How can I safely create a nested directory in Python?

What is the most elegant way to check if the directory a file is going to be written to exists, and if not, create the directory using Python? Here is what I tried:

import os
file_path = “/my/directory/filename.txt”

directory = os.path.dirname(file_path)
try:

os.stat(directory)

except:

os.mkdir(directory)
f = file(filename)

Somehow, I missed os.path.exists (thanks kanja, Blair, and Douglas). This is what I have now:

def ensure_dir(file_path):

directory = os.path.dirname(file_path)

if not os.path.exists(directory):

os.makedirs(directory)

Is there a flag for “open”, that makes this happen automatically?

#python