Python program to rename file names while overwriting if there already is that file

Question

As the title says, I wanted a python program that changes the file name, but I wanted to overwrite if there already is a file with that destination name.

import os, sys

original = sys.argv[1]
output = sys.argv[2]

os.rename(original, output)

But my code just shows me this error when there already is file with that destination name.

  os.rename<original, output>
WindowsError: [Error 183] Cannot create a file when that file already exists

What fix should I make?

Answer 1

On Windows os.rename won't replace the destination file if it exists. You have to remove it first. You can catch the error and try again after removing the file:

import os

original = sys.argv[1]
output = sys.argv[2]

try:
    os.rename(original, output)
except WindowsError:
    os.remove(output)
    os.rename(original, output)

Answer 2

You can use shutil.move, it will overwrite on windows:

from shutil import move

move(src,dest)

Demo:

In [10]: ls    
Directory of C:\Users\padraic\Desktop

11/05/2015  20:20    <DIR>          .
11/05/2015  20:20    <DIR>          ..
11/05/2015  20:20                 0 bar.txt
11/05/2015  20:20                 0 foo.txt
               2 File(s)              0 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  47,405,617,152 bytes free

In [11]: shutil.move("bar.txt","foo.txt")    
In [12]: ls 
Directory of C:\Users\padraic\Desktop    
11/05/2015  20:20    <DIR>          .
11/05/2015  20:20    <DIR>          ..
11/05/2015  20:20                 0 foo.txt
               1 File(s)              0 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  47,405,613,056 bytes free
In [13]: shutil.move("foo.txt","bar.txt")
In [14]: ls
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 3C67-52B9

 Directory of C:\Users\padraic\Desktop

11/05/2015  20:24    <DIR>          .
11/05/2015  20:24    <DIR>          ..
11/05/2015  20:20                 0 bar.txt
               1 File(s)              0 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  47,405,568,000 bytes free