shutil — High-level file operations

The shutil module offers a number of 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.

import shutil

Copying Files and Directories

import shutil

# Copy a single file (metadata is NOT preserved, e.g. modification time)
shutil.copy('source.txt', 'destination.txt')
shutil.copy('source.txt', 'backup_dir/')  # Copies into target directory

# Copy file AND preserve metadata (permissions, timestamps)
shutil.copy2('source.txt', 'destination.txt')

# Recursively copy an entire directory tree
shutil.copytree('project/', 'project_backup/')

Moving and Deleting

import shutil

# Move a file or directory (can be used for renaming)
shutil.move('old_folder/', 'new_folder/')
shutil.move('file.txt', 'archive/file.txt')

# Recursively delete a directory tree (use with CAUTION!)
# This is equivalent to 'rm -rf' in Linux
shutil.rmtree('old_project/')

Archiving (Zipping)

The shutil module provides a very simple interface for creating and extracting zip/tar archives.

import shutil

# Create a zip archive of the 'project' folder
# usage: make_archive(archive_name, format, root_dir)
shutil.make_archive('project_backup', 'zip', 'project/')
# Results in 'project_backup.zip'

# Supported formats: 'zip', 'tar', 'gztar', 'bztar', 'xztar'

# Extract an archive
shutil.unpack_archive('project_backup.zip', 'extracted_folder/')

Disk Usage

You can check how much space is left on your drive using shutil (Python 3.3+).

import shutil

# Get usage statistics for the given path
total, used, free = shutil.disk_usage("/")

print(f"Total: {total // (2**30)} GiB")
print(f"Used: {used // (2**30)} GiB")
print(f"Free: {free // (2**30)} GiB")

API Reference

File and Directory Operations

Archiving Operations