The shutil Module - Copying, Moving, and Deleting

What `shutilshutil` is for

shutilshutil (shell utilities) helps with:

copy_file.py

import shutil
 
shutil.copy2("source.txt", "backup_source.txt")

copy_file.py

import shutil
 
shutil.copy2("source.txt", "backup_source.txt")

copy2copy2 attempts to preserve metadata.

copy_tree.py

import shutil
 
shutil.copytree("my_folder", "my_folder_backup", dirs_exist_ok=True)

copy_tree.py

import shutil
 
shutil.copytree("my_folder", "my_folder_backup", dirs_exist_ok=True)

move_file.py

import shutil
 
shutil.move("old/name.txt", "new/name.txt")

move_file.py

import shutil
 
shutil.move("old/name.txt", "new/name.txt")

remove_tree.py

import shutil
 
shutil.rmtree("danger_folder")

remove_tree.py

import shutil
 
shutil.rmtree("danger_folder")

Always do a dry run before destructive operations.

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