How can I safely create a nested directory?

Question

What is the most elegant way to check if the directory a file is going to be written to exists, and if not, create the directory using Python? Here is what I tried:

Answer 1

The relevant Python documentation suggests the use of the EAFP coding style (Easier to Ask for Forgiveness than Permission). This means that the code

try:
    os.makedirs(path)
except OSError as exception:
    if exception.errno != errno.EEXIST:
        raise
    else:
        print "\nBE CAREFUL! Directory %s already exists." % path

is better than the alternative

if not os.path.exists(path):
    os.makedirs(path)
else:
    print "\nBE CAREFUL! Directory %s already exists." % path

The documentation suggests this exactly because of the race condition discussed in this question. In addition, as others mention here, there is a performance advantage in querying once instead of twice the OS. Finally, the argument placed forward, potentially, in favour of the second code in some cases --when the developer knows the environment the application is running-- can only be advocated in the special case that the program has set up a private environment for itself (and other instances of the same program).

Even in that case, this is a bad practice and can lead to long useless debugging. For example, the fact we set the permissions for a directory should not leave us with the impression permissions are set appropriately for our purposes. A parent directory could be mounted with other permissions. In general, a program should always work correctly and the programmer should not expect one specific environment.