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On windows you can right-click a file, click on properties and select hidden. How can I do this to a file in python?

Jean-François Fabre
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Jared Parker
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3 Answers3

20

If you don't want/don't have access to win32 modules you can still call attrib:

import subprocess
subprocess.check_call(["attrib","+H","myfile.txt"])

for a full cross-platform solution see Python cross platform hidden file

Jean-François Fabre
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5

If this is for Windows only:

import win32con, win32api

file = 'myfile.txt' #or full path if not in same directory

win32api.SetFileAttributes(file,win32con.FILE_ATTRIBUTE_HIDDEN)
Jean-François Fabre
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zipa
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    You're replacing the existing file attributes. It has to be bitwise ORd into the existing attributes from `GetFileAttributes`. – Eryk Sun Apr 17 '17 at 02:16
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    Just to point out that `win32api` (from the 3rd-party `pywin32` package) is only required for *writing* file attributes (as done here). For *reading* file attributes, the standard library offers `os.stat().st_file_attributes`, or `pathlib.Path.stat()`, and e.g. `stat.FILE_ATTRIBUTE_HIDDEN`. Too bad [os.chflags()](https://docs.python.org/3/library/os.html#os.chflags) is not available for windows.. – djvg Jan 19 '22 at 17:08
  • Here is one doing this WITHOUR 3rdparty lib but builtin `ctypes`: https://stackoverflow.com/a/19622903/469322 – ewerybody Sep 01 '23 at 13:43
5

this is the easy way

import os
os.system( "attrib +h myFile.txt" )

hide file '+h'

show file '-h'

myFile.txt can be the full path to your file

Ḉớᶑẽr Ħậꞣǐɱ
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