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gh-140971: Doc: Clarify pathlib.Path("") behavior #140993

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gh-140971: Doc: Clarify pathlib.Path("") behavior #140993

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8 changes: 8 additions & 0 deletions Doc/library/pathlib.rst
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -136,6 +136,14 @@ we also call *flavours*:
>>> PurePath()
PurePosixPath('.')

An empty string in *pathsegments* also refers to the current directory.
This means that ``PurePath("")`` is equivalent to ``PurePath(".")``,
and consequently ``Path("").exists()`` will always return ``True``. This
differs from ``os.path.exists("")``, which returns ``False``.

>>> PurePath("")
PurePosixPath('.')
Comment on lines +139 to +145
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@terryjreedy terryjreedy Nov 4, 2025

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I think the new text should be folded into the previous 4 lines. The result would then be:

When pathsegments is empty or a single empty string, the current directory is assumed::

  >>> PurePath(), PurePath('')
  (PurePosixPath('.'), PurePosixPath('.'))

The boolean value of either expression is True.
This differs from os.path.exists(""), which returns False.


If a segment is an absolute path, all previous segments are ignored
(like :func:`os.path.join`)::

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