create destination path for shutil.copy files

Question

If a path such as b/c/ does not exist in ./a/b/c , shutil.copy("./blah.txt", "./a/b/c/blah.txt") will complain that the destination does not exist. What is the best way to create both the destination path and copy the file to this path?

Answer 1

To summarize info from the given answers and comments:

For python 3.2+:

os.makedirs before copy with exist_ok=True:

os.makedirs(os.path.dirname(dest_fpath), exist_ok=True) shutil.copy(src_fpath, dest_fpath) 

For python < 3.2:

os.makedirs after catching the IOError and try copying again:

try:     shutil.copy(src_fpath, dest_fpath) except IOError as io_err:     os.makedirs(os.path.dirname(dest_fpath))     shutil.copy(src_fpath, dest_fpath) 

Although you could be more explicit about checking errno and/or checking if path exists before makedirs, IMHO these snippets strike a nice balance between simplicity and functionality.

Answer 2

Use os.makedirs to create the directory tree.