How do I copy a file in Python?
I couldn\'t find anything under os.
Python provides in-built functions for easily copying files using the Operating System Shell utilities.
Following command is used to Copy File
shutil.copy(src,dst)
Following command is used to Copy File with MetaData Information
shutil.copystat(src,dst)
Firstly, I made an exhaustive cheatsheet of shutil methods for your reference.
shutil_methods =
{'copy':['shutil.copyfileobj',
'shutil.copyfile',
'shutil.copymode',
'shutil.copystat',
'shutil.copy',
'shutil.copy2',
'shutil.copytree',],
'move':['shutil.rmtree',
'shutil.move',],
'exception': ['exception shutil.SameFileError',
'exception shutil.Error'],
'others':['shutil.disk_usage',
'shutil.chown',
'shutil.which',
'shutil.ignore_patterns',]
}
Secondly, explain methods of copy in exmaples:
shutil.copyfileobj(fsrc, fdst[, length])
manipulate opened objects
In [3]: src = '~/Documents/Head+First+SQL.pdf'
In [4]: dst = '~/desktop'
In [5]: shutil.copyfileobj(src, dst)
AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'read'
#copy the file object
In [7]: with open(src, 'rb') as f1,open(os.path.join(dst,'test.pdf'), 'wb') as f2:
...: shutil.copyfileobj(f1, f2)
In [8]: os.stat(os.path.join(dst,'test.pdf'))
Out[8]: os.stat_result(st_mode=33188, st_ino=8598319475, st_dev=16777220, st_nlink=1, st_uid=501, st_gid=20, st_size=13507926, st_atime=1516067347, st_mtime=1516067335, st_ctime=1516067345)
shutil.copyfile(src, dst, *, follow_symlinks=True)
Copy and rename
In [9]: shutil.copyfile(src, dst)
IsADirectoryError: [Errno 21] Is a directory: ~/desktop'
#so dst should be a filename instead of a directory name
shutil.copy()
Copy without preseving the metadata
In [10]: shutil.copy(src, dst)
Out[10]: ~/desktop/Head+First+SQL.pdf'
#check their metadata
In [25]: os.stat(src)
Out[25]: os.stat_result(st_mode=33188, st_ino=597749, st_dev=16777220, st_nlink=1, st_uid=501, st_gid=20, st_size=13507926, st_atime=1516066425, st_mtime=1493698739, st_ctime=1514871215)
In [26]: os.stat(os.path.join(dst, 'Head+First+SQL.pdf'))
Out[26]: os.stat_result(st_mode=33188, st_ino=8598313736, st_dev=16777220, st_nlink=1, st_uid=501, st_gid=20, st_size=13507926, st_atime=1516066427, st_mtime=1516066425, st_ctime=1516066425)
# st_atime,st_mtime,st_ctime changed
shutil.copy2()
Copy with preseving the metadata
In [30]: shutil.copy2(src, dst)
Out[30]: ~/desktop/Head+First+SQL.pdf'
In [31]: os.stat(src)
Out[31]: os.stat_result(st_mode=33188, st_ino=597749, st_dev=16777220, st_nlink=1, st_uid=501, st_gid=20, st_size=13507926, st_atime=1516067055, st_mtime=1493698739, st_ctime=1514871215)
In [32]: os.stat(os.path.join(dst, 'Head+First+SQL.pdf'))
Out[32]: os.stat_result(st_mode=33188, st_ino=8598313736, st_dev=16777220, st_nlink=1, st_uid=501, st_gid=20, st_size=13507926, st_atime=1516067063, st_mtime=1493698739, st_ctime=1516067055)
# Preseved st_mtime
shutil.copytree()
Recursively copy an entire directory tree rooted at src, returning the destination directory
open(destination, 'wb').write(open(source, 'rb').read())
Open the source file in read mode, and write to destination file in write mode.
You could use os.system('cp nameoffilegeneratedbyprogram /otherdirectory/')
or as I did it,
os.system('cp '+ rawfile + ' rawdata.dat')
where rawfile
is the name that I had generated inside the program.
This is a Linux only solution