fsspec 2026.2.0
File-system specification
Requires Python: >=3.10
Keywords: file

# filesystem_spec

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[![Docs](https://readthedocs.org/projects/filesystem-spec/badge/?version=latest)](https://filesystem-spec.readthedocs.io/en/latest/?badge=latest)

A specification for pythonic filesystems.

## Install

```bash
pip install fsspec
```

would install the base fsspec. Various optionally supported features might require specification of custom
extra require, e.g. `pip install fsspec[ssh]` will install dependencies for `ssh` backends support.
Use `pip install fsspec[full]` for installation of all known extra dependencies.

Up-to-date package also provided through conda-forge distribution:

```bash
conda install -c conda-forge fsspec
```


## Purpose

To produce a template or specification for a file-system interface, that specific implementations should follow,
so that applications making use of them can rely on a common behaviour and not have to worry about the specific
internal implementation decisions with any given backend. Many such implementations are included in this package,
or in sister projects such as `s3fs` and `gcsfs`.

In addition, if this is well-designed, then additional functionality, such as a key-value store or FUSE
mounting of the file-system implementation may be available for all implementations "for free".

## Documentation

Please refer to [RTD](https://filesystem-spec.readthedocs.io/en/latest/?badge=latest)

## Develop

fsspec uses GitHub Actions for CI. Environment files can be found
in the "ci/" directory. Note that the main environment is called "py38",
but it is expected that the version of python installed be adjustable at
CI runtime. For local use, pick a version suitable for you.

```bash
# For a new environment (mamba / conda).
mamba create -n fsspec -c conda-forge  python=3.10 -y
conda activate fsspec

# Standard dev install with docs and tests.
pip install -e ".[dev,doc,test]"

# Full tests except for downstream
pip install s3fs
pip uninstall s3fs
pip install -e .[dev,doc,test_full]
pip install s3fs --no-deps
pytest -v

# Downstream tests.
sh install_s3fs.sh
# Windows powershell.
install_s3fs.sh
```

### Testing

Tests can be run in the dev environment, if activated, via ``pytest fsspec``.

The full fsspec suite requires a system-level docker, docker-compose, and fuse
installation. If only making changes to one backend implementation, it is
not generally necessary to run all tests locally.

It is expected that contributors ensure that any change to fsspec does not
cause issues or regressions for either other fsspec-related packages such
as gcsfs and s3fs, nor for downstream users of fsspec. The "downstream" CI
run and corresponding environment file run a set of tests from the dask
test suite, and very minimal tests against pandas and zarr from the
test_downstream.py module in this repo.

### Code Formatting

fsspec uses [Black](https://black.readthedocs.io/en/stable) to ensure
a consistent code format throughout the project.
Run ``black fsspec`` from the root of the filesystem_spec repository to
auto-format your code. Additionally, many editors have plugins that will apply
``black`` as you edit files. ``black`` is included in the ``tox`` environments.

Optionally, you may wish to setup [pre-commit hooks](https://pre-commit.com) to
automatically run ``black`` when you make a git commit.
Run ``pre-commit install --install-hooks`` from the root of the
filesystem_spec repository to setup pre-commit hooks. ``black`` will now be run
before you commit, reformatting any changed files. You can format without
committing via ``pre-commit run`` or skip these checks with ``git commit
--no-verify``.

## Support

Work on this repository is supported in part by:

"Anaconda, Inc. - Advancing AI through open source."

<a href="https://anaconda.com/"><img src="https://camo.githubusercontent.com/b8555ef2222598ed37ce38ac86955febbd25de7619931bb7dd3c58432181d3b6/68747470733a2f2f626565776172652e6f72672f636f6d6d756e6974792f6d656d626572732f616e61636f6e64612f616e61636f6e64612d6c617267652e706e67" alt="anaconda logo" width="40%"/></a>