Is there a way to get the original link from which a file was download to Python?

Question

On Mac OS, when you "Get Info" from a file, in "More info", there's a "Where from" information that shows me the original url from where I download the file.

I want to get to this information using Python, and I cannot seem to find a way to do it.

The os.path library doesn't seem to help since it only gives me information on things like creation time, size, etc. and nothing about the original download link.

Answer 1

IMPORTANT: This answer only applies to macOS.

The additional information is stored as a "file attribute". As far as I am aware, the os.path and pathlib cannot read arbitrary attributes.

However, you can use libraries, such as xattr to read "non-standard"¹ attributes.

Something like this should work²:

import xattr

value = xattr.getxattr("file.txt", "some_key").decode("utf-8")

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macOS stores informations such as the "Where from" attribute under the key com.apple.metadata:kMDItemWhereFroms.

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¹ I consider the values returned by fstat as standard attributes. I am aware, that there is no "true" standard.

² The code hasn't been tested yet; I left my device at home.