Get a filename without its extension in Python

Use Path(path).stem to get the last path component without its final suffix. With os.path, combine basename() and splitext().

Use pathlib

from pathlib import Path

path = Path('/home/user/archive.tar.gz')
assert path.stem == 'archive.tar'
assert path.name == 'archive.tar.gz'
assert path.suffix == '.gz'
assert path.suffixes == ['.tar', '.gz']

These operations inspect the path text; the file does not need to exist. Path uses the host operating system’s path conventions. To parse a Windows path on another platform, use PureWindowsPath.

Use os.path

import os

path = '/home/user/report.txt'
name = os.path.splitext(os.path.basename(path))[0]
assert name == 'report'

basename() removes the directory portion. splitext() separates the final extension.

Decide what a compound extension means

To remove every suffix reported by pathlib:

from pathlib import Path
import os

path = Path('/home/user/archive.tar.gz')
name = path.name
for _ in path.suffixes:
    name = os.path.splitext(name)[0]
assert name == 'archive'

This also treats dots in names such as report.final.txt as suffix boundaries. If your task is specifically to remove .tar.gz, match that known suffix instead of stripping all dotted segments. Avoid name.split('.')[0]: it produces an empty result for .gitignore and discards meaningful parts of dotted filenames.

FAQ

What if the file has no extension?

Path('README').stem returns 'README'. os.path.splitext('README') returns ('README', '').

What happens to hidden files?

Path('.gitignore').stem is '.gitignore'; its leading dot is not treated as an extension separator. A hidden filename can still have a later suffix, as in .config.json.

See Python pathlib reference.