[python] Python copy files to a new directory and rename if file name already exists

I've already read this thread but when I implement it into my code it only works for a few iterations.

I'm using python to iterate through a directory (lets call it move directory) to copy mainly pdf files (matching a unique ID) to another directory (base directory) to the matching folder (with the corresponding unique ID). I started using shutil.copy but if there are duplicates it overwrites the existing file.

I'd like to be able to search the corresponding folder to see if the file already exists, and iteratively name it if more than one occurs.

e.g.

• copy file 1234.pdf to folder in base directory 1234.
• if 1234.pdf exists to name it 1234_1.pdf,
• if another pdf is copied as 1234.pdf then it would be 1234_2.pdf.

Here is my code:

import arcpy
import os
import re
import sys
import traceback
import collections
import shutil

movdir = r"C:\Scans"
basedir = r"C:\Links"

try:
    #Walk through all files in the directory that contains the files to copy
    for root, dirs, files in os.walk(movdir):
        for filename in files:
            #find the name location and name of files
            path = os.path.join(root, filename)
            print path
            #file name and extension
            ARN, extension = os.path.splitext(filename)
            print ARN

            #Location of the corresponding folder in the new directory
            link = os.path.join(basedir,ARN)

            # if the folder already exists in new directory
            if os.path.exists(link):

                #this is the file location in the new directory
                file = os.path.join(basedir, ARN, ARN)
                linkfn = os.path.join(basedir, ARN, filename)

                if os.path.exists(linkfn):
                    i = 0
                    #if this file already exists in the folder
                    print "Path exists already"
                    while os.path.exists(file + "_" + str(i) + extension):
                        i+=1
                    print "Already 2x exists..."
                    print "Renaming"
                    shutil.copy(path, file + "_" + str(i) + extension)
                else:

                    shutil.copy(path, link)
                    print ARN + " " +  "Copied"
            else:
                print ARN + " " + "Not Found"

I always use the time-stamp - so its not possible, that the file exists already:

import os
import shutil
import datetime

now = str(datetime.datetime.now())[:19]
now = now.replace(":","_")

src_dir="C:\\Users\\Asus\\Desktop\\Versand Verwaltung\\Versand.xlsx"
dst_dir="C:\\Users\\Asus\\Desktop\\Versand Verwaltung\\Versand_"+str(now)+".xlsx"
shutil.copy(src_dir,dst_dir)

I would say you have an indentation problem, at least as you wrote it here:

while not os.path.exists(file + "_" + str(i) + extension):
   i+=1
   print "Already 2x exists..."
   print "Renaming"
   shutil.copy(path, file + "_" + str(i) + extension)

should be:

while os.path.exists(file + "_" + str(i) + extension):
    i+=1
print "Already 2x exists..."
print "Renaming"
shutil.copy(path, file + "_" + str(i) + extension)

Check this out, please!

For me shutil.copy is the best:

import shutil

#make a copy of the invoice to work with
src="invoice.pdf"
dst="copied_invoice.pdf"
shutil.copy(src,dst)

You can change the path of the files as you want.