How to Copy Files and Rename them in Python [4 Ways]

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# How to Copy Files and Rename them in Python

To copy files and rename them in Python:

Import the copy() method from the shutil module.
Pass the source path and the destination path to the shutil.copy() method.
The method will copy the file to the new location with the updated name.

main.py

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from shutil import copy

src_path = 'example.txt'
destination_path = 'example-new.txt'

copy(src_path, destination_path)

print('File copied and renamed successfully!')

copy and rename file in python

The code for this article is available on GitHub

The code sample assumes that you have an example.txt file located in the same directory as your Python script.

example.txt

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bobby
hadz
com

Running the script produces an example-new.txt file with the same contents.

example-new.txt

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bobby
hadz
com

produced example txt file

You can also pass absolute paths to the shutil.copy() method.

The destination path can also be a directory.

The shutil.copy() method copies the src file to the specified destination.

If the destination path points to a file that already exists, it will be replaced.

The copy() method copies the file data and the file's permission mode, however, the method doesn't copy the file creation and modification times.

If you want to preserve all file metadata from the original, use the shutil.copy2 method.

main.py

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from shutil import copy2

src_path = 'example.txt'
destination_path = 'example-new.txt'

copy2(src_path, destination_path)

print('File copied and renamed successfully!')

using shutil copy2 method

The code for this article is available on GitHub

The copy2() method is identical to copy(), however, it also attempts to preserve file metadata.

# Using the current timestamp to make the destination filename unique

When using shutil.copy(), if the destination path points to a file that already exists, it will be replaced.

However, in some cases, you might need to produce unique destination filenames.

You can use the current timestamp to achieve this.

main.py

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from datetime import datetime
from shutil import copy2

timestamp = str(datetime.now())[:19]
timestamp = timestamp.replace(':', '_')
print(timestamp)

src_path = 'example.txt'
destination_path = f'example-{timestamp}.txt'

copy2(src_path, destination_path)

print(f'File copied to {destination_path}')

using current timestamp to make the destination filename unique

The code for this article is available on GitHub

The code sample assumes that you have an example.txt file in the same directory as your Python script.

example.txt

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hadz
com

Running the code sample copies the example.txt file to a destination that contains the current timestamp, e.g. example-2023-08-30 12_31_06.txt.

file copied to new destination with timestamp

We used the datetime.now() method to get the current local date and time.

main.py

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from datetime import datetime

# 👇️ 2023-08-30 12:34:38.681721
print(datetime.now())

We used string slicing to exclude the milliseconds.

main.py

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from datetime import datetime

# 👇️ 2023-08-30 12:35:20
print(str(datetime.now())[:19])

The last step is to use the str.replace method to replace the colons with underscores.

main.py

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from datetime import datetime

# 👇️ 2023-08-30 12_36_02
print(str(datetime.now())[:19].replace(':', '_'))

Unless you rerun the command multiple times concurrently, the destination filename will be unique.

Alternatively, you can use the time() method from the time module to get the current time in seconds since the Epoch.

main.py

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from time import time
from shutil import copy2


timestamp = time()
timestamp = str(timestamp).replace('.', '_')
print(timestamp) # 1693388353_6106539

src_path = 'example.txt'
destination_path = f'example-{timestamp}.txt'

copy2(src_path, destination_path)

print(f'File copied to {destination_path}')

Running the code sample produces the following output.

shell

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1693388421_4974587
File copied to example-1693388421_4974587.txt

using time since epoch for unique file names

# Copying all files from a directory to another directory and renaming them

If you need to copy all files from a directory to another directory and rename them, use the following code sample.

main.py

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import os
from shutil import copy2
from pathlib import Path


def copy_and_rename(src, dest):
    Path(destination).mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)

    for item in os.listdir(src):
        current_path = os.path.join(src, item)

        if os.path.isdir(current_path):
            copy_and_rename(current_path, dest)

        elif current_path.endswith(".txt"):

            file_name, extension = item.rsplit('.', maxsplit=1)
            print(file_name)
            print(extension)

            updated_filename = file_name + '-new' + '.' + extension

            copy2(
                current_path,
                os.path.join(
                    destination,
                    updated_filename
                )
            )


src_path = 'my-directory'
destination = 'new-directory'

copy_and_rename(src_path, destination)

The code for this article is available on GitHub

The code sample assumes that you have the following folder structure.

shell

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my-project/
  └── main.py
  └── my-directory
    └── example-1.txt
    └── example-2.txt
    └── example.txt

Running the code sample produces a new-directory folder that has the following structure.

shell

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new-directory/
  └── example-1-new.txt
  └── example-2-new.txt
  └── example-new.txt

The copy_and_rename function takes source and destination directories, copies the files from the source directory to the destination directory and renames them.

The first line of the function creates the destination directory if it doesn't already exist.

main.py

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Path(destination).mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)

We used a for loop to iterate over the files and directories of the source directory.

main.py

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for item in os.listdir(src):
    current_path = os.path.join(src, item)

We used an if statement to check if each item is a directory path.

main.py

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if os.path.isdir(current_path):
    copy_and_rename(current_path, dest)

If the path is a directory, we call the copy_and_rename() function recursively.

The elif statement checks if the current item is a text file (ends with .txt).

main.py

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elif current_path.endswith(".txt"):
    Path(destination).mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)

    file_name, extension = item.rsplit('.', maxsplit=1)
    print(file_name)
    print(extension)

    updated_filename = file_name + '-new' + '.' + extension

    copy2(
        current_path,
        os.path.join(
            destination,
            updated_filename
        )
    )

If the file is a text file, we rename it by adding the "-new" substring at the end and copy it using the shutil.copy2() method.

# Additional Resources

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How to Copy Files and Rename them in Python [4 Ways]

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