commoncode Utilities

32.4.2 · active · verified Fri Apr 17

commoncode is a collection of essential utilities for Python, originally split from the ScanCode project. It provides robust tools for file system operations, hashing, system information, command execution, and more. It is actively maintained with frequent minor releases to support new Python versions and address bug fixes. The current version is 32.4.2.

Common errors

```
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distutils.version'
```
cause Using commoncode with Python 3.12 or newer, which removed the `distutils` package.

fix Ensure you are using a commoncode version compatible with Python 3.12+. commoncode 32.4.1 (and newer) includes updates for Python 3.14 (and implicitly 3.12/3.13).
```
TypeError: 'Argument' object is not callable
```
cause Using an older commoncode version (<32.3.0) with a newer 'click' library (8.1.3+) due to API changes in 'click'.

fix Upgrade commoncode to version 32.3.0 or higher: `pip install --upgrade commoncode`.
```
UnicodeEncodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't encode character...
```
cause Attempting to process file paths containing characters that cannot be encoded with the default system encoding (or UTF-8) with commoncode versions prior to 32.4.0.

fix Upgrade to commoncode 32.4.0 or newer: `pip install --upgrade commoncode`. This version includes fixes for handling non-UTF-8 byte paths.

Warnings

breaking commoncode dropped support for Python 3.9 in version 32.4.0. Using commoncode 32.4.0 or newer with Python 3.9 will lead to installation errors or runtime issues.
Fix: Upgrade your Python environment to 3.10 or newer, or pin commoncode to an older version (<32.4.0) if you must use Python 3.9.
breaking Versions of commoncode prior to 32.3.0 had compatibility issues with 'click' version 8.1.3 and newer, potentially causing errors in CLI applications that use commoncode.
Fix: Upgrade commoncode to version 32.3.0 or newer to ensure compatibility with recent 'click' versions. (Fixed in 32.3.0, further fixes in 32.4.0).
gotcha Paths containing non-UTF-8 bytes were not handled correctly in versions prior to 32.4.0, potentially leading to errors when processing file paths with unusual characters.
Fix: Upgrade to commoncode 32.4.0 or newer to ensure robust handling of non-UTF-8 paths. For older versions, ensure all paths are UTF-8 compliant.
breaking Version 32.2.0 introduced adjustments to the `as_unicode` function due to breaking changes in `bs4` (BeautifulSoup4) version 4.13. If you rely on `as_unicode` and use an older `commoncode` with `bs4>=4.13`, you may encounter errors.
Fix: Upgrade commoncode to version 32.2.0 or newer to ensure compatibility with `bs4` 4.13+ when using `as_unicode`.

Install

pip install commoncode Install stable version

Imports

file_sha1
wrong:
```
import commoncode.fileutils.file_sha1
```
correct:
```
from commoncode.fileutils import file_sha1
```
Import specific functions directly for clarity and efficiency.

get_system_info

from commoncode.system import get_system_info

execute
```
from commoncode.command import execute
```

Quickstart

This quickstart demonstrates how to use `commoncode.fileutils.file_sha1` to compute a file's SHA1 checksum and `commoncode.system.get_system_info` to retrieve basic system details. It creates a temporary file and cleans it up afterward.

import os
from pathlib import Path
from commoncode.fileutils import file_sha1

# Create a dummy file for demonstration
dummy_file_path = Path('dummy_file.txt')
with open(dummy_file_path, 'w') as f:
    f.write('Hello, commoncode!\n')
    f.write('This is a test file.\n')

try:
    # Get SHA1 checksum of the file
    sha1_checksum = file_sha1(str(dummy_file_path))
    print(f"SHA1 of '{dummy_file_path}': {sha1_checksum}")

    # Get system information
    from commoncode.system import get_system_info
    system_info = get_system_info()
    print(f"Python Version: {system_info.get('python_version')}")
    print(f"OS Release: {system_info.get('os_release_id')}")

finally:
    # Clean up the dummy file
    if dummy_file_path.exists():
        os.remove(dummy_file_path)

view raw JSON →