all Python 3shutilfunction

shutil.copytree()

directory trees

Recursively copies a directory with all its contents and returns the copy's path. Files are copied with copy2 by default.

Syntax

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

dst must not exist — otherwise FileExistsError; dirs_exist_ok=True (since 3.8) merges into an existing directory, overwriting files with the same names. dst is the new directory itself, not a place to put src into: copytree('a', 'b') gives b with a's contents, not b/a. Symbolic links are followed by default (symlinks=False) — the targets get copied. Errors on individual files are collected and raised at the end as a single shutil.Error.

Examples

import os, shutil
os.makedirs('src/sub')
open('src/sub/f.txt', 'w').close()
print(shutil.copytree('src', 'dst'))  # → dst
print(os.listdir('dst'))  # → ['sub']
try:
    shutil.copytree('src', 'dst')
except FileExistsError as e:
    print(type(e).__name__)  # → FileExistsError
shutil.copytree('src', 'dst', dirs_exist_ok=True)
print(os.path.exists('dst/sub/f.txt'))  # → True

See also

Common errors

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