Python Module shutil

External

• https://docs.python.org/3/library/shutil.html#module-shutil

Internal

• Python Language | Standard Library
• File Operations in Python

Overview

The shutil module offers 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.

Recursively Copy a Directory

import shutil
shutil.copytree(src, dst, symlinks=False, ignore=None, copy_function=copy2, ignore_dangling_symlinks=False, dirs_exist_ok=False)

All required directories will be created if they don't exist.

Arguments

ignore

The optional ignore argument is a callable. If given, it is called with the src parameter, which is the directory being visited by copytree(), and names which is the list of src contents, as returned by os.listdir():

 callable(src, names) -> ignored_names

Since copytree() is called recursively, the callable will be called once for each directory that is copied. It returns a list of names relative to the src directory that should not be copied. shutil already contains a function ignore_patterns:

copytree(source, destination, ignore=ignore_patterns('*.pyc', 'tmp*'))

Recursively Delete a Directory

import shutil
shutil.rmtree('/path/to/the/dir/')

Organizatorium

from shutil import which
for i in m:
  print("{:20}{:7}".format(m[i], "OK" if which(i) else "missing"))