Check whether a path is valid in Python
<p>Is there any easy way to check whether a path is valid? The file doesn't have to exist now, I'm wondering if it could exist.</p>

<p>my current version is this:</p>

<pre><code>try:
  f = open(path)
except:
  &lt;path invalid&gt;
</code></pre>

<p>I'm considering simply checking whether the path contains any of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filename#Reserved_characters_and_words" rel="nofollow">these</a> characters.</p>
