FileNotFoundError in 'wb' file mode in Python?

Question

I am trying to write a program that downloads all the xkcd comics images and save them in a directory, with all the images name as title.png, title being the title of the comic. Here's the code for it:

#Downloads all the xkcd comics

import requests, bs4, os

site = requests.get('https://www.xkcd.com')

def downloadImage(site):
    soup = bs4.BeautifulSoup(site.text)
    img_tag = soup.select('div[id="comic"] img')
    img_title = img_tag[0].get('alt')
    img_file = open(img_title+'.png', 'wb')
    print("Downloading %s..." %img_title)
    img_res = requests.get("https:" +  img_tag[0].get('src'))
    for chunk in img_res.iter_content(100000):
        img_file.write(chunk)
    print("Saved %s in " %img_title, os.getcwd())


def downloadPrevious(site):
    soup = bs4.BeautifulSoup(site.text)
    prev_tag_list = soup.select("ul[class='comicNav'] li > a")
    prev_tag = None
    for each in prev_tag_list:
        if(each.get('rel')==['prev']):
            prev_tag = each
            break
    if(prev_tag.get('href') == '#'):
        return True
    prev_site = requests.get('https://xkcd.com' + prev_tag.get('href'))
    downloadImage(prev_site)
    return False, prev_site

def download_XKCD_Comics(site):
    try:
        os.makedirs('E:\\XKCD Comics')
    except:
        os.chdir('E:\XKCD Comics')

    done = False
    downloadImage(site)
    while(not done):
        done, site = downloadPrevious(site)
    return

download_XKCD_Comics(site)

The output of the code:

==== RESTART: E:\Computer_Science_Programs\Python\Get all XKCD Comics.py ====
Downloading Data Pipeline...
Saved Data Pipeline in  E:\XKCD Comics
Downloading Incoming Calls...
Saved Incoming Calls in  E:\XKCD Comics
Downloading Stanislav Petrov Day...
Saved Stanislav Petrov Day in  E:\XKCD Comics
Downloading Bad Opinions...
Saved Bad Opinions in  E:\XKCD Comics
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "E:\Computer_Science_Programs\Python\Get all XKCD Comics.py", line 45, in <module>
    download_XKCD_Comics(site)
  File "E:\Computer_Science_Programs\Python\Get all XKCD Comics.py", line 42, in download_XKCD_Comics
    done, site = downloadPrevious(site)
  File "E:\Computer_Science_Programs\Python\Get all XKCD Comics.py", line 30, in downloadPrevious
    downloadImage(prev_site)
  File "E:\Computer_Science_Programs\Python\Get all XKCD Comics.py", line 11, in downloadImage
    img_file = open(img_title+'.png', 'wb')
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '6/6 Time.png'
>>>

I don't understand the problem. None of the other files existed, but the error was raised only with this file name. Please somebody help me with this one!

Are there other files with similar naming conventions (6/6 Time.png)? That in itself seems like it could stir trouble at some point. — d_kennetz, Oct 05 '18 at 02:40
`6/6 Time.png` refers to a file named `6 Time.png` in the directory `6`. This directory doesn't exist, so you get that error. You need to filter out invalid characters before trying to use random strings as filenames. — kindall, Oct 05 '18 at 02:44
Thanks a lot! Taking care of just the naming convention got my problem solved:) — Udasi Tharani, Oct 05 '18 at 03:53

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 24 '21 at 13:47

I just encountered an issue where I was getting FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: when opening a file in wb mode, which confused me because I thought using open with wb should create the file if it doesn't exist. Turns out the issue was that the file I was trying to create was in a directory that doesn't exist. Easy fix:

MNIST_DATA_DIRNAME = os.path.dirname(MNIST_DATA_FILENAME)
if not os.path.isdir(MNIST_DATA_DIRNAME):
    os.makedirs(MNIST_DATA_DIRNAME)

with open(MNIST_DATA_FILENAME, "wb") as f:
    f.write(b)

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 05 '18 at 02:41

1

/ is an invalid character for Windows filenames.

Theres lots of ways to get a valid file name. One example is the one Django uses:

def get_valid_filename(s):
    s = str(s).strip().replace(' ', '_')
    return re.sub(r'(?u)[^-\w.]', '', s)

It replaces spaces with underscores, then removes any non-letter, number, _, -, or . characters.

answered Oct 05 '18 at 02:41

Loocid

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Not invalid, it's just an alias for `\ `. – o11c Oct 05 '18 at 02:54
1

Which makes it invalid no? You try and rename a file `/.txt` and itll tell you "A file name cannot contain any of the following characters:". I consider that to be invalid. – Loocid Oct 05 '18 at 02:59
Thank you so much :) Your answer helped solvd my problem! – Udasi Tharani Oct 05 '18 at 03:54

FileNotFoundError in 'wb' file mode in Python?

2 Answers2