, you can avoid this by requesting the time in UTC directly.

Platform Specific Issues#

On Android, some limitations apply when dealing with content URIs :

Access permissions might be needed by prompting the user through the QFileDialog which implements Android’s native file picker .

Aim to follow the Scoped storage guidelines, such as using app specific directories instead of other public external directories. For more information, also see storage best practices .

Due to the design of Qt APIs (e.g. QFile ), it’s not possible to fully integrate the latter APIs with Android’s MediaStore APIs.

See also

QDir QFile

__init__(dir, file)#

Parameters:

dir – QDir
file – str

Constructs a new QFileInfo that gives information about the given file system entry path that is relative to the directory dir.

If dir has a relative path, the QFileInfo will also have a relative path.

If path is absolute, then the directory specified by dir will be disregarded.

See also

isRelative()

__init__()

Constructs an empty QFileInfo object that doesn’t refer to any file system entry.

See also

setFile()

__init__(file)

Parameters:: file – str

Constructs a QFileInfo that gives information about a file system entry located at path that can be absolute or relative.

If path is relative, the QFileInfo will also have a relative path.

See also

setFile() isRelative() setCurrent() isRelativePath()

__init__(file)

Parameters:: file – QFileDevice

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__(fileinfo)

Parameters:: fileinfo – QFileInfo

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

__reduce__()#

Return type:: object

absoluteDir()#

Return type:: QDir

Warning

This section contains snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python and may contain errors.

Returns a QDir object representing the absolute path of the parent directory of the file system entry that this QFileInfo refers to.

# Given a current working directory of "/home/user/Documents/memos/"
info1 = QFileInfo("relativeFile")
print(info1.absolutePath() # "/home/user/Documents/memos/")
print(info1.baseName() # "relativeFile")
print(info1.absoluteDir() # QDir("/home/user/Documents/memos"))
print(info1.absoluteDir().path() # "/home/user/Documents/memos")
# A QFileInfo on a dir
info2 = QFileInfo("/home/user/Documents/memos")
print(info2.absolutePath() # "/home/user/Documents")
print(info2.baseName() # "memos")
print(info2.absoluteDir() # QDir("/home/user/Documents"))
print(info2.absoluteDir().path() # "/home/user/Documents")

absoluteFilePath()#

Return type:: str

Warning

This section contains snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python and may contain errors.

Returns the absolute full path to the file system entry this QFileInfo refers to, including the entry’s name.

On Unix, absolute paths begin with the directory separator '/'. On Windows, absolute paths begin with a drive specification (for example, D:/).

On Windows, the paths of network shares that are not mapped to a drive letter begin with //sharename/.

QFileInfo will uppercase drive letters. Note that QDir does not do this. The code snippet below shows this.

QFileInfo fi("c:/temp/foo"); => fi.absoluteFilePath() => "C:/temp/foo"

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.

absolutePath()#

Return type:: str

Returns the absolute path of the file system entry this QFileInfo refers to, excluding the entry’s name.

On Unix, absolute paths begin with the directory separator '/'. On Windows, absolute paths begin with a drive specification (for example, D:/).

On Windows, the paths of network shares that are not mapped to a drive letter begin with //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.

baseName()#

Return type:: str

Warning

This section contains snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python and may contain errors.

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:

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

Return type:: QDateTime

Returns the date and time when the file was created (born), in local time.

If the file birth time is not available, this function returns an invalid QDateTime .

If the file is a symlink, this function returns information about the target, not the symlink.

This function overloads QFileInfo::birthTime(const QTimeZone &tz), and returns the same as birthTime(QTimeZone::LocalTime).

See also

lastModified() lastRead() metadataChangeTime() fileTime()

birthTime(tz)

Parameters:: tz – QTimeZone
Return type:: QDateTime

Returns the date and time when the file was created (born).

The returned time is in the time zone specified by tz. For example, you can use LocalTime or UTC to get the time in the Local time zone or UTC, respectively. Since native file system API typically uses UTC, using UTC is often faster, as it does not require any conversions.

If the file birth time is not available, this function returns an invalid QDateTime .

If the file is a symlink, this function returns information about the target, not the symlink.

See also

lastModified(const QTimeZone &) lastRead(const QTimeZone &) metadataChangeTime(const QTimeZone &) FileTime, const QTimeZone &)

bundleName()#

Return type:: str

Warning

This section contains snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python and may contain errors.

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:

fi = QFileInfo("/Applications/Safari.app")
bundle = fi.bundleName() # name = "Safari"
See also

isBundle() filePath() baseName() suffix()

caching()#

Return type:: bool

Returns true if caching is enabled; otherwise returns false.

See also

setCaching() refresh()

canonicalFilePath()#

Return type:: str

Returns the file system entry’s canonical path, including the entry’s name, that is, an absolute path without symbolic links or redundant '.' or '..' elements.

If the entry does not exist, canonicalFilePath() returns an empty string.

See also

filePath() absoluteFilePath() dir()

canonicalPath()#

Return type:: str

Returns the file system entry’s canonical path (excluding the entry’s name), i.e. an absolute path without symbolic links or redundant “.” or “..” elements.

If the entry does not exist, this method returns an empty string.

See also

path() absolutePath()

completeBaseName()#

Return type:: str

Warning

This section contains snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python and may contain errors.

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:

fi = QFileInfo("/tmp/archive.tar.gz")
base = fi.completeBaseName() # base = "archive.tar"
See also

fileName() suffix() completeSuffix() baseName()

completeSuffix()#

Return type:: str

Warning

This section contains snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python and may contain errors.

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:

fi = QFileInfo("/tmp/archive.tar.gz")
ext = fi.completeSuffix() # ext = "tar.gz"
See also

fileName() suffix() baseName() completeBaseName()

dir()#

Return type:: QDir

Warning

This section contains snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python and may contain errors.

Returns a QDir object representing the path of the parent directory of the file system entry that this QFileInfo refers to.

Note

The QDir returned always corresponds to the object’s parent directory, even if the QFileInfo represents a directory.

For each of the following, dir() returns the QDir "~/examples/191697".

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

For each of the following, dir() returns the QDir ".".

fileInfo4 = QFileInfo(".")
fileInfo5 = QFileInfo("..")
fileInfo6 = QFileInfo("main.cpp")
See also

absolutePath() filePath() fileName() isRelative() absoluteDir()

exists()#

Return type:: bool

Returns true if the file system entry this QFileInfo refers to exists; otherwise returns false.

Note

If the entry is a symlink that points to a non-existing target, this method returns false.

static exists(file)

Parameters:: file – str
Return type:: bool

Returns true if the file system entry path exists; otherwise returns false.

Note

If path is a symlink that points to a non-existing target, this method returns false.

Note

Using this function is faster than using QFileInfo(path).exists() for file system access.

fileName()#

Return type:: str

Warning

This section contains snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python and may contain errors.

Returns the name of the file system entry this QFileInfo refers to, excluding the path.

Example:

fi = QFileInfo("/tmp/archive.tar.gz")
name = fi.fileName() # name = "archive.tar.gz"

Note

If this QFileInfo is given a path ending with a directory separator '/', the entry’s name part is considered empty.

filePath()#

Return type:: str

Returns the path of the file system entry this QFileInfo refers to; the path may be absolute or relative.

See also

absoluteFilePath() canonicalFilePath() isRelative()

fileTime(time)#

Parameters:: time – FileTime
Return type:: QDateTime

Returns the file time specified by time.

If the time cannot be determined, an invalid date time is returned.

If the file is a symlink, this function returns information about the target, not the symlink.

This function overloads FileTime, const QTimeZone &) , and returns the same as fileTime(time, QTimeZone::LocalTime).

See also

birthTime() lastModified() lastRead() metadataChangeTime()

fileTime(time, tz)

Parameters:

time – FileTime
tz – QTimeZone

Return type:

QDateTime

Returns the file time specified by time.

If the time cannot be determined, an invalid date time is returned.

If the file is a symlink, this function returns information about the target, not the symlink.

See also

birthTime(const QTimeZone &) lastModified(const QTimeZone &) lastRead(const QTimeZone &) metadataChangeTime(const QTimeZone &) isValid()

group()#

Return type:: 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).

If the file is a symlink, this function returns information about the target, not the symlink.

See also

groupId() owner() ownerId()

groupId()#

Return type:: 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.

If the file is a symlink, this function returns information about the target, not the symlink.

See also

group() owner() ownerId()

isAbsolute()#

Return type:: bool

Returns true if the file system entry’s path is absolute, otherwise returns false (that is, the path is relative).

Note

Paths starting with a colon (:) are always considered absolute, as they denote a QResource .

See also

isRelative()

isAlias()#

Return type:: bool

Returns true if this object points to an alias; otherwise returns false.

Aliases only exist on macOS. They are treated as regular files, so opening an alias will open the file itself. In order to open the file or directory an alias references use symLinkTarget() .

Note

Even if an alias points to a non existing file, isAlias() returns true.

isBundle()#

Return type:: 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.

If the file is a symlink, this function returns information about the target, not the symlink.

See also

isDir() isSymLink() isFile()

isDir()#

Return type:: bool

Returns true if this object points to a directory or to a symbolic link to a directory. Returns false if the object points to something that is not a directory (such as a file) or that does not exist.

If the file is a symlink, this function returns information about the target, not the symlink.

See also

isFile() isSymLink() isBundle()

isExecutable()#

Return type:: bool

Returns true if the file system entry this QFileInfo refers to is executable; otherwise returns false.

If the file is a symlink, this function returns information about the target, not the symlink.

See also

isReadable() isWritable() permission()

isFile()#

Return type:: 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 that is not a file (such as a directory) or that does not exist.

If the file is a symlink, this function returns information about the target, not the symlink.

See also

isDir() isSymLink() isBundle()

isHidden()#

Return type:: bool

Returns true if the file system entry this QFileInfo refers to is `hidden’; otherwise returns false.

Note

This function returns true for the special entries “.” and “..” on Unix, even though entryList treats them as shown. And note that, since this function inspects the file name, on Unix it will inspect the name of the symlink, if this file is a symlink, not the target’s name.

On Windows, this function returns true if the target file is hidden (not the symlink).

isJunction()#

Return type:: bool

Returns true if the object points to a junction; otherwise returns false.

Junctions only exist on Windows’ NTFS file system, and are typically created by the mklink command. They can be thought of as symlinks for directories, and can only be created for absolute paths on the local volume.

isNativePath()#

Return type:: bool

Returns true if the file path can be used directly with native APIs. Returns false if the file is otherwise supported by a virtual file system inside Qt, such as the Qt Resource System .

Note

Native paths may still require conversion of path separators and character encoding, depending on platform and input requirements of the native API.

isReadable()#

Return type:: bool

Returns true if the user can read the file system entry this QFileInfo refers to; otherwise returns false.

If the file is a symlink, this function returns information about the target, not the symlink.

Note

If the NTFS permissions check has not been enabled, the result on Windows will merely reflect whether the entry exists.

isRelative()#

Return type:: bool

Returns true if the file system entry’s path is relative, otherwise returns false (that is, the path is absolute).

On Unix, absolute paths begin with the directory separator '/'. On Windows, absolute paths begin with a drive specification (for example, D:/).

Note

Paths starting with a colon (:) are always considered absolute, as they denote a QResource .

See also

isAbsolute()

isRoot()#

Return type:: 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()#

Return type:: bool

Returns true if this object points to a shortcut; otherwise returns false.

Shortcuts only exist on Windows and are typically .lnk files. For instance, true will be returned for shortcuts (*.lnk files) on Windows, but false will be returned on Unix (including macOS and iOS).

The shortcut (.lnk) files are treated as regular files. Opening those will open the .lnk file itself. In order to open the file a shortcut references to, it must uses symLinkTarget() on a shortcut.

Note

Even if a shortcut (broken shortcut) points to a non existing file, isShortcut() returns true.

isSymLink()#

Return type:: bool

Warning

This section contains snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python and may contain errors.

Returns true if this object points to a symbolic link, shortcut, or alias; 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 link's target .

In addition, true will be returned for shortcuts (*.lnk files) on Windows, and aliases on macOS. This behavior is deprecated and will likely change in a future version of Qt. Opening a shortcut or alias will open the .lnk or alias file itself.

Example:

info = QFileInfo(fileName)
if info.isSymLink():
    fileName = info.symLinkTarget()

Note

exists() returns true if the symlink points to an existing target, otherwise it returns false.

See also

isFile() isDir() symLinkTarget()

isSymbolicLink()#

Return type:: 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 (NTFS-symlink) and are typically created by the ln -s or mklink commands, respectively.

Unix handles symlinks transparently. Opening a symbolic link effectively opens the link's target .

In contrast to isSymLink() , false will be returned for shortcuts (*.lnk files) on Windows and aliases on macOS. Use isShortcut() and isAlias() instead.

Note

exists() returns true if the symlink points to an existing target, otherwise it returns false.

isWritable()#

Return type:: bool

Returns true if the user can write to the file system entry this QFileInfo refers to; otherwise returns false.

If the file is a symlink, this function returns information about the target, not the symlink.

Note

If the NTFS permissions check has not been enabled, the result on Windows will merely reflect whether the entry is marked as Read Only.

junctionTarget()#

Return type:: str

Resolves an NTFS junction to the path it references.

Returns the absolute path to the directory an NTFS junction points to, or an empty string if the object is not an NTFS junction.

There is no guarantee that the directory named by the NTFS junction actually exists.

See also

isJunction() isFile() isDir() isSymLink() isSymbolicLink() isShortcut()

lastModified()#

Return type:: QDateTime

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

If the file is a symlink, this function returns information about the target, not the symlink.

This function overloads lastModified(const QTimeZone &) , and returns the same as lastModified(QTimeZone::LocalTime).

See also

birthTime() lastRead() metadataChangeTime() fileTime()

lastModified(tz)

Parameters:: tz – QTimeZone
Return type:: QDateTime

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

If the file is a symlink, this function returns information about the target, not the symlink.

See also

birthTime(const QTimeZone &) lastRead(const QTimeZone &) metadataChangeTime(const QTimeZone &) FileTime, const QTimeZone &)

lastRead()#

Return type:: QDateTime

Returns the date and time when the file was last read (accessed).

On platforms where this information is not available, returns the same time as lastModified() .

If the file is a symlink, this function returns information about the target, not the symlink.

This function overloads lastRead(const QTimeZone &) , and returns the same as lastRead(QTimeZone::LocalTime).

See also

birthTime() lastModified() metadataChangeTime() fileTime()

lastRead(tz)

Parameters:: tz – QTimeZone
Return type:: QDateTime

Returns the date and time when the file was last read (accessed).

On platforms where this information is not available, returns the same time as lastModified() .

If the file is a symlink, this function returns information about the target, not the symlink.

See also

birthTime(const QTimeZone &) lastModified(const QTimeZone &) metadataChangeTime(const QTimeZone &) FileTime, const QTimeZone &)

makeAbsolute()#

Return type:: bool

If the file system entry’s path is relative, this method converts it to an absolute path and returns true; if the path is already absolute, this method returns false.

See also

filePath() isRelative()

metadataChangeTime()#

Return type:: QDateTime

Returns the date and time when the file’s metadata was last changed, in local time.

A metadata change occurs when the file is first created, but it also occurs whenever the user writes or sets inode information (for example, changing the file permissions).

If the file is a symlink, this function returns information about the target, not the symlink.

This function overloads QFileInfo::metadataChangeTime(const QTimeZone &tz), and returns the same as metadataChangeTime(QTimeZone::LocalTime).

See also

birthTime() lastModified() lastRead() fileTime()

metadataChangeTime(tz)

Parameters:: tz – QTimeZone
Return type:: QDateTime

Returns the date and time when the file’s metadata was last changed. A metadata change occurs when the file is first created, but it also occurs whenever the user writes or sets inode information (for example, changing the file permissions).

If the file is a symlink, this function returns information about the target, not the symlink.

See also

birthTime(const QTimeZone &) lastModified(const QTimeZone &) lastRead(const QTimeZone &) FileTime time, const QTimeZone &)

__ne__(fileinfo)#

Parameters:: fileinfo – QFileInfo
Return type:: bool

Returns true if this QFileInfo refers to a different file system entry than the one referred to by fileinfo; otherwise returns false.

See also

operator==()

__eq__(fileinfo)#

Parameters:: fileinfo – QFileInfo
Return type:: bool

Returns true if this QFileInfo and fileinfo refer to the same entry on the file system; otherwise returns false.

Note that the result of comparing two empty QFileInfo objects, containing no file system entry references (paths that do not exist or are empty), is undefined.

Warning

This will not compare two different symbolic links pointing to the same target.

Warning

On Windows, long and short paths that refer to the same file system entry are treated as if they referred to different entries.

See also

operator!=()

owner()#

Return type:: 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.

If the file is a symlink, this function returns information about the target, not the symlink.

See also

ownerId() group() groupId()

ownerId()#

Return type:: 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).

If the file is a symlink, this function returns information about the target, not the symlink.

See also

owner() group() groupId()

path()#

Return type:: str

Returns the path of the file system entry this QFileInfo refers to, excluding the entry’s name.

Note

If this QFileInfo is given a path ending with a directory separator '/', the entry’s name part is considered empty. In this case, this function will return the entire path.

permission(permissions)#

Parameters:: permissions – Combination of Permission
Return type:: bool

Warning

This section contains snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python and may contain errors.

Tests for file permissions. The permissions argument can be several flags of type QFile::Permissions OR-ed together to check for permission combinations.

On systems where files do not have permissions this function always returns true.

Note

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

Example:

fi = QFileInfo("/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")

If the file is a symlink, this function returns information about the target, not the symlink.

See also

isReadable() isWritable() isExecutable()

permissions()#

Return type:: Combination of Permission

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.

If the file is a symlink, this function returns information about the target, not the symlink.

readSymLink()#

Return type:: str

Read the path the symlink references.

Returns the raw path referenced by the symbolic link, without resolving a relative path relative to the directory containing the symbolic link. The returned string will only be an absolute path if the symbolic link actually references it as such. Returns an empty string if the object is not a symbolic link.

See also

symLinkTarget() exists() isSymLink() isDir() isFile()

refresh()#

Refreshes the information about the file system entry this QFileInfo refers to, that is, reads in information from the file system the next time a cached property is fetched.

setCaching(on)#

Parameters:: on – 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(dir, file)#

Parameters:

dir – QDir
file – str

This is an overloaded function.

Sets the path of the file system entry that this QFileInfo provides information about to path in directory dir.

If dir has a relative path, the QFileInfo will also have a relative path.

If path is absolute, then the directory specified by dir will be disregarded.

See also

isRelative()

setFile(file)

Parameters:: file – QFileDevice

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(file)

Parameters:: file – str

Warning

This section contains snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python and may contain errors.

Sets the path of the file system entry that this QFileInfo provides information about to path that can be absolute or relative.

On Unix, absolute paths begin with the directory separator '/'. On Windows, absolute paths begin with a drive specification (for example, D:/).

Relative paths begin with a directory name or a regular file name and specify a file system entry’s path relative to the current working directory.

Example:

info = QFileInfo("/usr/bin/env")
path = info.absolutePath() # path = /usr/bin
base = info.baseName() # base = env
info.setFile("/etc/hosts")
path = info.absolutePath() # path = /etc
base = info.baseName() # base = hosts

size()#

Return type:: int

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

If the file is a symlink, this function returns information about the target, not the symlink.

See also

exists()

stat()#

Reads all attributes from the file system.

This is useful when information about the file system is collected in a worker thread, and then passed to the UI in the form of caching QFileInfo instances.

See also

setCaching() refresh()

suffix()#

Return type:: str

Warning

This section contains snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python and may contain errors.

Returns the suffix (extension) of the file.

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

Example:

fi = QFileInfo("/tmp/archive.tar.gz")
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(other)#

Parameters:: other – QFileInfo

Swaps this file info with other. This function is very fast and never fails.

symLinkTarget()#

Return type:: str

Returns the absolute path to the file or directory a symbolic link points to, or an empty string if the object isn’t a symbolic link.

This name may not represent an existing file; it is only a string.

Note

exists() returns true if the symlink points to an existing target, otherwise it returns false.