I am pleased to announce a new version of PyFilesystem (0.3), which is a Python module that provides a common interface to many kinds of filesystem. Basically it provides a way of working with files and directories that is exactly the same, regardless of how and where the file information is stored. Even if you don't plan on working with anything other than the files and directories on your hard-drive, PyFilesystem can simplify your code and reduce the potential of error.

PyFilesystem is a joint effort by myself and Ryan Kelly, who has created a number of new FS implementations such as Amazon S3 support and Secure FTP, and some pretty cool features such as FUSE support and Django storage integration.

As an example of how awesome this package is, take a look at the following 6 lines of code, which creates a ramdrive:

from fs.osfs import OSFS
from fs.memoryfs import MemoryFS
from fs.expose import fuse

home_fs = OSFS('~/')
home_fs.makedir('ramdrive', allow_recreate=True)
fuse.mount(MemoryFS(), home_fs.getsyspath('ramdrive'))

If you run this, a directory called ramdrive will appear in your home folder, the contents of which are stored purely in memory.

I prepared a screencast that gives a quick demonstration of some features – because if a picture is worth a thousand words, this video must be worth fifteen thousand words a second:

PyFilesystem screencast from Will McGugan on Vimeo.

See the project page on google code for more information, including API docs. There are also a couple of blog posts that will give a some more context.

This release has reached a good level of stability and maturity. I'd like to invite as many Pythonistas as possible to check out this module and possibly contribute to the project.