Note: this idea was originally written for SoC 2005. Since then PEP 355 was written, which describes an interface for a path object. This should serve as the basis for any implementation.
There are several object-oriented ways to access filesystems in Python, though none have reached a critical mass of popularity. Two instances are py.local and path.
Given that OO interface, you can create objects that look like filesystems but access other resources, like WebDAV servers, databases, etc. py.local contains an implementation that accesses a svn repository.
One of these could be extended, or a generic interface for filesystems could be developed alongside several functional implementations of that interface.
- Take a look at Tcl's virtual file system for some inspiration. -- Brett Cannon
An existing work in Python is itools.vfs. Work on filesystem virtualisation should also take into account the existing urllib/urllib2 modules (and improvements - see CleanupUrlLibProject) along with other packages which provide file-like and os/os.path-like interfaces, notably ftputil. -- PaulBoddie
Check out filelike