Python Copy, Move or Delete a File

Back to: Python Programming

---

Python can copy the contents of a file.  To do this we use the “shutil” module.  Put a file called “test.txt” in the project folder.

Copy

There are three functions to copy a file:

1. copyfile() – copies the contents of a file
2. copy() – everything copyfile() does + permissions + destination
3. copy2() – everything copy() does + metadata (file create and modify times)

The arguments for all three are the same:

shutil.copyfile(‘source.txt’,’detination.txt)  # <--assumes source.txt is in the project folder

or if the destination is in another path:

shutil.copyfile(‘source.txt’,’c:\\data\\temp\\detination.txt”)  # <-- copies to specified path

Usage:

import shutil
shutil.copyfile("test.txt", "copy.txt")

Move

Python can ‘move’ a file or directory by importing the “os” module.  To move a file from the “project folder” to a directory c:\data – we follow these steps.  We will use a conditional [if / else] to check for the existence of an existing file so we don’t overwrite it, we also check if a file to move actually exists [try / except] and in the event of an error, we throw an exception and print a message.

import os

source = "test.txt" # <- no path so it’s in projects folder
destination = "c:\\data\\test.txt"

try:  # <-- code within 'try' 'except' block in case file not found
    if os.path.exists(destination):
        print("This file already exists!")
    else:
        os.replace(source,destination)
        print(source+" was moved")
except FileNotFoundError:
    print(source+" was not found")

The source and destination for moving can also be a folder name.

import os

source = "Test-Folder"
destination = "c:\\data\\Test-Folder"

try:  # <-- code within 'try' 'except' block in case file not found
    if os.path.exists(destination):
        print("This directory already exists!")
    else:
        os.replace(source,destination)
        print(source+" was moved")
except FileNotFoundError:
    print(source+" was not found")

Delete (be careful with this one)

Python can ‘delete’ a file or directory by importing the “os” module.  Put a “test.txt” file in the projects folder first.

import os
os.remove("test.txt")

A slightly tidier and more refined way to do it:

import os
path = "test.txt"
os.remove(path)

On running the code a second time, the file will not be found so we need to do some exception handling:

FileNotFoundError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified: 'test.txt'

Using a try block we can use the exception except FileNotFoundError:

import os
path = "test.txt"

try:
    os.remove(path)
except FileNotFoundError:
    print("File not found!")

If you try to delete a file that doesn’t exist, your program will not be interrupted and will instead print a warning.

Different functions are used to delete files, empty folders and folders containing files. To delete an empty folder – put an empty folder in your projects directory:

import os
path = "empty_folder"

try:
    os.rmdir(path)
except FileNotFoundError:
    print("Folder not found!")
else:
    print(path+" has been deleted.")

If this folder contains a file, an OSError exception will occur so we need to handle it:

import os
path = "temp_folder"

try:
    os.rmdir(path)
except FileNotFoundError:
    print("Folder not found!")
except OSError:
    print(f"The folder {path} is not empty.")
else:
    print(path+" has been deleted.")

To delete a non-empty folder – use shutil.rmtree(path) – this is a DANGEROUS function.

import os
import shutil
path = "temp_folder"

try:
    shutil.rmtree(path)
except FileNotFoundError:
    print("Folder not found!")
else:
    print(path+" has been deleted.")

---