New generator os.walk() does a bit more than os.path.walk() does, and

seems much easier to use.  Code, docs, NEWS, and additions to test_os.py
(testing this sucker is a bitch!).

Lib/os.py

@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ import sys
 
 _names = sys.builtin_module_names
 
+# Note:  more names are added to __all__ later.
 __all__ = ["altsep", "curdir", "pardir", "sep", "pathsep", "linesep",
            "defpath", "name", "path"]
 
@@ -158,7 +159,7 @@ def removedirs(name):
     Super-rmdir; remove a leaf directory and empty all intermediate
     ones.  Works like rmdir except that, if the leaf directory is
     successfully removed, directories corresponding to rightmost path
-    segments will be pruned way until either the whole path is
+    segments will be pruned away until either the whole path is
     consumed or an error occurs.  Errors during this latter phase are
     ignored -- they generally mean that a directory was not empty.
 
@@ -202,6 +203,84 @@ def renames(old, new):
 
 __all__.extend(["makedirs", "removedirs", "renames"])
 
+def walk(top, topdown=True):
+    """Directory tree generator.
+
+    For each directory in the directory tree rooted at top (including top
+    itself, but excluding '.' and '..'), yields a 3-tuple
+
+        dirpath, dirnames, filenames
+
+    dirpath is a string, the path to the directory.  dirnames is a list of
+    the names of the subdirectories in dirpath (excluding '.' and '..').
+    filenames is a list of the names of the non-directory files in dirpath.
+    Note that the names in the lists are just names, with no path components.
+    To get a full path (which begins with top) to a file or directory in
+    dirpath, do os.path.join(dirpath, name).
+
+    If optional arg 'topdown' is true or not specified, the triple for a
+    directory is generated before the triples for any of its subdirectories
+    (directories are generated top down).  If topdown is false, the triple
+    for a directory is generated after the triples for all of its
+    subdirectories (directories are generated bottom up).
+
+    When topdown is true, the caller can modify the dirnames list in-place
+    (e.g., via del or slice assignment), and walk will only recurse into the
+    subdirectories whose names remain in dirnames; this can be used to prune
+    the search, or to impose a specific order of visiting.  Modifying
+    dirnames when topdown is false is ineffective, since the directories in
+    dirnames have already been generated by the time dirnames itself is
+    generated.
+
+    Caution:  if you pass a relative pathname for top, don't change the
+    current working directory between resumptions of walk.  walk never
+    changes the current directory, and assumes that the client doesn't
+    either.
+
+    Example:
+
+    from os.path import join, getsize
+    for root, dirs, files in walk('python/Lib/email'):
+        print root, "consumes",
+        print sum([getsize(join(root, name)) for name in files]),
+        print "bytes in", len(files), "non-directory files"
+        if 'CVS' in dirs:
+            dirs.remove('CVS')  # don't visit CVS directories
+    """
+
+    from os.path import join, isdir, islink
+
+    # We may not have read permission for top, in which case we can't
+    # get a list of the files the directory contains.  os.path.walk
+    # always suppressed the exception then, rather than blow up for a
+    # minor reason when (say) a thousand readable directories are still
+    # left to visit.  That logic is copied here.
+    try:
+        # Note that listdir and error are globals in this module due
+        # to earlier import-*.
+        names = listdir(top)
+    except error:
+        return
+
+    dirs, nondirs = [], []
+    for name in names:
+        if isdir(join(top, name)):
+            dirs.append(name)
+        else:
+            nondirs.append(name)
+
+    if topdown:
+        yield top, dirs, nondirs
+    for name in dirs:
+        path = join(top, name)
+        if not islink(path):
+            for x in walk(path, topdown):
+                yield x
+    if not topdown:
+        yield top, dirs, nondirs
+
+__all__.append("walk")
+
 # Make sure os.environ exists, at least
 try:
     environ