z3c.recipe.mkdir 0.4

Recipe Options

z3c.recipe.mkdir provides the following options:

• paths

  Contains the path(s) of directories created in normalized, absolute form. I.e.:

  mydir/../foo/bar

  becomes:

  /path/to/buildout-dir/foo/bar

• remove-on-update

  Default: no

  By default, created directories are not removed on updates of buildout configuration. This is a security measure as created directories might contain valuable data.

  You can, however, enforce automatic removing on updates by setting this option to on, yes or true.

• user

  Default: system-dependent

  You can optionally set a username that should own created directories. The username must be valid name (not an uid) and the system must support setting a user ownership for files. Of course, the running process must have the permission to set the requested user.

• group

  Default: system-dependent

  You can optionally set a usergroup that should own created directories.The group name must be a valid name (not a gid) and the system must support setting a group ownership for files. Of course, the running process must have the permission to set the requested group.

• mode

  Default: system-dependent

  You can optionally set file permissions for created directories as octal numbers as usually used on Unix systems. These file permissions will be set for each created directory if the running process is allowed to do so.

  Normally, a value of 0700 will give rwx permissions to the owner and no permissions to group members or others.

  If you don’t specify a mode, the system default will be used.

Simple creation of directories via buildout

Lets create a minimal buildout.cfg file:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... ''')

Now we can run buildout:

>>> print system(join('bin', 'buildout')),
Installing mydir.
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/parts/mydir

The directory was indeed created in the parts directory:

>>> ls('parts')
d  buildout
d  mydir

As we did not specify a special path, the name of the created directory is like the section name mydir.

Creating a directory in a given path

Lets create a minimal buildout.cfg file. This time the directory has a name different from section name and we have to tell explicitly, that we want it to be created in the parts/ directory. We set the paths option to do so:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... paths = ${buildout:parts-directory}/myotherdir
... ''')

Now we can run buildout:

>>> print system(join('bin', 'buildout')),
Uninstalling mydir.
Installing mydir.
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/parts/myotherdir

The directory was indeed created:

>>> ls('parts')
d  buildout
d  mydir
d  myotherdir

Creating directories that are removed on updates

We can tell the recipe that a directory should be removed on updates by using the remove-on-update option:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... remove-on-update = true
... paths = newdir
... ''')

>>> print system(join('bin', 'buildout')),
Uninstalling mydir.
Installing mydir.
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/newdir

The newdir/ directory was created:

>>> ls('.')
-  .installed.cfg
d  bin
-  buildout.cfg
d  develop-eggs
d  eggs
d  newdir
d  parts

We rewrite buildout.cfg and set a different path:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... remove-on-update = true
... paths = newdir2
... ''')

>>> print system(join('bin', 'buildout')),
Uninstalling mydir.
Installing mydir.
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/newdir2

Now newdir/ has vanished and newdir2 exists:

>>> ls('.')
-  .installed.cfg
d  bin
-  buildout.cfg
d  develop-eggs
d  eggs
d  newdir2
d  parts

Note, that the created directory will be removed on next modification of buildout.cfg.

Setting User, Group, and Permissions

You can optionally set user, group, or mode option for the dirs to be created.

While user and group give the user/group that should own the created directory (and all not existing intermediate directories), mode is expected to be an octal number to represent the directory permissions in Unix style.

Of course, setting all these permissions and ownerships only works if the system supports it and the running user has the permissions to do so.

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... paths = my/new/dir
... mode = 700
... user = %s
... group = %s
... ''' % (user, group))

>>> print system(join('bin', 'buildout')),
Uninstalling mydir.
Installing mydir.
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/my
mydir:   mode 0700, user 'USER', group 'GROUP'
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/my/new
mydir:   mode 0700, user 'USER', group 'GROUP'
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/my/new/dir
mydir:   mode 0700, user 'USER', group 'GROUP'

>>> lls('my')
drwx------ USER GROUP my/new

>>> lls('my/new')
drwx------ USER GROUP my/new/dir

These options are optional, so you can leave any of them out and the system defaults will be used instead.

On updates only the leaf directories are changed permission-wise. E.g. if we change the mode from the original buildout from 0700 to 0750:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... paths = my/new/dir
... remove-on-update = true
... mode = 750
... user = %s
... group = %s
... ''' % (user, group))

>>> print system(join('bin', 'buildout')),
Uninstalling mydir.
Installing mydir.
mydir: set permissions for /sample-buildout/my/new/dir
mydir:   mode 0750, user 'USER', group 'GROUP'

the permissions of the leaf directory were updated:

>>> lls('my/new')
drwxr-x--- USER GROUP my/new/dir

while its parent’s permissions are the same as before:

>>> lls('my')
drwx------ USER GROUP my/new

Clean up:

>>> import shutil
>>> shutil.rmtree('my')

Creating relative paths

If we specify a relative path, this path will be created relative to the buildout directory:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... paths = myrootdir
... ''')

>>> print system(join('bin', 'buildout')),
Uninstalling mydir.
Installing mydir.
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/myrootdir

>>> ls('.')
-  .installed.cfg
d  bin
-  buildout.cfg
d  develop-eggs
d  eggs
d  myrootdir
d  parts

The old directories will not vanish:

>>> ls('parts')
d  buildout
d  mydir
d  myotherdir

Creating intermediate paths

If we specify several levels of directories, the intermediate parts will be created for us as well:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... paths = myrootdir/other/dir/finaldir
... ''')

>>> print system(join('bin', 'buildout')),
Uninstalling mydir.
Installing mydir.
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/myrootdir/other
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/myrootdir/other/dir
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/myrootdir/other/dir/finaldir

>>> ls('myrootdir', 'other', 'dir')
d  finaldir

Paths are normalized

If we specify a non-normalized path (i.e. one that contains references to parent directories or similar), the path will be normalized before creating it:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... paths = myroot/foo/../dir1/../bar/.
... ''')

>>> print system(join('bin', 'buildout')),
Uninstalling mydir.
Installing mydir.
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/myroot
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/myroot/bar

Only bar/ will be created:

>>> ls('myroot')
d  bar

Creating multiple paths in a row

We can create multiple paths in one buildout section:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... paths = myroot/dir1
...         myroot/dir2
... ''')

>>> print system(join('bin', 'buildout')),
Uninstalling mydir.
Installing mydir.
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/myroot/dir1
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/myroot/dir2

>>> ls('myroot')
d  bar
d  dir1
d  dir2

Note, that in this case you cannot easily reference the set path from other recipes or templates. If, for example in a template you reference:

root_dir = ${mydir:path}

the result will become:

root_dir = /path/to/buildout/dir1
path/to/buildout/dir2

If you specify only one path, however, the second line will not appear.

Use several sections using z3c.recipe.mkdir if you want to reference different created paths from templates or similar.

Trailing slashes do not matter

It doesn’t matter, whether you specify the paths with trailing slash or without:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... paths = myroot/dir3/
...         myroot/dir4
... ''')

>>> print system(join('bin', 'buildout')),
Uninstalling mydir.
Installing mydir.
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/myroot/dir3
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/myroot/dir4

>>> ls('myroot')
d  bar
d  dir1
d  dir2
d  dir3
d  dir4

Things to be aware of

If you change the setting of some path, the old directory and all its contents will not be deleted (as you might expect from a buildout recipe):

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... paths = path1
... ''')

>>> print system(join('bin', 'buildout')),
Uninstalling mydir.
Installing mydir.
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/path1

>>> write(join('path1', 'myfile'), 'blah\n')
>>> ls('path1')
-  myfile

Now we switch the setting of mydir to path2:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... paths = path2
... ''')

>>> print system(join('bin', 'buildout'))
Uninstalling mydir.
Installing mydir.
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/path2
<BLANKLINE>

The file we created above is still alive:

>>> ls('path1')
-  myfile

Things, one should not do

Referencing options

From other buildout recipe components you can reference the options of z3c.recipe.mkdir like this:

${<sectionname>:paths}

where <sectionname> is the name of the buildout.cfg section wherein you set the paths.

Options mode, user, and group are only referencable if they are explicitly set.

[buildout]
parts = somedir ...

[somedir]
recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir

...

mydir = ${somedir:paths}

mydir = /buildout/parts/somedir

0.4 (2012-06-24)

• Added support for mode, user, and group options.

• Fixed (unnoticed?) bug when using the deprecated path option. In that case the default path (parts/<sectionname>) was created instead of the given one.

• Shortened main code.

• Updated tests to run with zc.buildout 1.5, thus requiring at least this version.

• Using python’s doctest module instead of depreacted zope.testing.doctest.

0.3.1 (2009-08-21)

• Update options path and paths to be referencable.

• Output created message only if a directory was really created but display this message also for intermediate directories.

0.3 (2009-08-20)

• Renamed path option to paths (plural). Please do not use path anymore!

• Created directories are now displayed during buildout runs.

• Changed default behaviour: directories created once will not be removed on updates, except you require that explicitly.

• Added new option remove-on-update: if set to yes, true or on the set directories will be removed on updates of buildout configuration.

0.2 (2009-08-19)

• Make paths absolute and normalize them before creation.

• Support creation of several paths in a row.

• Added check whether a file exists as part of path and emit error.

0.1 (2009-08-17)

• Initial release.