Reference

ActivePython 2.5

Python Documentation

Library Reference

11. File and Directory Access

11.1 os.path -- Common pathname manipulations

11.2 fileinput -- Iterate over lines from multiple input streams

11.3 stat -- Interpreting stat() results

11.4 statvfs -- Constants used with os.statvfs()

11.5 filecmp -- File and Directory Comparisons

11.6 tempfile -- Generate temporary files and directories

11.7 glob -- Unix style pathname pattern expansion

11.8 fnmatch -- Unix filename pattern matching

11.9 linecache -- Random access to text lines

11.10 shutil -- High-level file operations

11.10.1 Example

11.11 dircache -- Cached directory listings

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11.10 `shutil` -- High-level file operations

The shutil module offers a number of high-level operations on files and collections of files. In particular, functions are provided which support file copying and removal.

Caveat: On MacOS, the resource fork and other metadata are not used. For file copies, this means that resources will be lost and file type and creator codes will not be correct.

copyfile( src, dst): Copy the contents of the file named src to a file named dst. The destination location must be writable; otherwise, an IOError exception will be raised. If dst already exists, it will be replaced. Special files such as character or block devices and pipes cannot be copied with this function. src and dst are path names given as strings.

copyfileobj( fsrc, fdst[, length]): Copy the contents of the file-like object fsrc to the file-like object fdst. The integer length, if given, is the buffer size. In particular, a negative length value means to copy the data without looping over the source data in chunks; by default the data is read in chunks to avoid uncontrolled memory consumption. Note that if the current file position of the fsrc object is not 0, only the contents from the current file position to the end of the file will be copied.

copymode( src, dst): Copy the permission bits from src to dst. The file contents, owner, and group are unaffected. src and dst are path names given as strings.

copystat( src, dst): Copy the permission bits, last access time, and last modification time from src to dst. The file contents, owner, and group are unaffected. src and dst are path names given as strings.

copy( src, dst): Copy the file src to the file or directory dst. If dst is a directory, a file with the same basename as src is created (or overwritten) in the directory specified. Permission bits are copied. src and dst are path names given as strings.

copy2( src, dst): Similar to copy(), but last access time and last modification time are copied as well. This is similar to the Unix command cp -p.

copytree( src, dst[, symlinks])

Recursively copy an entire directory tree rooted at src. The destination directory, named by dst, must not already exist; it will be created as well as missing parent directories. Permissions and times of directories are copied with copystat(), individual files are copied using copy2(). If symlinks is true, symbolic links in the source tree are represented as symbolic links in the new tree; if false or omitted, the contents of the linked files are copied to the new tree. If exception(s) occur, an Error is raised with a list of reasons.

The source code for this should be considered an example rather than a tool.

Changed in version 2.3: Error is raised if any exceptions occur during copying, rather than printing a message.

Changed in version 2.5: Create intermediate directories needed to create dst, rather than raising an error. Copy permissions and times of directories using copystat().

rmtree( path[, ignore_errors[, onerror]]): Delete an entire directory tree (path must point to a directory). If ignore_errors is true, errors resulting from failed removals will be ignored; if false or omitted, such errors are handled by calling a handler specified by onerror or, if that is omitted, they raise an exception.
If onerror is provided, it must be a callable that accepts three parameters: function, path, and excinfo. The first parameter, function, is the function which raised the exception; it will be os.listdir(), os.remove() or os.rmdir(). The second parameter, path, will be the path name passed to function. The third parameter, excinfo, will be the exception information return by sys.exc_info(). Exceptions raised by onerror will not be caught.

move( src, dst)

Recursively move a file or directory to another location.

If the destination is on our current filesystem, then simply use rename. Otherwise, copy src to the dst and then remove src.

New in version 2.3.

exception Error: This exception collects exceptions that raised during a mult-file operation. For copytree, the exception argument is a list of 3-tuples (srcname, dstname, exception).
New in version 2.3.

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