using shutil.copyfile I get a Python IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied:

Question

I have some python code using shutil.copyfile:

import os import shutil  src='C:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop\FilesPy' des='C:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop\\tryPy\Output'  x=os.listdir(src) a=os.path.join(src,x[1])  shutil.copyfile(a,des) print a 

It gives me an error:

IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'C:\\Documents and Settings\\user\\Desktop\\tryPy\\Output' 

Why don't I have permission to copy the file?

Answer 1

From the documentation of shutil.copyfile:

Copy the contents (no metadata) of the file named src to a file named dst. dst must be the complete target file name; look at shutil.copy() for a copy that accepts a target directory path. If src and dst are the same files, Error is raised. The destination location must be writable; otherwise, an IOError exception will be raised. If dst already exists, it will be replaced. Special files such as character or block devices and pipes cannot be copied with this function. src and dst are path names given as strings.

So I guess you need to either use shutil.copy or add the file name to des:

des = os.path.join(des, x[1]) 

Answer 2

I advice you rather use shutil.copyfile rather than shutil.copy if you can.

With shutil.copyfile, you have to consider metadata such as writing permission.