Python | shutil.copy() method

Error occurred while copying file.

Shutil module in Python provides many functions of high-level operations on files and collections of files. It comes under Python’s standard utility modules. This module helps in automating process of copying and removal of files and directories.
shutil.copy() method in Python is used to copy the content of source file to destination file or directory. It also preserves the file’s permission mode but other metadata of the file like the file’s creation and modification times is not preserved. 
Source must represent a file but destination can be a file or a directory. If the destination is a directory then the file will be copied into destination using the base filename from source. Also, destination must be writable. If destination is a file and already exists then it will be replaced with the source file otherwise a new file will be created.
 

Syntax: shutil.copy(source, destination, *, follow_symlinks = True)
Parameter: 
source: A string representing the path of the source file. 
destination: A string representing the path of the destination file or directory. 
follow_symlinks (optional) : The default value of this parameter is True. If it is False and source represents a symbolic link then destination will be created as a symbolic link.
Note: The '*' in parameter list indicates that all following parameters (Here in our case 'follow_symlinks') are keyword-only parameters and they can be provided using their name, not as positional parameter.
Return Type: This method returns a string which represents the path of newly created file. 
 

Code #1: Use of shutil.copy() method to copy file from source to destination 
 

Before copying file:
['hrithik.png', 'test.py', 'sample.txt', 'file.text', 'copy.cpp']
File permission mode: 33188

After copying file:
['hrithik.png', 'test.py', 'sample.txt', 'file.text', 'file(copy).txt', 'copy.cpp']
File permission mode: 33188 
Destination path: /home/User/Documents/file(copy).txt

Code #2: If destination is a directory 
 

After copying file:
['input.txt', 'GeeksForGeeks', 'output.txt', 'file.txt', 'web.py', 'tree.cpp']
Destination path: /home/User/Desktop/file.txt

Code #3: Possible errors while using shutil.copy() method 
 

Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "try.py", line 26, in 
 dest = shutil.copy(source, destination)
 File "/usr/lib/python3.6/shutil.py", line 241, in copy
 copyfile(src, dst, follow_symlinks=follow_symlinks)
 File "/usr/lib/python3.6/shutil.py", line 104, in copyfile
 raise SameFileError("{!r} and {!r} are the same file".format(src, dst))
shutil.SameFileError: '/home/User/Desktop/file.txt' and '/home/User/Desktop/file.txt'
are the same file

Code #4: Handling errors while using shutil.copy() method 
 

Source and destination represents the same file.

Reference: https://docs.python.org/3/library/shutil.html
 

Time complexity : O(N)
Auxiliary space : O(1)