Run the following code from a directory that contains a directory named bar (containing one or more files) and a directory named baz (also containing one or more files). Make sure there is not a directory named foo.

import shutil
shutil.copytree('bar', 'foo')
shutil.copytree('baz', 'foo')

It will fail with:

$ python copytree_test.py 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "copytree_test.py", line 5, in <module>
    shutil.copytree('baz', 'foo')
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/lib/python2.5/shutil.py", line 110, in copytree
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/lib/python2.5/os.py", line 172, in makedirs
OSError: [Errno 17] File exists: 'foo'

I want this to work the same way as if I had typed:

$ mkdir foo
$ cp bar/* foo/
$ cp baz/* foo/

Do I need to use shutil.copy() to copy each file in baz into foo? (After I’ve already copied the contents of ‘bar’ into ‘foo’ with shutil.copytree()?) Or is there an easier/better way?

This limitation of the standard shutil.copytree seems arbitrary and annoying. Workaround:

import os, shutil
def copytree(src, dst, symlinks=False, ignore=None):
    for item in os.listdir(src):
        s = os.path.join(src, item)
        d = os.path.join(dst, item)
        if os.path.isdir(s):
            shutil.copytree(s, d, symlinks, ignore)
        else:
            shutil.copy2(s, d)

Note that it’s not entirely consistent with the standard copytree:

• it doesn’t honor symlinks and ignore parameters for the root directory of the src tree;
• it doesn’t raise shutil.Error for errors at the root level of src;
• in case of errors during copying of a subtree, it will raise shutil.Error for that subtree instead of trying to copy other subtrees and raising single combined shutil.Error.

Here’s a solution that’s part of the standard library:

from distutils.dir_util import copy_tree
copy_tree("/a/b/c", "/x/y/z")

See this similar question.

Copy directory contents into a directory with python

• Reference – https://docs.python.org/3/distutils/apiref.html#distutils.dir_util.copy_tree

In slight improvement on atzz’s answer to the function where the above function always tries to copy the files from source to destination.

def copytree(src, dst, symlinks=False, ignore=None):
    if not os.path.exists(dst):
        os.makedirs(dst)
    for item in os.listdir(src):
        s = os.path.join(src, item)
        d = os.path.join(dst, item)
        if os.path.isdir(s):
            copytree(s, d, symlinks, ignore)
        else:
            if not os.path.exists(d) or os.stat(s).st_mtime - os.stat(d).st_mtime > 1:
                shutil.copy2(s, d)

In my above implementation

• Creating the output directory if not already exists
• Doing the copy directory by recursively calling my own method.
• When we come to actually copying the file I check if the file is modified then only we should copy.

I am using above function along with scons build. It helped me a lot as every time when I compile I may not need to copy entire set of files.. but only the files which are modified.

A merge one inspired by atzz and Mital Vora:

#!/usr/bin/python
import os
import shutil
import stat
def copytree(src, dst, symlinks = False, ignore = None):
  if not os.path.exists(dst):
    os.makedirs(dst)
    shutil.copystat(src, dst)
  lst = os.listdir(src)
  if ignore:
    excl = ignore(src, lst)
    lst = [x for x in lst if x not in excl]
  for item in lst:
    s = os.path.join(src, item)
    d = os.path.join(dst, item)
    if symlinks and os.path.islink(s):
      if os.path.lexists(d):
        os.remove(d)
      os.symlink(os.readlink(s), d)
      try:
        st = os.lstat(s)
        mode = stat.S_IMODE(st.st_mode)
        os.lchmod(d, mode)
      except:
        pass # lchmod not available
    elif os.path.isdir(s):
      copytree(s, d, symlinks, ignore)
    else:
      shutil.copy2(s, d)

• Same behavior as shutil.copytree, with symlinks and ignore parameters
• Create directory destination structure if non existant
• Will not fail if dst already exists

Python 3.8 introduced the dirs_exist_ok argument to shutil.copytree:

Recursively copy an entire directory tree rooted at src to a directory named dst and return the destination directory. dirs_exist_ok dictates whether to raise an exception in case dst or any missing parent directory already exists.

Therefore, with Python 3.8+ this should work:

import shutil

shutil.copytree('bar', 'foo')
shutil.copytree('baz', 'foo', dirs_exist_ok=True)

docs explicitly state that destination directory should not exist:

The destination directory, named by dst, must not already exist; it will be created as well as missing parent directories.

I think your best bet is to os.walk the second and all consequent directories, copy2 directory and files and do additional copystat for directories. After all that’s precisely what copytree does as explained in the docs. Or you could copy and copystat each directory/file and os.listdir instead of os.walk.

This is inspired from the original best answer provided by atzz, I just added replace file / folder logic. So it doesn’t actually merge, but deletes the existing file/ folder and copies the new one:

import shutil
import os
def copytree(src, dst, symlinks=False, ignore=None):
    for item in os.listdir(src):
        s = os.path.join(src, item)
        d = os.path.join(dst, item)
        if os.path.exists(d):
            try:
                shutil.rmtree(d)
            except Exception as e:
                print e
                os.unlink(d)
        if os.path.isdir(s):
            shutil.copytree(s, d, symlinks, ignore)
        else:
            shutil.copy2(s, d)
    #shutil.rmtree(src)

Uncomment the rmtree to make it a move function.

Here is my version of the same task::

import os, glob, shutil

def make_dir(path):
    if not os.path.isdir(path):
        os.mkdir(path)


def copy_dir(source_item, destination_item):
    if os.path.isdir(source_item):
        make_dir(destination_item)
        sub_items = glob.glob(source_item + '/*')
        for sub_item in sub_items:
            copy_dir(sub_item, destination_item + '/' + sub_item.split('/')[-1])
    else:
        shutil.copy(source_item, destination_item)

Here is a version inspired by this thread that more closely mimics distutils.file_util.copy_file.

updateonly is a bool if True, will only copy files with modified dates newer than existing files in dst unless listed in forceupdate which will copy regardless.

ignore and forceupdate expect lists of filenames or folder/filenames relative to src and accept Unix-style wildcards similar to glob or fnmatch.

The function returns a list of files copied (or would be copied if dryrun if True).

import os
import shutil
import fnmatch
import stat
import itertools

def copyToDir(src, dst, updateonly=True, symlinks=True, ignore=None, forceupdate=None, dryrun=False):

    def copySymLink(srclink, destlink):
        if os.path.lexists(destlink):
            os.remove(destlink)
        os.symlink(os.readlink(srclink), destlink)
        try:
            st = os.lstat(srclink)
            mode = stat.S_IMODE(st.st_mode)
            os.lchmod(destlink, mode)
        except OSError:
            pass  # lchmod not available
    fc = []
    if not os.path.exists(dst) and not dryrun:
        os.makedirs(dst)
        shutil.copystat(src, dst)
    if ignore is not None:
        ignorepatterns = [os.path.join(src, *x.split('/')) for x in ignore]
    else:
        ignorepatterns = []
    if forceupdate is not None:
        forceupdatepatterns = [os.path.join(src, *x.split('/')) for x in forceupdate]
    else:
        forceupdatepatterns = []
    srclen = len(src)
    for root, dirs, files in os.walk(src):
        fullsrcfiles = [os.path.join(root, x) for x in files]
        t = root[srclen+1:]
        dstroot = os.path.join(dst, t)
        fulldstfiles = [os.path.join(dstroot, x) for x in files]
        excludefiles = list(itertools.chain.from_iterable([fnmatch.filter(fullsrcfiles, pattern) for pattern in ignorepatterns]))
        forceupdatefiles = list(itertools.chain.from_iterable([fnmatch.filter(fullsrcfiles, pattern) for pattern in forceupdatepatterns]))
        for directory in dirs:
            fullsrcdir = os.path.join(src, directory)
            fulldstdir = os.path.join(dstroot, directory)
            if os.path.islink(fullsrcdir):
                if symlinks and dryrun is False:
                    copySymLink(fullsrcdir, fulldstdir)
            else:
                if not os.path.exists(directory) and dryrun is False:
                    os.makedirs(os.path.join(dst, dir))
                    shutil.copystat(src, dst)
        for s,d in zip(fullsrcfiles, fulldstfiles):
            if s not in excludefiles:
                if updateonly:
                    go = False
                    if os.path.isfile(d):
                        srcdate = os.stat(s).st_mtime
                        dstdate = os.stat(d).st_mtime
                        if srcdate > dstdate:
                            go = True
                    else:
                        go = True
                    if s in forceupdatefiles:
                        go = True
                    if go is True:
                        fc.append(d)
                        if not dryrun:
                            if os.path.islink(s) and symlinks is True:
                                copySymLink(s, d)
                            else:
                                shutil.copy2(s, d)
                else:
                    fc.append(d)
                    if not dryrun:
                        if os.path.islink(s) and symlinks is True:
                            copySymLink(s, d)
                        else:
                            shutil.copy2(s, d)
    return fc

The previous solution has some issue that src may overwrite dst without any notification or exception.

I add a predict_error method to predict errors before copy.copytree mainly base on Cyrille Pontvieux’s version.

Using predict_error to predict all errors at first is best, unless you like to see exception raised one by another when execute copytree until fix all error.

def predict_error(src, dst):  
    if os.path.exists(dst):
        src_isdir = os.path.isdir(src)
        dst_isdir = os.path.isdir(dst)
        if src_isdir and dst_isdir:
            pass
        elif src_isdir and not dst_isdir:
            yield {dst:'src is dir but dst is file.'}
        elif not src_isdir and dst_isdir:
            yield {dst:'src is file but dst is dir.'}
        else:
            yield {dst:'already exists a file with same name in dst'}

    if os.path.isdir(src):
        for item in os.listdir(src):
            s = os.path.join(src, item)
            d = os.path.join(dst, item)
            for e in predict_error(s, d):
                yield e


def copytree(src, dst, symlinks=False, ignore=None, overwrite=False):
    '''
    would overwrite if src and dst are both file
    but would not use folder overwrite file, or viceverse
    '''
    if not overwrite:
        errors = list(predict_error(src, dst))
        if errors:
            raise Exception('copy would overwrite some file, error detail:%s' % errors)

    if not os.path.exists(dst):
        os.makedirs(dst)
        shutil.copystat(src, dst)
    lst = os.listdir(src)
    if ignore:
        excl = ignore(src, lst)
        lst = [x for x in lst if x not in excl]
    for item in lst:
        s = os.path.join(src, item)
        d = os.path.join(dst, item)
        if symlinks and os.path.islink(s):
            if os.path.lexists(d):
                os.remove(d)
            os.symlink(os.readlink(s), d)
            try:
                st = os.lstat(s)
                mode = stat.S_IMODE(st.st_mode)
                os.lchmod(d, mode)
            except:
                pass  # lchmod not available
        elif os.path.isdir(s):
            copytree(s, d, symlinks, ignore)
        else:
            if not overwrite:
                if os.path.exists(d):
                    continue
            shutil.copy2(s, d)

Here is my pass at the problem. I modified the source code for copytree to keep the original functionality, but now no error occurs when the directory already exists. I also changed it so it doesn’t overwrite existing files but rather keeps both copies, one with a modified name, since this was important for my application.

import shutil
import os


def _copytree(src, dst, symlinks=False, ignore=None):
    """
    This is an improved version of shutil.copytree which allows writing to
    existing folders and does not overwrite existing files but instead appends
    a ~1 to the file name and adds it to the destination path.
    """

    names = os.listdir(src)
    if ignore is not None:
        ignored_names = ignore(src, names)
    else:
        ignored_names = set()

    if not os.path.exists(dst):
        os.makedirs(dst)
        shutil.copystat(src, dst)
    errors = []
    for name in names:
        if name in ignored_names:
            continue
        srcname = os.path.join(src, name)
        dstname = os.path.join(dst, name)
        i = 1
        while os.path.exists(dstname) and not os.path.isdir(dstname):
            parts = name.split('.')
            file_name = ''
            file_extension = parts[-1]
            # make a new file name inserting ~1 between name and extension
            for j in range(len(parts)-1):
                file_name += parts[j]
                if j < len(parts)-2:
                    file_name += '.'
            suffix = file_name + '~' + str(i) + '.' + file_extension
            dstname = os.path.join(dst, suffix)
            i+=1
        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, ignore)
            else:
                shutil.copy2(srcname, dstname)
        except (IOError, os.error) as why:
            errors.append((srcname, dstname, str(why)))
        # catch the Error from the recursive copytree so that we can
        # continue with other files
        except BaseException as err:
            errors.extend(err.args[0])
    try:
        shutil.copystat(src, dst)
    except WindowsError:
        # can't copy file access times on Windows
        pass
    except OSError as why:
        errors.extend((src, dst, str(why)))
    if errors:
        raise BaseException(errors)

Try This:

import os,shutil

def copydir(src, dst):
  h = os.getcwd()
  src = r"{}".format(src)
  if not os.path.isdir(dst):
     print("\n[!] No Such directory: ["+dst+"] !!!")
     exit(1)

  if not os.path.isdir(src):
     print("\n[!] No Such directory: ["+src+"] !!!")
     exit(1)
  if "\\" in src:
     c = "\\"
     tsrc = src.split("\\")[-1:][0]
  else:
    c = "/"
    tsrc = src.split("/")[-1:][0]

  os.chdir(dst)
  if os.path.isdir(tsrc):
    print("\n[!] The Directory Is already exists !!!")
    exit(1)
  try:
    os.mkdir(tsrc)
  except WindowsError:
    print("\n[!] Error: In[ {} ]\nPlease Check Your Dirctory Path !!!".format(src))
    exit(1)
  os.chdir(h)
  files = []
  for i in os.listdir(src):
    files.append(src+c+i)
  if len(files) > 0:
    for i in files:
        if not os.path.isdir(i):
            shutil.copy2(i, dst+c+tsrc)

  print("\n[*] Done ! :)")

copydir("c:\folder1", "c:\folder2")

Here is a version that expects a pathlib.Path as input.

# Recusively copies the content of the directory src to the directory dst.
# If dst doesn't exist, it is created, together with all missing parent directories.
# If a file from src already exists in dst, the file in dst is overwritten.
# Files already existing in dst which don't exist in src are preserved.
# Symlinks inside src are copied as symlinks, they are not resolved before copying.
#
def copy_dir(src, dst):
    dst.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
    for item in os.listdir(src):
        s = src / item
        d = dst / item
        if s.is_dir():
            copy_dir(s, d)
        else:
            shutil.copy2(str(s), str(d))

Note that this function requires Python 3.6, which is the first version of Python where os.listdir() supports path-like objects as input. If you need to support earlier versions of Python, you can replace listdir(src) by listdir(str(src)).

i would assume fastest and simplest way would be have python call the system commands…

example..

import os
cmd = '<command line call>'
os.system(cmd)

Tar and gzip up the directory…. unzip and untar the directory in the desired place.

yah?