Python – Move and overwrite files and folders
Question:
I have a directory, ‘Dst Directory’, which has files and folders in it and I have ‘src Directory’ which also has files and folders in it. What I want to do is move the contents of ‘src Directory’ to ‘Dst Directory’ and overwrite anyfiles that exist with the same name. So for example ‘Src Directoryfile.txt’ needs to be moved to ‘Dst Directory’ and overwrite the existing file.txt. The same applies for some folders, moving a folder and merging the contents with the same folder in ‘dst directory’
I’m currently using shutil.move to move the contents of src to dst but it won’t do it if the files already exist and it won’t merge folders; it’ll just put the folder inside the existing folder.
Update: To make things a bit clearer, what I’m doing is unzipping an archive to the Dst Directory and then moving the contents of Src Directory there and rezipping, effectively updating files in the zip archive. This will be repeated for adding new files or new versions of files etc which is why it needs to overwrite and merge
Solved: I solved my problem by using distutils.dir_util.copy_tree(src, dst), this copies the folders and files from src directory to dst directory and overwrites/merges where neccesary.
Answers:
Have a look at: os.remove to remove existing files.
Use copy() instead, which is willing to overwrite destination files. If you then want the first tree to go away, just rmtree() it separately once you are done iterating over it.
http://docs.python.org/library/shutil.html#shutil.copy
http://docs.python.org/library/shutil.html#shutil.rmtree
Update:
Do an os.walk() over the source tree. For each directory, check if it exists on the destination side, and os.makedirs() it if it is missing. For each file, simply shutil.copy() and the file will be created or overwritten, whichever is appropriate.
This will go through the source directory, create any directories that do not already exist in destination directory, and move files from source to the destination directory:
import os
import shutil
root_src_dir = 'Src Directory\'
root_dst_dir = 'Dst Directory\'
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):
# in case of the src and dst are the same file
if os.path.samefile(src_file, dst_file):
continue
os.remove(dst_file)
shutil.move(src_file, dst_dir)
Any pre-existing files will be removed first (via os.remove) before being replace by the corresponding source file. Any files or directories that already exist in the destination but not in the source will remain untouched.
Since none of the above worked for me, so I wrote my own recursive function. Call Function copyTree(dir1, dir2) to merge directories. Run on multi-platforms Linux and Windows.
def forceMergeFlatDir(srcDir, dstDir):
if not os.path.exists(dstDir):
os.makedirs(dstDir)
for item in os.listdir(srcDir):
srcFile = os.path.join(srcDir, item)
dstFile = os.path.join(dstDir, item)
forceCopyFile(srcFile, dstFile)
def forceCopyFile (sfile, dfile):
if os.path.isfile(sfile):
shutil.copy2(sfile, dfile)
def isAFlatDir(sDir):
for item in os.listdir(sDir):
sItem = os.path.join(sDir, item)
if os.path.isdir(sItem):
return False
return True
def copyTree(src, dst):
for item in os.listdir(src):
s = os.path.join(src, item)
d = os.path.join(dst, item)
if os.path.isfile(s):
if not os.path.exists(dst):
os.makedirs(dst)
forceCopyFile(s,d)
if os.path.isdir(s):
isRecursive = not isAFlatDir(s)
if isRecursive:
copyTree(s, d)
else:
forceMergeFlatDir(s, d)
I had a similar problem. I wanted to move files and folder structures and overwrite existing files, but not delete anything which is in the destination folder structure.
I solved it by using os.walk(), recursively calling my function and using shutil.move() on files which I wanted to overwrite and folders which did not exist.
It works like shutil.move(), but with the benefit that existing files are only overwritten, but not deleted.
import os
import shutil
def moverecursively(source_folder, destination_folder):
basename = os.path.basename(source_folder)
dest_dir = os.path.join(destination_folder, basename)
if not os.path.exists(dest_dir):
shutil.move(source_folder, destination_folder)
else:
dst_path = os.path.join(destination_folder, basename)
for root, dirs, files in os.walk(source_folder):
for item in files:
src_path = os.path.join(root, item)
if os.path.exists(dst_file):
os.remove(dst_file)
shutil.move(src_path, dst_path)
for item in dirs:
src_path = os.path.join(root, item)
moverecursively(src_path, dst_path)
If you also need to overwrite files with read only flag use this:
def copyDirTree(root_src_dir,root_dst_dir):
"""
Copy directory tree. Overwrites also read only files.
:param root_src_dir: source directory
:param root_dst_dir: destination directory
"""
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):
try:
os.remove(dst_file)
except PermissionError as exc:
os.chmod(dst_file, stat.S_IWUSR)
os.remove(dst_file)
shutil.copy(src_file, dst_dir)
You can use this to copy directory overwriting existing files:
import shutil
shutil.copytree("src", "dst", dirs_exist_ok=True)
dirs_exist_ok argument was added in Python 3.8.
See docs: https://docs.python.org/3/library/shutil.html#shutil.copytree
I have a directory, ‘Dst Directory’, which has files and folders in it and I have ‘src Directory’ which also has files and folders in it. What I want to do is move the contents of ‘src Directory’ to ‘Dst Directory’ and overwrite anyfiles that exist with the same name. So for example ‘Src Directoryfile.txt’ needs to be moved to ‘Dst Directory’ and overwrite the existing file.txt. The same applies for some folders, moving a folder and merging the contents with the same folder in ‘dst directory’
I’m currently using shutil.move to move the contents of src to dst but it won’t do it if the files already exist and it won’t merge folders; it’ll just put the folder inside the existing folder.
Update: To make things a bit clearer, what I’m doing is unzipping an archive to the Dst Directory and then moving the contents of Src Directory there and rezipping, effectively updating files in the zip archive. This will be repeated for adding new files or new versions of files etc which is why it needs to overwrite and merge
Solved: I solved my problem by using distutils.dir_util.copy_tree(src, dst), this copies the folders and files from src directory to dst directory and overwrites/merges where neccesary.
Have a look at: os.remove to remove existing files.
Use copy() instead, which is willing to overwrite destination files. If you then want the first tree to go away, just rmtree() it separately once you are done iterating over it.
http://docs.python.org/library/shutil.html#shutil.copy
http://docs.python.org/library/shutil.html#shutil.rmtree
Update:
Do an os.walk() over the source tree. For each directory, check if it exists on the destination side, and os.makedirs() it if it is missing. For each file, simply shutil.copy() and the file will be created or overwritten, whichever is appropriate.
This will go through the source directory, create any directories that do not already exist in destination directory, and move files from source to the destination directory:
import os
import shutil
root_src_dir = 'Src Directory\'
root_dst_dir = 'Dst Directory\'
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):
# in case of the src and dst are the same file
if os.path.samefile(src_file, dst_file):
continue
os.remove(dst_file)
shutil.move(src_file, dst_dir)
Any pre-existing files will be removed first (via os.remove) before being replace by the corresponding source file. Any files or directories that already exist in the destination but not in the source will remain untouched.
Since none of the above worked for me, so I wrote my own recursive function. Call Function copyTree(dir1, dir2) to merge directories. Run on multi-platforms Linux and Windows.
def forceMergeFlatDir(srcDir, dstDir):
if not os.path.exists(dstDir):
os.makedirs(dstDir)
for item in os.listdir(srcDir):
srcFile = os.path.join(srcDir, item)
dstFile = os.path.join(dstDir, item)
forceCopyFile(srcFile, dstFile)
def forceCopyFile (sfile, dfile):
if os.path.isfile(sfile):
shutil.copy2(sfile, dfile)
def isAFlatDir(sDir):
for item in os.listdir(sDir):
sItem = os.path.join(sDir, item)
if os.path.isdir(sItem):
return False
return True
def copyTree(src, dst):
for item in os.listdir(src):
s = os.path.join(src, item)
d = os.path.join(dst, item)
if os.path.isfile(s):
if not os.path.exists(dst):
os.makedirs(dst)
forceCopyFile(s,d)
if os.path.isdir(s):
isRecursive = not isAFlatDir(s)
if isRecursive:
copyTree(s, d)
else:
forceMergeFlatDir(s, d)
I had a similar problem. I wanted to move files and folder structures and overwrite existing files, but not delete anything which is in the destination folder structure.
I solved it by using os.walk(), recursively calling my function and using shutil.move() on files which I wanted to overwrite and folders which did not exist.
It works like shutil.move(), but with the benefit that existing files are only overwritten, but not deleted.
import os
import shutil
def moverecursively(source_folder, destination_folder):
basename = os.path.basename(source_folder)
dest_dir = os.path.join(destination_folder, basename)
if not os.path.exists(dest_dir):
shutil.move(source_folder, destination_folder)
else:
dst_path = os.path.join(destination_folder, basename)
for root, dirs, files in os.walk(source_folder):
for item in files:
src_path = os.path.join(root, item)
if os.path.exists(dst_file):
os.remove(dst_file)
shutil.move(src_path, dst_path)
for item in dirs:
src_path = os.path.join(root, item)
moverecursively(src_path, dst_path)
If you also need to overwrite files with read only flag use this:
def copyDirTree(root_src_dir,root_dst_dir):
"""
Copy directory tree. Overwrites also read only files.
:param root_src_dir: source directory
:param root_dst_dir: destination directory
"""
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):
try:
os.remove(dst_file)
except PermissionError as exc:
os.chmod(dst_file, stat.S_IWUSR)
os.remove(dst_file)
shutil.copy(src_file, dst_dir)
You can use this to copy directory overwriting existing files:
import shutil
shutil.copytree("src", "dst", dirs_exist_ok=True)
dirs_exist_ok argument was added in Python 3.8.
See docs: https://docs.python.org/3/library/shutil.html#shutil.copytree