http://stackoverflow.com/questions/28702515/compare-path-to-file-tree-in-python

traversal.py

import yaml

tree = yaml.load('''
---
- folder1
- folder2:
    - subfolder1:
        - deepfolder1
    - subolder2
- folder3
- folder4
''')

def traverse(t, prefix=None):
    prefix = prefix or []

    if len(t) == 0:
        raise StopIteration
    elif len(t) == 1:
        first, rest = t[0], []
    else:
        first, rest = t[0], t[1:]

    #walk first element
    if isinstance(first, str):
        #it's a single node
        yield prefix + [first]
    elif isinstance(first, list):
        #it's a list of nodes
        for element in first:
            yield from traverse(element, prefix=prefix)
    elif isinstance(first, dict):
        #there's another level of nesting
        for sub in first:
            yield from traverse(first[sub], prefix=(prefix + [sub]))

    #walk rest of elements recursively
    yield from traverse(rest, prefix=prefix)

print(tree)
print()
for expanded_path in traverse(tree):
    print(expanded_path)

'''
Output:

$ bin/python traversal.py
['folder1', {'folder2': [{'subfolder1': ['deepfolder1']}, 'subolder2']}, 'folder3', 'folder4']

['folder1']
['folder2', 'subfolder1', 'deepfolder1']
['folder2', 'subolder2']
['folder3']
['folder4']
'''