---
id: python-fsutil
version: "0.17.0"
license: MIT License Copyright (c) 2020-present Fabio Caccamo Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),… (full text in the JSON record)
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# python-fsutil — high-level file-system operations for lazy devs.

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 1.5M/mo

## What it is and what it does

python-fsutil wraps Python's built-in file-system modules into a single, cohesive API with methods for common tasks. It handles file and directory creation, deletion, copying, moving, renaming, reading, writing, compression (tar and zip), metadata queries (size, dates, permissions, hashes), and path manipulation—all without requiring external dependencies.

The package is designed for developers who want to avoid writing boilerplate path-handling and error-checking code. It supports Python 3.10, 3.11, 3.12, 3.13, 3.14 and PyPy, runs on all major operating systems, and is actively maintained. Most methods are straightforward wrappers, though some (like download_file and read_file_from_url) require requests to be installed separately if used.

Use it for:

- Build scripts that need to create, clean, and archive project directories without manual boilerplate
- CLI tools that validate and manipulate file hierarchies (e.g., checking paths exist, getting file sizes, listing contents)
- Data pipeline code that reads, transforms, and writes JSON or text files in bulk
- Test fixtures that set up and tear down temporary file structures
- Deployment utilities that copy, compress, and organize artifacts across directories

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Provides a high-level API for common file-system operations—creating, reading, copying, deleting, and querying files and directories—without external dependencies.

Yes. It is actively maintained, has no dependencies, carries a permissive license, and offers genuine convenience for file-system work. Install it if you find yourself repeatedly writing path checks, directory creation, or file-copy logic; skip it if your code already uses built-in modules idiomatically.

## Install

pip install python-fsutil
uv add python-fsutil
poetry add python-fsutil

## Installing python-fsutil

Before you install: Low friction: pure Python wheel with no runtime dependencies. Actively maintained (last commit 2026-08-10, release 38 days old) and marked production-stable.

License in practice: MIT license (permissive): you may use, modify, and distribute this package freely in both open-source and proprietary projects, provided you retain the copyright notice and license text.

Quickstart:

pip install python-fsutil

import fsutil

# Create a directory
fsutil.create_dir('/path/to/dir')

# Read a file
content = fsutil.read_file('/path/to/file.txt')

# Copy a file
fsutil.copy_file('/source/file.txt', '/dest/file.txt')

Verify before relying:

- Performance characteristics when operating on very large directory trees or files
- Whether all methods handle symlinks and special files consistently across platforms
- Exact count of available methods in the public API

## Package facts

- License: MIT License Copyright (c) 2020-present Fabio Caccamo Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),… (full text in the JSON record) (permissive)
- Python support: unspecified
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 1.5M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

file system utilities, directory operations, file manipulation library, path utilities, file I/O helpers, filesystem abstraction, batch file operations, filesystem, file-operations, cli-tools

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