Moving all files from one directory to another using Python

suprised this doesn't have an answer using pathilib which was introduced in python 3.4+

additionally, shutil updated in python 3.6 to accept a pathlib object more details in this PEP-0519

Pathlib

from pathlib import Path

src_path = '\tmp\files_to_move'

for each_file in Path(src_path).glob('*.*'): # grabs all files
    trg_path = each_file.parent.parent # gets the parent of the folder 
    each_file.rename(trg_path.joinpath(each_file.name)) # moves to parent folder.

Pathlib & shutil to copy files.

from pathlib import Path
import shutil

src_path = '\tmp\files_to_move'
trg_path = '\tmp'

for src_file in Path(src_path).glob('*.*'):
    shutil.copy(src_file, trg_path)

Please, take a look at implementation of the copytree function which:

  • List directory files with:

    names = os.listdir(src)

  • Copy files with:

for name in names:
  srcname = os.path.join(src, name)
  dstname = os.path.join(dst, name)
  copy2(srcname, dstname)

Getting dstname is not necessary, because if destination parameter specifies a directory, the file will be copied into dst using the base filename from srcname.

Replace copy2 by move.


Try this:

import shutil
import os
    
source_dir = '/path/to/source_folder'
target_dir = '/path/to/dest_folder'
    
file_names = os.listdir(source_dir)
    
for file_name in file_names:
    shutil.move(os.path.join(source_dir, file_name), target_dir)

Tags:

Python

Directory

Move

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