Copy file or directories recursively in Python

Question

Python seems to have functions for copying files  e g  shutil copy  and functions for copying directories  e g  shutil copytree  but I haven t found any function that handles both  Sure  it s trivial to check whether you want to copy a file or a directory  but it seems like a strange omission   Is there really no standard function that works like the unix cp -r command  i e  supports both directories and files and copies recursively  What would be the most elegant way to work around this problem in Python

User · Answer

The python shutil copytree method its a mess  I ve done one that works correctly   def copydirectorykut src  dst       os chdir dst      list os listdir src      nom  src   txt      fitx  open nom   w        for item in list          fitx write   s n    item      fitx close        f   open nom  r       for line in f readlines            if     in line              shutil copy src     line  -1  dst     line  -1           else              if not os path exists dst     line  -1                    os makedirs dst     line  -1                   copydirectorykut src     line  -1  dst     line  -1               copydirectorykut src     line  -1  dst     line  -1       f close       os remove nom      os chdir

User · Answer

I suggest you first call shutil copytree  and if an exception is thrown  then retry with shutil copy   import shutil  errno  def copyanything src  dst       try          shutil copytree src  dst      except OSError as exc    python  gt 2 5         if exc errno    errno ENOTDIR              shutil copy src  dst          else  raise

User · Answer

To add on Tzot s and gns answers  here s an alternative way of copying files and folders recursively   Python 3 X   import os  shutil  root src dir   r C  MyMusic      Path Location of the source directory root dst dir    D MusicBackUp    Path to the destination folder  for src dir  dirs  files in os walk root src dir       dst dir   src dir replace root src dir  root dst dir  1      if not os path exists dst dir           os makedirs dst dir      for file  in files          src file   os path join src dir  file           dst file   os path join dst dir  file           if os path exists dst file               os remove dst file          shutil copy src file  dst dir    Should it be your first time and you have no idea how to copy files and folders recursively  I hope this helps

User · Answer

shutil copy and shutil copy2 are copying files   shutil copytree copies a folder with all the files and all subfolders  shutil copytree is using shutil copy2 to copy the files   So the analog to cp -r you are saying is the shutil copytree because cp -r targets and copies a folder and its files subfolders like shutil copytree  Without the -r cp copies files like shutil copy and shutil copy2 do

User · Answer

Unix cp doesn t  support both directories and files    betelgeuse tmp james  cp source  dest  cp  source  is a directory  not copied     To make cp copy a directory  you have to manually tell cp that it s a directory  by using the  -r  flag   There is some disconnect here though - cp -r when passed a filename as the source will happily copy just the single file  copytree won t

[python] Copy file or directories recursively in Python

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