Move folder contents without moving the source folder

Question

shutil.move(src, dst) is what I feel will do the job, however, as per the Python 2 documentation:

shutil.move(src, dst) Recursively move a file or directory (src) to another location (dst).

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.

This is a little bit different than my case as below:

Before the move: https://snag.gy/JfbE6D.jpg

shutil.move(staging_folder, final_folder)

After the move: https://snag.gy/GTfjNb.jpg

This is not what I want, I want all the content in the staging folder be moved over to under folder "final" , I don't need "staging" folder itself.

Chong Onn Keat · Accepted Answer · 2021-07-24 12:38:25Z

5

You can use shutil.copytree() to move all contents in staging_folder to final_folder without moving the staging_folder . Pass the argument copy_function=shutil.move when calling the function.

For Python 3.8:

shutil.copytree('staging_folder', 'final_folder', copy_function=shutil.move, dirs_exist_ok=True)

For Python 3.7 and below:

beware that the paramater dirs_exist_ok is not supported. The destination final_folder must not already exist as it will be created during moving.

shutil.copytree('staging_folder', 'final_folder', copy_function=shutil.move)

Example code (Python 3.8):

>>> os.listdir('staging_folder')
['file1', 'file2', 'file3']

>>> os.listdir('final_folder')
[]

>>> shutil.copytree('staging_folder', 'final_folder', copy_function=shutil.move, dirs_exist_ok=True)
'final_folder'

>>> os.listdir('staging_folder')
[]

>>> os.listdir('final_folder')
['file1', 'file2', 'file3']

edited Jul 24, 2021 at 12:38

answered Jul 24, 2021 at 12:16

Chong Onn Keat

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Comments

Tim Stack · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-06 15:11:28Z

2

It turns out the path was not correct because it contains \t which was misinterpreted.

I ended up using shutil.move + shutil.copy22

for i in os.listdir(staging_folder):
    if not os.path.exists(final_folder):
        shutil.move(os.path.join(staging_folder, i), final_folder)
    else:
        shutil.copy2(os.path.join(staging_folder, i), final_folder)

and then emptify the old folder:

def emptify_staging(self, folder):
    for the_file in os.listdir(folder):
        file_path = os.path.join(folder, the_file)
        try:
            if os.path.isfile(file_path):
                os.unlink(file_path)
                # elif os.path.isdir(file_path): shutil.rmtree(file_path)
        except Exception as e:
            print(e)

edited Apr 6, 2020 at 15:11

Tim Stack

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answered May 19, 2018 at 12:38

Choix

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Comments

Rakesh · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-16 02:48:19Z

0

You can use the os.listdir and then move each file to the required destination.

Ex:

import shutil
import os

for i in os.listdir(staging_folder):
    shutil.move(os.path.join(staging_folder, i), final_folder)

answered May 16, 2018 at 2:48

Rakesh

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1 Comment

Choix Over a year ago

Thanks but it doesn't move the sub folder in staging

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