Recipe Options

z3c.recipe.mkdir provides the following options:

• paths

  Contains the path(s) of directories created in normalized, absolute form. I.e.:

  mydir/../foo/bar

  becomes:

  /path/to/buildout-dir/foo/bar

• remove-on-update

  Default: no

  By default, created directories are not removed on updates of buildout configuration. This is a security measure as created directories might contain valuable data.

  You can, however, enforce automatic removing on updates by setting this option to on, yes or true.

• user

  Default: system-dependent

  You can optionally set a username that should own created directories. The username must be valid name (not an uid) and the system must support setting a user ownership for files. Of course, the running process must have the permission to set the requested user.

• group

  Default: system-dependent

  You can optionally set a usergroup that should own created directories.The group name must be a valid name (not a gid) and the system must support setting a group ownership for files. Of course, the running process must have the permission to set the requested group.

• mode

  Default: system-dependent

  You can optionally set file permissions for created directories as octal numbers as usually used on Unix systems. These file permissions will be set for each created directory if the running process is allowed to do so.

  Normally, a value of 0700 will give rwx permissions to the owner and no permissions to group members or others.

  If you don’t specify a mode, the system default will be used.

• create-intermediate

  Default: yes

  If set to no, the parent directory of the path to create _must_ already exist when running the recipe (and an error occurs if not).

  If set to yes, any missing intermediate directories will be created. E.g. if creating a relative dir

  a/b/c/

  with create-intermediate set to no, the relative path a/b/ must exist already.

Simple creation of directories via buildout

Lets create a minimal buildout.cfg file:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... ''')

Now we can run buildout:

>>> printx(system(join('bin', 'buildout')))
Installing mydir.
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/parts/mydir

The directory was indeed created in the parts directory:

>>> ls_parts()
d  mydir

As we did not specify a special path, the name of the created directory is like the section name mydir.

Creating a directory in a given path

Lets create a minimal buildout.cfg file. This time the directory has a name different from section name and we have to tell explicitly, that we want it to be created in the parts/ directory. We set the paths option to do so:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... paths = ${buildout:parts-directory}/myotherdir
... ''')

Now we can run buildout:

>>> printx(system(join('bin', 'buildout')))
Uninstalling mydir.
Installing mydir.
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/parts/myotherdir

The directory was indeed created:

>>> ls_parts()
d  mydir
d  myotherdir

Creating directories that are removed on updates

We can tell the recipe that a directory should be removed on updates by using the remove-on-update option:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... remove-on-update = true
... paths = newdir
... ''')

>>> printx(system(join('bin', 'buildout')))
Uninstalling mydir.
Installing mydir.
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/newdir

The newdir/ directory was created:

>>> ls('.')
-  .installed.cfg
d  bin
-  buildout.cfg
d  develop-eggs
d  eggs
d  newdir
d  parts

We rewrite buildout.cfg and set a different path:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... remove-on-update = true
... paths = newdir2
... ''')

>>> printx(system(join('bin', 'buildout')))
Uninstalling mydir.
Installing mydir.
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/newdir2

Now newdir/ has vanished and newdir2 exists:

>>> ls('.')
-  .installed.cfg
d  bin
-  buildout.cfg
d  develop-eggs
d  eggs
d  newdir2
d  parts

Note, that the created directory will be removed on next modification of buildout.cfg.

Setting User, Group, and Permissions

You can optionally set user, group, or mode option for the dirs to be created.

While user and group give the user/group that should own the created directory (and all not existing intermediate directories), mode is expected to be an octal number to represent the directory permissions in Unix style.

Of course, setting all these permissions and ownerships only works if the system supports it and the running user has the permissions to do so.

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... paths = my/new/dir
... mode = 700
... user = %s
... group = %s
... ''' % (user, group))

>>> printx(system(join('bin', 'buildout')))
Uninstalling mydir.
Installing mydir.
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/my
mydir:   mode 0700, user 'USER', group 'GROUP'
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/my/new
mydir:   mode 0700, user 'USER', group 'GROUP'
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/my/new/dir
mydir:   mode 0700, user 'USER', group 'GROUP'

>>> lls('my')
drwx------ USER GROUP my/new

>>> lls('my/new')
drwx------ USER GROUP my/new/dir

These options are optional, so you can leave any of them out and the system defaults will be used instead.

On updates only the leaf directories are changed permission-wise. E.g. if we change the mode from the original buildout from 0700 to 0750:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... paths = my/new/dir
... remove-on-update = true
... mode = 750
... user = %s
... group = %s
... ''' % (user, group))

>>> printx(system(join('bin', 'buildout')))
Uninstalling mydir.
Installing mydir.
mydir: set permissions for /sample-buildout/my/new/dir
mydir:   mode 0750, user 'USER', group 'GROUP'

the permissions of the leaf directory were updated:

>>> lls('my/new')
drwxr-x--- USER GROUP my/new/dir

while its parent’s permissions are the same as before:

>>> lls('my')
drwx------ USER GROUP my/new

Clean up:

>>> import shutil
>>> shutil.rmtree('my')

Creating relative paths

If we specify a relative path, this path will be created relative to the buildout directory:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... paths = myrootdir
... ''')

>>> printx(system(join('bin', 'buildout')))
Uninstalling mydir.
Installing mydir.
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/myrootdir

>>> ls('.')
-  .installed.cfg
d  bin
-  buildout.cfg
d  develop-eggs
d  eggs
d  myrootdir
d  parts

The old directories will not vanish:

>>> ls_parts()
d  mydir
d  myotherdir

Creating intermediate paths

If we specify several levels of directories, the intermediate parts will be created for us as well by default:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... paths = myrootdir/other/dir/finaldir
... ''')

>>> printx(system(join('bin', 'buildout')))
Uninstalling mydir.
Installing mydir.
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/myrootdir/other
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/myrootdir/other/dir
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/myrootdir/other/dir/finaldir

>>> ls('myrootdir', 'other', 'dir')
d  finaldir

If we set the create-intermediate option to no (default is yes), the resulting dir will only be created if the parent directory exists already:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... paths = leaf/dir/without/existing/parent
... create-intermediate = no
... ''')

>>> printx(system(join('bin', 'buildout')))
Uninstalling mydir.
Installing mydir.
While:
  Installing mydir.
Error: Cannot create: /sample-buildout/leaf/dir/without/existing/parent
       Parent does not exist or not a directory.

If you want to be explicit about the paths to be created (and which not), you can set create-intermediate to no and simply list each part of the path in paths option. This has the nice sideeffect of setting permissions correctly also for intermediate paths:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... paths = mydir
...         mydir/with
...         mydir/with/existing
...         mydir/with/existing/parent
... create-intermediate = no
... mode = 750
... ''')

>>> printx(system(join('bin', 'buildout')))
Installing mydir.
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/mydir
mydir:   mode 0750
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/mydir/with
mydir:   mode 0750
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/mydir/with/existing
mydir:   mode 0750
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/mydir/with/existing/parent
mydir:   mode 0750

This is more text to write down, but you can be sure that only explicitly named dirs are created and permissions set accordingly.

For instance you can require a certain path to exist already and create only the trailing path parts. Say, we expect a local etc/ to exist and want to create etc/myapp/conf.d. The following config would do the trick:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... paths = etc/myapp
...         etc/myapp/conf.d
... create-intermediate = no
... mode = 750
... ''')

If the local etc/ dir does not exist, we fail:

>>> printx(system(join('bin', 'buildout')))
Uninstalling mydir.
Installing mydir.
While:
  Installing mydir.
Error: Cannot create: /sample-buildout/etc/myapp
       Parent does not exist or not a directory.

But if this dir exists:

>>> mkdir('etc')
>>> printx(system(join('bin', 'buildout')))
Installing mydir.
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/etc/myapp
mydir:   mode 0750
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/etc/myapp/conf.d
mydir:   mode 0750

the subdirectories are created as expected.

It does, by the way, not matter, in which order you put the partial parts into paths as this list is sorted before being processed. So, any path a/b/ will be processed before a/b/c/ regardless of the order in which both parts appear in the configuration file.

Paths are normalized

If we specify a non-normalized path (i.e. one that contains references to parent directories or similar), the path will be normalized before creating it:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... paths = myroot/foo/../dir1/../bar/.
... ''')

>>> printx(system(join('bin', 'buildout')))
Uninstalling mydir.
Installing mydir.
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/myroot
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/myroot/bar

Only bar/ will be created:

>>> ls('myroot')
d  bar

Creating multiple paths in a row

We can create multiple paths in one buildout section:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... paths = myroot/dir1
...         myroot/dir2
... ''')

>>> printx(system(join('bin', 'buildout')))
Uninstalling mydir.
Installing mydir.
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/myroot/dir1
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/myroot/dir2

>>> ls('myroot')
d  bar
d  dir1
d  dir2

Note, that in this case you cannot easily reference the set path from other recipes or templates. If, for example in a template you reference:

root_dir = ${mydir:path}

the result will become:

root_dir = /path/to/buildout/dir1
path/to/buildout/dir2

If you specify only one path, however, the second line will not appear.

Use several sections using z3c.recipe.mkdir if you want to reference different created paths from templates or similar.

Trailing slashes do not matter

It doesn’t matter, whether you specify the paths with trailing slash or without:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... paths = myroot/dir3/
...         myroot/dir4
... ''')

>>> printx(system(join('bin', 'buildout')))
Uninstalling mydir.
Installing mydir.
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/myroot/dir3
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/myroot/dir4

>>> ls('myroot')
d  bar
d  dir1
d  dir2
d  dir3
d  dir4

Things to be aware of

If you change the setting of some path, the old directory and all its contents will not be deleted (as you might expect from a buildout recipe):

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... paths = path1
... ''')

>>> printx(system(join('bin', 'buildout')))
Uninstalling mydir.
Installing mydir.
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/path1

>>> write(join('path1', 'myfile'), 'blah\n')
>>> ls('path1')
-  myfile

Now we switch the setting of mydir to path2:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = mydir
... offline = true
...
... [mydir]
... recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir
... paths = path2
... ''')

>>> printy(system(join('bin', 'buildout')))
Uninstalling mydir.
Installing mydir.
mydir: created path: /sample-buildout/path2
<BLANKLINE>

The file we created above is still alive:

>>> ls('path1')
-  myfile

Things one should not do

Referencing options

From other buildout recipe components you can reference the options of z3c.recipe.mkdir like this:

${<sectionname>:paths}

where <sectionname> is the name of the buildout.cfg section wherein you set the paths.

Options mode, user, and group are only referencable if they are explicitly set.

[buildout]
parts = somedir ...

[somedir]
recipe = z3c.recipe.mkdir

...

mydir = ${somedir:paths}

mydir = /buildout/parts/somedir