Upload files using SFTP in Python, but create directories if path doesn't exist

SFTP supports the usual FTP commands (chdir, mkdir, etc...), so use those:

sftp = paramiko.SFTPClient.from_transport(transport)try:    sftp.chdir(remote_path)  # Test if remote_path existsexcept IOError:    sftp.mkdir(remote_path)  # Create remote_path    sftp.chdir(remote_path)sftp.put(local_path, '.')    # At this point, you are in remote_path in either casesftp.close()

To fully emulate mkdir -p, you can work through remote_path recursively:

import os.pathdef mkdir_p(sftp, remote_directory):    """Change to this directory, recursively making new folders if needed.    Returns True if any folders were created."""    if remote_directory == '/':        # absolute path so change directory to root        sftp.chdir('/')        return    if remote_directory == '':        # top-level relative directory must exist        return    try:        sftp.chdir(remote_directory) # sub-directory exists    except IOError:        dirname, basename = os.path.split(remote_directory.rstrip('/'))        mkdir_p(sftp, dirname) # make parent directories        sftp.mkdir(basename) # sub-directory missing, so created it        sftp.chdir(basename)        return Truesftp = paramiko.SFTPClient.from_transport(transport)mkdir_p(sftp, remote_path) sftp.put(local_path, '.')    # At this point, you are in remote_pathsftp.close()

Of course, if remote_path also contains a remote file name, then it needs to be split off, the directory being passed to mkdir_p and the filename used instead of '.' in sftp.put.

Something simpler and slightly more readable too

def mkdir_p(sftp, remote, is_dir=False):    """    emulates mkdir_p if required.     sftp - is a valid sftp object    remote - remote path to create.     """    dirs_ = []    if is_dir:        dir_ = remote    else:        dir_, basename = os.path.split(remote)    while len(dir_) > 1:        dirs_.append(dir_)        dir_, _  = os.path.split(dir_)    if len(dir_) == 1 and not dir_.startswith("/"):         dirs_.append(dir_) # For a remote path like y/x.txt     while len(dirs_):        dir_ = dirs_.pop()        try:            sftp.stat(dir_)        except:            print "making ... dir",  dir_            sftp.mkdir(dir_)

Had to do this today. Here is how I did it.

def mkdir_p(sftp, remote_directory):    dir_path = str()    for dir_folder in remote_directory.split("/"):        if dir_folder == "":            continue        dir_path += r"/{0}".format(dir_folder)        try:            sftp.listdir(dir_path)        except IOError:            sftp.mkdir(dir_path)