gcspathlib

pathlib-like manipulation of Cloud Storage URIs

graph BT
    style PurePath fill:#ffffff,stroke:#000000,color:#000000;
    style PureGCSPath fill:#add8e6,stroke:#000000,color:#000000;
    style PurePosixPath fill:#ffffff,stroke:#a9a9a9,color:#a9a9a9;
    style PureWindowsPath fill:#ffffff,stroke:#a9a9a9,color:#a9a9a9;
    style Path fill:#ffffff,stroke:#a9a9a9,color:#a9a9a9;
    style PosixPath fill:#ffffff,stroke:#a9a9a9,color:#a9a9a9;
    style WindowsPath fill:#ffffff,stroke:#a9a9a9,color:#a9a9a9;

    PurePath["PurePath"]
    PurePosixPath["PurePosixPath"]
    PureWindowsPath["PureWindowsPath"]
    PureGCSPath["PureGCSPath"]
    Path["Path"]
    PosixPath["PosixPath"]
    WindowsPath["WindowsPath"]

    PurePosixPath-->PurePath
    PureWindowsPath-->PurePath
    PureGCSPath-->PurePath
    Path-->PurePath
    PosixPath-->PurePosixPath
    PosixPath-->Path
    WindowsPath-->PureWindowsPath
    WindowsPath-->Path

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Overview

gcspathlib brings the familiarity of the standard pathlib library to Google Cloud Storage (GCS) URI manipulation by providing a GCS-flavored implementation of pathlib.PurePath.

While other libraries exist that offer GCS path manipulation, they are much too heavy, reinventing the kitchen sink with involuntarily blocking I/O - even for basic path manipulation (shockingly). Unlike such libraries, gcspathlib is a lightweight and simple alternative that's fully compatible with the standard pathlib interface.

This simple, yet powerful design allows developers to easily handle Cloud Storage URIs without the need to learn a new library. By leveraging the familiar pathlib interface, gcspathlib provides standard path manipulation with GCS-specific features, such as converting to/from gs:// URIs and manipulating bucket/object names independently.

Quickstart

Construct from URI:

>>> path = gcspathlib.PureGCSPath('gs://meowmixer/static/tuna.bin')
>>> (path.bucket, path.obj)
('meowmixer', 'static/tuna.bin')

Construct relative path:

>>> rel_path = PureGCSPath('images/cats') / 'meow37.png'
>>> rel_path
PureGCSPath('images/cats/meow37.png')

Assign bucket:

>>> abs_path = rel_path.with_bucket('meowmixer')
>>> abs_path
PureGCSPath('gs://images/cats/meow37.png')

Convert to URI:

>>> abs_path.as_uri()
'gs://images/cats/meow37.png'

Features

gcspathlib provides all the basic functionality of pathlib.PurePath:

• path joining and splitting
• file extension manipulation
• parent directory traversal
• handling of both relative and absolute paths
• separator (/) normalization
• hashability and immutability

gcspathlib provides additional features specific to GCS

• conversion to/from gs:// URIs
• independent manipulation of GCS bucket and object names

Usage

(TODO)

Frequently Asked Questions

Why PureGCSPath('gs://bucket/obj') and not PureGCSPath('bucket/obj')?

PureGCSPath('bucket/obj') would be a bucketless, relative path. The gs://bucket/ prefix serves a role analogous to the 'C:\\' in PureWindowsPath('C:\\file') - and in fact is represented as the .drive property of the path object, similarly to ordinary handling of a Windows drive and operating within the bounds of pathlib's standard logic.

Why not just use pathlib.PurePosixPath and urllib.parse?

It's certainly possible to use PurePosixPath for manipulating GCS object names. However, passing multiple (bucket, obj) parameters around is cumbersome; and converting to/from GCS URIs is tedious, noisy, and redundant. It results in constant, needlessly exhausting dilemmas of whether to pass (bucket, obj) tuples vs URIs vs mere object names, how to name each bucket and obj variable to make it clear that they're related, how to use the right urllib.parse function to decode the URI with proper un-escaping, whether to use a named constant for the gs://{bucket}/{obj} string format or to embed it inline, how to format GCS paths for logging - on and on. The overhead compounds on itself, especially in larger applications - which often reinvent a "GCS utils" module in a non-standardized way.

gcspathlib streamlines all this. It offers a simple method to convert to/from GCS URIs, and effortlessly allows the retrieval or manipulation of the bucket and/or object names. A single gcspathlib.PureGCSPath object can encapsulate the entire GCS path, eliminating the need to pass around multiple strings.

Disclaimer

This library is currently in an experimental/alpha state and subject to breaking changes - YMMV.