Xcopy with Python

Question

I'm trying to get xcopy working with python to copy files to a remote system. I am using a very simple test example:

import os

src = "C:\<Username>\Desktop\test2.txt"
dst = "C:\Users\<Username>"

print os.system("xcopy %s %s" % (src, dst))

But for some reason when I run this I get:

Invalid number of parameters
4

Running the xcopy directly from the command line works fine. Any ideas?

Thanks

The Python documentation recommend using the [`subprocess`](https://docs.python.org/2/library/subprocess.html) module instead of `os.system`. — Roland Smith, Aug 04 '14 at 18:08

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 04 '14 at 17:50

3

\t is a tab character. I'd suggest using raw strings for windows paths:

src = r"C:\<Username>\Desktop\test2.txt"
dst = r"C:\Users\<Username>"

This will stop python from surprising you by interpreting some of your backslashes as escape sequences.

answered Aug 04 '14 at 17:50

FatalError

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2

Or just use forward slashes; Windows is perfectly happy with them. – kindall Aug 04 '14 at 18:21

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 04 '14 at 18:37

In addition to using raw string literals, use the subprocess module instead of os.system - it will take care of quoting your arguments properly if they contain spaces. Thus:

import subprocess

src = r'C:\<Username>\Desktop\test2.txt'
dst = r'C:\Users\<Username>'

subprocess.call(['xcopy', src, dst])

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 04 '14 at 17:51

1

Try prefixing your strings with r. So r"C:\<Username>\Desktop\test2.txt". The problem is that a backslash is treated as a special character within strings.

answered Aug 04 '14 at 17:51

Chinmay Kanchi

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Xcopy with Python

3 Answers3