Python file writing error because of "/" in the file name

Question

I have a code chunk like this

for track in (results['tracks']):
        track_id_chunk.append(track['uri'])
        print (str(z) + " - " + track['name'])
        try:
            r = requests.get(track['preview_url'], allow_redirects=True)
            open('dataset/'+genres[x]+"/"+str(track['name'])+'.mp3', 'wb').write(r.content)
        except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
            print ("---------------------- Couldnt get "+artists[j]+"  -  "+track['name'] + " !!!")
            continue
        z+=1

It downloads 30 seconds samples of artists given externally using spotify API.

The problem is when a song has a "/" in its name ("War Pigs / Luke's Wall - 2014 Remaster" for example) the file operation looks for the directory before "/", fails to find it and throws error:

FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: "dataset/metal/War Pigs / Luke's Wall - 2014 Remaster.mp3"

what is the best practice workaround or solution for this problem?

Have a look at: https://pypi.org/project/pathvalidate/#sanitize-a-filename — mechanical_meat, Feb 23 '20 at 16:50

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 23 '20 at 16:51

3

If you are on Linux you can't have slashes in your filename. My suggestion is to replace the character with something else like '-':

str(track['name']).replace('/', '-')

answered Feb 23 '20 at 16:51

dzang

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`/` and `\0` are the only bytes not allowed in a Linux filename. – jordanm Feb 23 '20 at 16:53
@EmreÜnsal I just checked the MS docs and it looks like `/` is not valid as part of a filename on Windows either. Makes sense because Windows also allows using `/` as a path separator. – jordanm Feb 23 '20 at 16:55
Actually, Windows uses ``\`` as a path separator, but it's still true that `/` isn't permitted. – ChrisGPT was on strike Feb 23 '20 at 16:57

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 23 '20 at 16:57

You can use a slugify function which is defined below,

The `slugify(value)`

Code:

def slugify(value):
    """
    converts to lowercase, removes non-alpha characters,
    and converts spaces to hyphens.
    """
    value = re.sub(r'[^\w\s-]', '', value).strip().lower()
    value = re.sub(r'[-\s]+', '-', value)
    return value

Converts a string to a proper filename by:

Removing characters that aren’t alphanumerics, underscores, hyphens, or whitespace.
Removing leading and trailing whitespace.
Converting to lowercase.
Replacing any whitespace or repeated dashes with single dashes.

Usage:

>>> slugify('War Pigs / Luke's Wall - 2014 Remaster')

Output:

war-pigs-lukes-wall-2014-remaster

Python file writing error because of "/" in the file name

2 Answers2

The slugify(value)

The `slugify(value)`