Python | os.fsencode() method

OS module in Python provides functions for interacting with the operating system. OS comes under Python’s standard utility modules. This module provides a portable way of using operating system dependent functionality.

os.fsencode() method in Python is used to encode the specified filename to the filesystem encoding with ‘surrogateescape‘ error handler, or ‘strict‘ on Windows;

Syntax: os.fsencode(filename)

Parameter:
filename: A path-like object representing a file system path. A path-like object is either a str or bytes object representing a path.

Return Type: This method returns a bytestring which represents the encoded filename.

Code: use of os.fsencode() method

# Python program to explain os.fsencode() method

# importing os module
import os

# Filename
filename = "/home/user/File.txt"

# Encode the filename
# to the filesystem encoding
# with 'surrogateescape' error handler,
# or 'strict' (On Windows)
encode = os.fsencode(filename)

# Print the encoded filename
print(encode)

# The encode filename can be
# decoded using os.fsdecode() method
print(os.fsdecode(encode))

Output:

Encoded filename: b'/home/user/F\xc3\x8e\xe2\x95\x9a\xc3\x88.txt'
/home/user/FÎ?È.txt

Reference: https://docs.python.org/3/library/os.html#os.fsencode