How can I move files between mounts using Python?

Question

I've been using os.rename to move files in Python. However, it appears that this fails if you try to move files between one mountpoint and another (on Linux).

Is there a Python library or function to move files between mountpoints, similar to mv on Linux?

Answer 1

This is a common caveat with os.rename. The higher level shutil module and it's move method works around this for you by using os.rename() or shutil.copy2() as appropriate.

One thing to keep in mind is that this loses the atomic guarantee that os.rename has if it isn't on the same filesystem.

See https://docs.python.org/2/library/shutil.html#shutil.move

Answer 2

You can use mv using subprocess

from subprocess import check_call

check_call(["mv","src","dest"])