TPath - Enhanced pathlib with Age, Size, and Calendar Utilities

TPath is a pathlib extension that provides first-class age and size properties and calendar membership functions for Path objects. It allows you to work with files using natural, expressive syntax focused on properties rather than calculations.

Philosophy: Property-Based File Operations

The core goal of TPath is to create a file object system that is property-based.

Instead of giving you raw timestamps and forcing you to do math related using the low-level data structures provided by the OS, TPath provides direct properties for the things you actually need in real-world file operations, resulting in readable, maintainable code. In order to accomplish a reduction in cognitive load the Path object was extended to have a reference time (almost always set to datetime.now()) that allows file ages to be directly measured providing easy access to time information for 'create, access and modify. These details are handled behind the scenes and enable property based ages and calendar membership and business dates, minimal calls to os.stat/path.stat and nearly zero calculations for all file properties. THe file properties will make comprehensions readable usually without requiring helper functions. The calendar,age and business functions are provided by a package called frist.

The Problem with Raw Timestamps

Traditional path libraries (like os and pathlib) give you timestamps and force you into "complex", error-prone calculations, in many cases fraught with edge cases. You also need to be careful not calling stat multiple times when dealing with large numbers of files. None of this are terribly difficult, but you end up with details you need to manage like this:

from pathlib import Path
from datetime import datetime
import os

# Simple example: Find files older than 7 days
old_files = []
for path in Path("/var/log").rglob("*"):
    if path.is_file():
        stat = path.stat()
        # Manual age calculation - easy to get wrong
        age_seconds = datetime.now().timestamp() - stat.st_mtime
        age_days = age_seconds / 86400  # Remember: 60*60*24 = 86400
        size_mb = stat.st_size / 1048576  # Remember: 1024*1024 = 1048576
        
        if age_days > 7 and size_mb > 10:
            old_files.append(path)

print(f"Found {len(old_files)} old files")

And perhaps like this:

import fnmatch
from datetime import timedelta

# Complex example: Backup candidates from multiple criteria
backup_candidates = []
for base_dir in ["/home/user/docs", "/home/user/projects"]:
    for file_path in Path(base_dir).rglob("*"):
        if not file_path.is_file():
            continue
            
        # Complex pattern matching across multiple extensions
        if not (fnmatch.fnmatch(file_path.name, "*.doc*") or 
                fnmatch.fnmatch(file_path.name, "*.pdf") or
                fnmatch.fnmatch(file_path.name, "*.xls*")):
            continue
        
        stat = file_path.stat()
        
        # Manual size filtering
        if stat.st_size < 1048576:  # Less than 1MB
            continue
            
        # Complex date arithmetic for calendar-month boundaries
        # Want files from Aug 1st through Oct 31st (if today is Oct 15th)  
        mtime = datetime.fromtimestamp(stat.st_mtime)
        now = datetime.now()
        current_month_start = now.replace(day=1, hour=0, minute=0, second=0, microsecond=0)
        three_months_ago = (current_month_start.replace(month=current_month_start.month-3) 
                           if current_month_start.month > 3 
                           else current_month_start.replace(year=current_month_start.year-1, month=current_month_start.month+9))
        if mtime < three_months_ago:
            continue
            
        # More calculations for reporting
        age_days = (datetime.now() - mtime).days
        size_mb = stat.st_size / 1048576
        backup_candidates.append((file_path, size_mb, age_days))

print(f"Found {len(backup_candidates)} backup candidates")

TPath Solution - Properties, Lots of Properties

from tpath import TPath

# Simple case: 2 readable lines rather than a bunch of low level interactions with no concern of multiple stat calls
old_files = [f for f in TPath("/var/log").rglob("*") 
             if p.is_file() and f.suffix==".txt" and f.create.age.days > 7 and f.size.mb > 10 ]

No mental overhead. No error-prone calculations. Just readable code that expresses intent clearly.

NOTE: There are a few "optimizations" that TPath has made that differs slightly from a regular Path object.

• When you call .stat on the TPath (or access a property that needs .stat), the stat value is cached. This is done to prevent multiple calls to stat that can be very expensive in time for large folders. If this is an issue for you and your code depends on repeatedly stat-ing files with an object and expect updated data on each call, then you will need to not use TPath or update your code to create new TPath object when you decide you need to look at a new stat value for the file.
• Creation time is handled slightly differently than a Path object. If birthtime is available on your version of python/OS then that time is used rather than the creation time. Please read the documentation on creation time.

Quick Start

from tpath import TPath, matches

# Create a TPath object - works like pathlib.Path (default time reference=dt.datetime.now())
path = TPath("my_file.txt")

# Direct property access - no calculations needed
print(f"File is {path.ctime.age.days:.2f} days old")
print(f"File was modified {path.mtime.age.days:.2f} days old")
print(f"File was accessed {path.atime.age.days:.2f} days old")
print(f"Size: {path.size.mb} MB")
print(f"Modified last 7 days: {path.mtime.cal.in_days(-7, 0)}")

# Pattern matching
print(f"Is Python file: {matches(path, '*.py')}")

Core Features

TPath - Enhanced Path Objects

TPath extends pathlib.Path with property-based access to file metadata:

from tpath import TPath

path = TPath("my_file.txt")

# Age properties
print(f"File is {path.create.age.days} days old")
print(f"Modified {path.mtime.age.minutes} minutes ago")

# Size properties  
print(f"File size: {path.size.mb} MB")
print(f"File size: {path.size.gib} GiB")

# Calendar membership properties
print(f"Modified today: {path.mtime.cal.in_days(0)}")
print(f"Modified this week: {path.mtime.cal.in_days(-7, 0)}")

Shell-Style Pattern Matching

Standalone matches() function for shell-style pattern matching:

from tpath import matches

# Use with TPath for file filtering
python_files = [f for f in Path("./src").rglob("*.py") if matches(f, "*.py")]

# Multiple patterns with case-insensitive matching
log_files = [f for f in Path("./logs").rglob("*") if matches(f, "*.log", "*.LOG", case_sensitive=False)]

# Complex pattern matching with wildcards
backup_files = [f for f in Path("./backups").rglob("*") if matches(f, "backup_202[3-4]*", "*important*")]

Property-Based Design with Rich Features

TPath has evolved to become almost entirely property-based, offering a rich set of features that leverage the three core time objects in a file path: ctime (creation time), mtime (modification time), and atime (access time). These properties are seamlessly integrated with the powerful capabilities of the Frist package, enabling advanced age and period operations.

Core Time Properties

Each TPath object provides direct access to the following time-based properties:

• ctime: Creation time of the file (using birthtime when possible).
• mtime: Last modification time of the file.
• atime: Last access time of the file.

These properties are enriched with Frist's advanced functionality, allowing you to perform intuitive and expressive operations directly on file paths.

Examples of Property-Based Operations

$ python
# example.txt was created at 2025-11-13 10:23:45, modified at 2025-11-14 15:10:12, accessed at 2025-11-16 08:05:00
>>> from tpath import TPath
>>> path = TPath("example.txt")
>>> print(f"Created: {path.ctime}")
Created: 2025-11-13 10:23:45
>>> print(f"Modified: {path.mtime}")
Modified: 2025-11-14 15:10:12
>>> print(f"Accessed: {path.atime}")
Accessed: 2025-11-16 08:05:00
>>> print(f"File age in days: {path.age.days:.1f}")
File age in days: 3.0
>>> print(f"Modified {path.mtime.age.hours:.1f} hours ago")
Modified 45.0 hours ago
>>> print(f"Modified this week: {path.mtime.cal.in_days(-7, 0)}")
Modified this week: True
>>> print(f"Created this month: {path.ctime.cal.in_months(0)}")
Created this month: True

Leveraging Frist's Power

The integration with Frist brings calendar and age properties to TPath objects. You can perform advanced time and calendar-based operations with ease:

# Advanced calendar operations
print(f"Modified in the last quarter: {path.mtime.cal.in_quarters(-1, 0)}")
print(f"Accessed in the last year: {path.atime.cal.years.in_(-1, 0)}")

# Rich age calculations
print(f"File age in seconds: {path.age.seconds}")
print(f"File age in weeks: {path.age.weeks}")

Summary

TPath, powered by Frist, provides a property-based interface that simplifies file operations while offering rich, expressive features. Whether you're working with creation, modification, or access times, TPath ensures that all the power of Frist's advanced time and calendar operations is at your fingertips.

Powered by Frist

TPath is built on top of the powerful Frist package, which provides advanced age and period operations. All of Frist's capabilities are exposed through TPath objects, enabling you to leverage its time and calendar-based functionality within your file operations.

Development

This project uses uv for dependency management and packaging. See UV_GUIDE.md for detailed instructions.

# Install development dependencies
uv sync --dev

# Run tests  
uv run python -m pytest

# Build package
uv build

# Format code
uv run ruff format

# Lint code
uv run ruff check

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Status

Pytest (100% pass/97% coverage)

src\tpath\__init__.py                           8      0      0      0   100%
src\tpath\_constants.py                        17      0      0      0   100%
src\tpath\_core.py                            151      5     34      5    95%
src\tpath\_size.py                             57      0      6      0   100%
src\tpath\_time.py                             69      0     20      0   100%
src\tpath\_utils.py                            25      0     14      1    97%

Ruff

All checks passed!