| Python 3.6.5 Documentation > "shutil" — High-level file operations
"shutil" — High-level file operations
*************************************
**Source code:** Lib/shutil.py
======================================================================
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. For operations on individual
files, see also the "os" module.
Warning: Even the higher-level file copying functions
("shutil.copy()", "shutil.copy2()") cannot copy all file metadata.On
POSIX platforms, this means that file owner and group are lost as
well as ACLs. On Mac OS, the resource fork and other metadata are
not used. This means that resources will be lost and file type and
creator codes will not be correct. On Windows, file owners, ACLs and
alternate data streams are not copied.
Directory and files operations
==============================
shutil.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.
shutil.copyfile(src, dst, *, follow_symlinks=True)
Copy the contents (no metadata) of the file named *src* to a file
named *dst* and return *dst*. *src* and *dst* are path names given
as strings. *dst* must be the complete target file name; look at
"shutil.copy()" for a copy that accepts a target directory path.
If *src* and *dst* specify the same file, "SameFileError" is
raised.
The destination location must be writable; otherwise, an "OSError"
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.
If *follow_symlinks* is false and *src* is a symbolic link, a new
symbolic link will be created instead of copying the file *src*
points to.
Changed in version 3.3: "IOError" used to be raised instead of
"OSError". Added *follow_symlinks* argument. Now returns *dst*.
Changed in version 3.4: Raise "SameFileError" instead of "Error".
Since the former is a subclass of the latter, this change is
backward compatible.
exception shutil.SameFileError
This exception is raised if source and destination in "copyfile()"
are the same file.
New in version 3.4.
shutil.copymode(src, dst, *, follow_symlinks=True)
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. If *follow_symlinks* is false, and both *src* and
*dst* are symbolic links, "copymode()" will attempt to modify the
mode of *dst* itself (rather than the file it points to). This
functionality is not available on every platform; please see
"copystat()" for more information. If "copymode()" cannot modify
symbolic links on the local platform, and it is asked to do so, it
will do nothing and return.
Changed in version 3.3: Added *follow_symlinks* argument.
shutil.copystat(src, dst, *, follow_symlinks=True)
Copy the permission bits, last access time, last modification time,
and flags from *src* to *dst*. On Linux, "copystat()" also copies
the “extended attributes” where possible. The file contents,
owner, and group are unaffected. *src* and *dst* are path names
given as strings.
If *follow_symlinks* is false, and *src* and *dst* both refer to
symbolic links, "copystat()" will operate on the symbolic links
themselves rather than the files the symbolic links refer
to—reading the information from the *src* symbolic link, and
writing the information to the *dst* symbolic link.
Note: Not all platforms provide the ability to examine and modify
symbolic links. Python itself can tell you what functionality is
locally available.
* If "os.chmod in os.supports_follow_symlinks" is "True",
"copystat()" can modify the permission bits of a symbolic link.
* If "os.utime in os.supports_follow_symlinks" is "True",
"copystat()" can modify the last access and modification times
of a symbolic link.
* If "os.chflags in os.supports_follow_symlinks" is "True",
"copystat()" can modify the flags of a symbolic link.
("os.chflags" is not available on all platforms.)
On platforms where some or all of this functionality is
unavailable, when asked to modify a symbolic link, "copystat()"
will copy everything it can. "copystat()" never returns
failure.Please see "os.supports_follow_symlinks" for more
information.
Changed in version 3.3: Added *follow_symlinks* argument and
support for Linux extended attributes.
shutil.copy(src, dst, *, follow_symlinks=True)
Copies the file *src* to the file or directory *dst*. *src* and
*dst* should be strings. If *dst* specifies a directory, the file
will be copied into *dst* using the base filename from *src*.
Returns the path to the newly created file.
If *follow_symlinks* is false, and *src* is a symbolic link, *dst*
will be created as a symbolic link. If *follow_symlinks* is true
and *src* is a symbolic link, *dst* will be a copy of the file
*src* refers to.
"copy()" copies the file data and the file’s permission mode (see
"os.chmod()"). Other metadata, like the file’s creation and
modification times, is not preserved. To preserve all file metadata
from the original, use "copy2()" instead.
Changed in version 3.3: Added *follow_symlinks* argument. Now
returns path to the newly created file.
shutil.copy2(src, dst, *, follow_symlinks=True)
Identical to "copy()" except that "copy2()" also attempts to
preserve all file metadata.
When *follow_symlinks* is false, and *src* is a symbolic link,
"copy2()" attempts to copy all metadata from the *src* symbolic
link to the newly-created *dst* symbolic link. However, this
functionality is not available on all platforms. On platforms where
some or all of this functionality is unavailable, "copy2()" will
preserve all the metadata it can; "copy2()" never returns failure.
"copy2()" uses "copystat()" to copy the file metadata. Please see
"copystat()" for more information about platform support for
modifying symbolic link metadata.
Changed in version 3.3: Added *follow_symlinks* argument, try to
copy extended file system attributes too (currently Linux only).
Now returns path to the newly created file.
shutil.ignore_patterns(*patterns)
This factory function creates a function that can be used as a
callable for "copytree()"’s *ignore* argument, ignoring files and
directories that match one of the glob-style *patterns* provided.
See the example below.
shutil.copytree(src, dst, symlinks=False, ignore=None, copy_function=copy2, ignore_dangling_symlinks=False)
Recursively copy an entire directory tree rooted at *src*,
returning the destination directory. 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 "shutil.copy2()".
If *symlinks* is true, symbolic links in the source tree are
represented as symbolic links in the new tree and the metadata of
the original links will be copied as far as the platform allows; if
false or omitted, the contents and metadata of the linked files are
copied to the new tree.
When *symlinks* is false, if the file pointed by the symlink
doesn’t exist, an exception will be added in the list of errors
raised in an "Error" exception at the end of the copy process. You
can set the optional *ignore_dangling_symlinks* flag to true if you
want to silence this exception. Notice that this option has no
effect on platforms that don’t support "os.symlink()".
If *ignore* is given, it must be a callable that will receive as
its arguments the directory being visited by "copytree()", and a
list of its contents, as returned by "os.listdir()". Since
"copytree()" is called recursively, the *ignore* callable will be
called once for each directory that is copied. The callable must
return a sequence of directory and file names relative to the
current directory (i.e. a subset of the items in its second
argument); these names will then be ignored in the copy process.
"ignore_patterns()" can be used to create such a callable that
ignores names based on glob-style patterns.
If exception(s) occur, an "Error" is raised with a list of reasons.
If *copy_function* is given, it must be a callable that will be
used to copy each file. It will be called with the source path and
the destination path as arguments. By default, "shutil.copy2()" is
used, but any function that supports the same signature (like
"shutil.copy()") can be used.
Changed in version 3.3: Copy metadata when *symlinks* is false. Now
returns *dst*.
Changed in version 3.2: Added the *copy_function* argument to be
able to provide a custom copy function. Added the
*ignore_dangling_symlinks* argument to silent dangling symlinks
errors when *symlinks* is false.
shutil.rmtree(path, ignore_errors=False, onerror=None)
Delete an entire directory tree; *path* must point to a directory
(but not a symbolic link 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.
Note: On platforms that support the necessary fd-based functions
a symlink attack resistant version of "rmtree()" is used by
default. On other platforms, the "rmtree()" implementation is
susceptible to a symlink attack: given proper timing and
circumstances, attackers can manipulate symlinks on the
filesystem to delete files they wouldn’t be able to access
otherwise. Applications can use the
"rmtree.avoids_symlink_attacks" function attribute to determine
which case applies.
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 depends on the platform and implementation. The
second parameter, *path*, will be the path name passed to
*function*. The third parameter, *excinfo*, will be the exception
information returned by "sys.exc_info()". Exceptions raised by
*onerror* will not be caught.
Changed in version 3.3: Added a symlink attack resistant version
that is used automatically if platform supports fd-based functions.
rmtree.avoids_symlink_attacks
Indicates whether the current platform and implementation
provides a symlink attack resistant version of "rmtree()".
Currently this is only true for platforms supporting fd-based
directory access functions.
New in version 3.3.
shutil.move(src, dst, copy_function=copy2)
Recursively move a file or directory (*src*) to another location
(*dst*) and return the destination.
If the destination is an existing directory, then *src* is moved
inside that directory. If the destination already exists but is not
a directory, it may be overwritten depending on "os.rename()"
semantics.
If the destination is on the current filesystem, then "os.rename()"
is used. Otherwise, *src* is copied to *dst* using *copy_function*
and then removed. In case of symlinks, a new symlink pointing to
the target of *src* will be created in or as *dst* and *src* will
be removed.
If *copy_function* is given, it must be a callable that takes two
arguments *src* and *dst*, and will be used to copy *src* to *dest*
if "os.rename()" cannot be used. If the source is a directory,
"copytree()" is called, passing it the "copy_function()". The
default *copy_function* is "copy2()". Using "copy()" as the
*copy_function* allows the move to succeed when it is not possible
to also copy the metadata, at the expense of not copying any of the
metadata.
Changed in version 3.3: Added explicit symlink handling for foreign
filesystems, thus adapting it to the behavior of GNU’s **mv**. Now
returns *dst*.
Changed in version 3.5: Added the *copy_function* keyword argument.
shutil.disk_usage(path)
Return disk usage statistics about the given path as a *named
tuple* with the attributes *total*, *used* and *free*, which are
the amount of total, used and free space, in bytes. On Windows,
*path* must be a directory; on Unix, it can be a file or directory.
New in version 3.3.
Availability: Unix, Windows.
shutil.chown(path, user=None, group=None)
Change owner *user* and/or *group* of the given *path*.
*user* can be a system user name or a uid; the same applies to
*group*. At least one argument is required.
See also "os.chown()", the underlying function.
Availability: Unix.
New in version 3.3.
shutil.which(cmd, mode=os.F_OK | os.X_OK, path=None)
Return the path to an executable which would be run if the given
*cmd* was called. If no *cmd* would be called, return "None".
*mode* is a permission mask passed to "os.access()", by default
determining if the file exists and executable.
When no *path* is specified, the results of "os.environ()" are
used, returning either the “PATH” value or a fallback of
"os.defpath".
On Windows, the current directory is always prepended to the *path*
whether or not you use the default or provide your own, which is
the behavior the command shell uses when finding executables.
Additionally, when finding the *cmd* in the *path*, the "PATHEXT"
environment variable is checked. For example, if you call
"shutil.which("python")", "which()" will search "PATHEXT" to know
that it should look for "python.exe" within the *path* directories.
For example, on Windows:
>>> shutil.which("python")
'C:\\Python33\\python.EXE'
New in version 3.3.
exception shutil.Error
This exception collects exceptions that are raised during a multi-
file operation. For "copytree()", the exception argument is a list
of 3-tuples (*srcname*, *dstname*, *exception*).
copytree example
----------------
This example is the implementation of the "copytree()" function,
described above, with the docstring omitted. It demonstrates many of
the other functions provided by this module.
def copytree(src, dst, symlinks=False):
names = os.listdir(src)
os.makedirs(dst)
errors = []
for name in names:
srcname = os.path.join(src, name)
dstname = os.path.join(dst, name)
try:
if symlinks and os.path.islink(srcname):
linkto = os.readlink(srcname)
os.symlink(linkto, dstname)
elif os.path.isdir(srcname):
copytree(srcname, dstname, symlinks)
else:
copy2(srcname, dstname)
# XXX What about devices, sockets etc.?
except OSError as why:
errors.append((srcname, dstname, str(why)))
# catch the Error from the recursive copytree so that we can
# continue with other files
except Error as err:
errors.extend(err.args[0])
try:
copystat(src, dst)
except OSError as why:
# can't copy file access times on Windows
if why.winerror is None:
errors.extend((src, dst, str(why)))
if errors:
raise Error(errors)
Another example that uses the "ignore_patterns()" helper:
from shutil import copytree, ignore_patterns
copytree(source, destination, ignore=ignore_patterns('*.pyc', 'tmp*'))
This will copy everything except ".pyc" files and files or directories
whose name starts with "tmp".
Another example that uses the *ignore* argument to add a logging call:
from shutil import copytree
import logging
def _logpath(path, names):
logging.info('Working in %s', path)
return [] # nothing will be ignored
copytree(source, destination, ignore=_logpath)
rmtree example
--------------
This example shows how to remove a directory tree on Windows where
some of the files have their read-only bit set. It uses the onerror
callback to clear the readonly bit and reattempt the remove. Any
subsequent failure will propagate.
import os, stat
import shutil
def remove_readonly(func, path, _):
"Clear the readonly bit and reattempt the removal"
os.chmod(path, stat.S_IWRITE)
func(path)
shutil.rmtree(directory, onerror=remove_readonly)
Archiving operations
====================
New in version 3.2.
Changed in version 3.5: Added support for the *xztar* format.
High-level utilities to create and read compressed and archived files
are also provided. They rely on the "zipfile" and "tarfile" modules.
shutil.make_archive(base_name, format[, root_dir[, base_dir[, verbose[, dry_run[, owner[, group[, logger]]]]]]])
Create an archive file (such as zip or tar) and return its name.
*base_name* is the name of the file to create, including the path,
minus any format-specific extension. *format* is the archive
format: one of “zip” (if the "zlib" module is available), “tar”,
“gztar” (if the "zlib" module is available), “bztar” (if the "bz2"
module is available), or “xztar” (if the "lzma" module is
available).
*root_dir* is a directory that will be the root directory of the
archive; for example, we typically chdir into *root_dir* before
creating the archive.
*base_dir* is the directory where we start archiving from; i.e.
*base_dir* will be the common prefix of all files and directories
in the archive.
*root_dir* and *base_dir* both default to the current directory.
If *dry_run* is true, no archive is created, but the operations
that would be executed are logged to *logger*.
*owner* and *group* are used when creating a tar archive. By
default, uses the current owner and group.
*logger* must be an object compatible with **PEP 282**, usually an
instance of "logging.Logger".
The *verbose* argument is unused and deprecated.
shutil.get_archive_formats()
Return a list of supported formats for archiving. Each element of
the returned sequence is a tuple "(name, description)".
By default "shutil" provides these formats:
* *zip*: ZIP file (if the "zlib" module is available).
* *tar*: uncompressed tar file.
* *gztar*: gzip’ed tar-file (if the "zlib" module is available).
* *bztar*: bzip2’ed tar-file (if the "bz2" module is available).
* *xztar*: xz’ed tar-file (if the "lzma" module is available).
You can register new formats or provide your own archiver for any
existing formats, by using "register_archive_format()".
shutil.register_archive_format(name, function[, extra_args[, description]])
Register an archiver for the format *name*.
*function* is the callable that will be used to unpack archives.
The callable will receive the *base_name* of the file to create,
followed by the *base_dir* (which defaults to "os.curdir") to start
archiving from. Further arguments are passed as keyword arguments:
*owner*, *group*, *dry_run* and *logger* (as passed in
"make_archive()").
If given, *extra_args* is a sequence of "(name, value)" pairs that
will be used as extra keywords arguments when the archiver callable
is used.
*description* is used by "get_archive_formats()" which returns the
list of archivers. Defaults to an empty string.
shutil.unregister_archive_format(name)
Remove the archive format *name* from the list of supported
formats.
shutil.unpack_archive(filename[, extract_dir[, format]])
Unpack an archive. *filename* is the full path of the archive.
*extract_dir* is the name of the target directory where the archive
is unpacked. If not provided, the current working directory is
used.
*format* is the archive format: one of “zip”, “tar”, “gztar”,
“bztar”, or “xztar”. Or any other format registered with
"register_unpack_format()". If not provided, "unpack_archive()"
will use the archive file name extension and see if an unpacker was
registered for that extension. In case none is found, a
"ValueError" is raised.
shutil.register_unpack_format(name, extensions, function[, extra_args[, description]])
Registers an unpack format. *name* is the name of the format and
*extensions* is a list of extensions corresponding to the format,
like ".zip" for Zip files.
*function* is the callable that will be used to unpack archives.
The callable will receive the path of the archive, followed by the
directory the archive must be extracted to.
When provided, *extra_args* is a sequence of "(name, value)" tuples
that will be passed as keywords arguments to the callable.
*description* can be provided to describe the format, and will be
returned by the "get_unpack_formats()" function.
shutil.unregister_unpack_format(name)
Unregister an unpack format. *name* is the name of the format.
shutil.get_unpack_formats()
Return a list of all registered formats for unpacking. Each element
of the returned sequence is a tuple "(name, extensions,
description)".
By default "shutil" provides these formats:
* *zip*: ZIP file (unpacking compressed files works only if the
corresponding module is available).
* *tar*: uncompressed tar file.
* *gztar*: gzip’ed tar-file (if the "zlib" module is available).
* *bztar*: bzip2’ed tar-file (if the "bz2" module is available).
* *xztar*: xz’ed tar-file (if the "lzma" module is available).
You can register new formats or provide your own unpacker for any
existing formats, by using "register_unpack_format()".
Archiving example
-----------------
In this example, we create a gzip’ed tar-file archive containing all
files found in the ".ssh" directory of the user:
>>> from shutil import make_archive
>>> import os
>>> archive_name = os.path.expanduser(os.path.join('~', 'myarchive'))
>>> root_dir = os.path.expanduser(os.path.join('~', '.ssh'))
>>> make_archive(archive_name, 'gztar', root_dir)
'/Users/tarek/myarchive.tar.gz'
The resulting archive contains:
$ tar -tzvf /Users/tarek/myarchive.tar.gz
drwx------ tarek/staff 0 2010-02-01 16:23:40 ./
-rw-r--r-- tarek/staff 609 2008-06-09 13:26:54 ./authorized_keys
-rwxr-xr-x tarek/staff 65 2008-06-09 13:26:54 ./config
-rwx------ tarek/staff 668 2008-06-09 13:26:54 ./id_dsa
-rwxr-xr-x tarek/staff 609 2008-06-09 13:26:54 ./id_dsa.pub
-rw------- tarek/staff 1675 2008-06-09 13:26:54 ./id_rsa
-rw-r--r-- tarek/staff 397 2008-06-09 13:26:54 ./id_rsa.pub
-rw-r--r-- tarek/staff 37192 2010-02-06 18:23:10 ./known_hosts
Querying the size of the output terminal
========================================
shutil.get_terminal_size(fallback=(columns, lines))
Get the size of the terminal window.
For each of the two dimensions, the environment variable, "COLUMNS"
and "LINES" respectively, is checked. If the variable is defined
and the value is a positive integer, it is used.
When "COLUMNS" or "LINES" is not defined, which is the common case,
the terminal connected to "sys.__stdout__" is queried by invoking
"os.get_terminal_size()".
If the terminal size cannot be successfully queried, either because
the system doesn’t support querying, or because we are not
connected to a terminal, the value given in "fallback" parameter is
used. "fallback" defaults to "(80, 24)" which is the default size
used by many terminal emulators.
The value returned is a named tuple of type "os.terminal_size".
See also: The Single UNIX Specification, Version 2, Other
Environment Variables.
New in version 3.3.
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