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os.rename deleting files python 3

Python novice, my simple script gets a given directory and renames all files sequentially, however it is deleting the files but the print is showing the files names getting renamed, not sure where its going wrong here.
Also, in what order does it retrieve these files?
import os
path = os.path.abspath("D:\Desktop\gp")
i = 0
for file_name in os.listdir(path):
try:
print (file_name + " - " + str(i))
os.rename(os.path.join(path,file_name), str(i))
except WindowsError:
os.remove(str(i))
os.rename(os.path.join(path,file_name), str(i))
i += 1
print(str(i) + " files.")
Edit
Below is the solution with working code, retrieves all files in a dir by creation date and assigns them a iterated number while retaining file extension.
import os
def sorted_dir(folder):
def getctime(name):
path = os.path.join(folder, name)
return os.path.getctime(path)
return sorted(os.listdir(path), key=getctime)
path = os.path.abspath("D:\Path\Here")
i = 0
for file_name in sorted_dir(path):
_, ext = os.path.splitext(file_name)
print (file_name + " - " + str(i)+ext)
os.rename(os.path.join(path,file_name), os.path.join(path, str(i) + ext))
i += 1
print(str(i-1) + " files.")

The problem is that you're using an absolute path for the source, but a relative path for the destination. So the files aren't getting deleted, they're just getting moved into the current working directory.
To fix it so they get renamed into the same directory they were already in, you can do the same thing on the destination you do on the source:
os.rename(os.path.join(path,file_name), os.path.join(path, str(i)))
From a comment, it sounds like you may want to preserve the extensions on these files. To do that:
_, ext = os.path.splitext(file_name)
os.rename(os.path.join(path,file_name), os.path.join(path, str(i) + ext))

traverse directory structure in python recursively without os.walk

I am trying to write a python2 function that will recursively traverse through the whole directory structure of a given directory, and print out the results.
All without using os.walk
This is what I have got so far:
test_path = "/home/user/Developer/test"
def scanning(sPath):
output = os.path.join(sPath, 'output')
if os.path.exists(output):
with open(output) as file1:
for line in file1:
if line.startswith('Final value:'):
print line
else:
for name in os.listdir(sPath):
path = os.path.join(sPath, name)
if os.path.isdir(path):
print "'", name, "'"
print_directory_contents(path)
scanning(test_path)
This is what I currently get, the script doesn't enter the new folder:
' test2'
'new_folder'
The issue is that it does not go further down than one directory. I would also like to able to indicate visually what is a directory, and what is a file

Try this:
import os
test_path = "YOUR_DIRECTORY"
def print_directory_contents(dir_path):
for child in os.listdir(dir_path):
path = os.path.join(dir_path, child)
if os.path.isdir(path):
print("FOLDER: " + "\t" + path)
print_directory_contents(path)
else:
print("FILE: " + "\t" + path)
print_directory_contents(test_path)
I worked on windows, verify if still working on unix.
Adapted from:
http://codegists.com/snippet/python/print_directory_contentspy_skobnikoff_python

Try this out with recursion
it is much simple and less code
import os
def getFiles(path="/var/log", files=[]):
if os.path.isfile(path):
return files.append(path)
for item in os.listdir(path):
item = os.path.join(path, item)
if os.path.isfile(item):
files.append(item)
else:
files = getFiles(item, files)
return files
for f in getFiles("/home/afouda/test", []):
print(f)

Try using a recursive function,
def lastline(fil):
with open(fil) as f:
for li in f.readlines():
if li.startswith("Final Value:"):
print(li)
## If it still doesnt work try putting 'dirs=[]' here
def lookforfiles(basepath):
contents = os.listdir(basepath)
dirs = []
i = 0
while i <= len(contents):
i += 1
for n in contents:
f = os.path.join(basepath, n)
if os.path.isfile(f):
lastline(f)
print("\n\nfile %s" % n)
elif os.path.isdir(f):
print("Adding dir")
if f in dirs:
pass
else:
dirs.append(f)
else:
for x in dirs:
print("dir %s" % x)
lookforfiles(x)
sorry if this doesn't fit your example precisely but I had a hard time understanding what you were trying to do.

This question is a duplicate of Print out the whole directory tree.
TL;TR: Use os.listdir.

Renaming a folder in Python

Ive successfully made a script which changes all $ to # in a directory, but it doesnt affect the foldername. So the foldername still remains the same name. How can I modify this to change the $ to # in the foldername as well?
def cleanFiles(self):
directoryChosen = self.directoryChoice()
print directoryChosen + " you made it to files selected"
#for file_names in os.listdir(directoryChosen):
#self.listWidget.addItem(file_names)
for n in os.listdir(directoryChosen):
print n + " made it here"
self.listWidget.addItem(n)
if os.path.isdir(directoryChosen):
print directoryChosen + " almost there"
newname = n.replace('$', '#')
print newname + " this is newname"
if newname != n:
print newname
print n
path = os.path.join(directoryChosen + '/' + n)
print path
target = os.path.join(directoryChosen + '/' + newname)
print target
os.rename(path, target)

The first problem you have is that you are doing this:
if os.path.isdir(directoryChosen):
When you want to do this:
if os.path.isdir(n):
So, with that in mind, inside your loop you actually want to reference n, which are the folders and files you are trying to check.
The second problem that you have is in your usage of os.path.join.
You don't have to join the way you are joining. You don't need to add the slash between the two, the join does that for you. I suggest reading the doc on that. So you want this:
path = os.path.join(directoryChosen, n)
target = os.path.join(directoryChosen, newname)
So, the code will then end up looking something like this:
for n in os.listdir(directoryChosen):
print n + " made it here"
self.listWidget.addItem(n)
if os.path.isdir(n):
print directoryChosen + " almost there"
newname = n.replace('$', '#')
print newname + " this is newname"
if newname != n:
print newname
print n
path = os.path.join(directoryChosen, n)
print path
target = os.path.join(directoryChosen, newname)
print target
os.rename(path, target)

if os.path.isdir(directoryChosen):
for n in os.listdir(directoryChosen):
self.listWidget.addItem(n)
newname = n.replace('$', '#')
if newname != n:
path = os.path.join(directoryChosen, n)
target = os.path.join(directoryChosen, newname)
os.rename(path, target)
newdir = directoryChosen.replace('$', '#')
if directoryChosen != newdir
os.rename(directoryChosen, newdir)

I am not sure if I understand your problem correctly. But, you can use the code below:
import os
def cleanFiles():
directoryChosen = "C:\\Test$234"
if os.path.isdir(directoryChosen):
for n in os.listdir(directoryChosen):
newname = n.replace('$', '#')
if newname != n:
path = os.path.join(directoryChosen + '/' + n)
target = os.path.join(directoryChosen + '/' + newname)
os.rename(path, target)
os.rename(directoryChosen, directoryChosen.replace('$','#'))
It renames your chosen directory as well, if that is what you are looking for.

python function not repeating

I have a python tool to 'touch' (utime) a file, then move to another folder. However, if the file already exists in the destination folder, it is silently overwritten. I would like to check for a file of the same name in the destination folder and, if it exists, rename the one I am moving to its name plus '-n' at the end, where n is a number starting at '1' and, if the file with '-1' at the end already exists, '-2' etc.
For example, say in the source folder is a file 'foo.txt', but there is one 'foo.txt' in the destination folder as well. This function should return '(absolute path)/foo-1.txt'.
So, I have made a function to check for these circumstances and return the modified string, so I can use rename later and not overwrite. However, currently, if the file exists, it returns nothing. Following is the function code, assuming these vars:
fileName - input filepath, absolute path. e.g. /Users/foo/sourceFolder/bar.txt
index - iterator variable, set to '1' at the start of each file being opened (externally to function)
def checkExists(fileName):
global index
print "checkExists(" + fileName + ")"
if exists(fileName):
splitPath = split(newFile)
splitName = splitext(splitPath[1])
newSplitName = splitName[0] + "-" + str(index)
index += 1
newName = splitPath[0] + "/" + newSplitName + splitName[1]
print "newName = " + newName
else:
print "(else) fileName = " + fileName
print "(else) fileName = " + str(type(fileName))
print ""
return fileName
checkExists(newName)
Now it seems that the inner call for checkExists() at the end is not running.
I hope I have been clear in my explanation.
IAmThePiGuy
P.S. I do not want to hear about potential race problems with utime, I know that the files in the source directory will not be accessed by anything else.

Your problem is that, if the file exists, you don't return anything. I think you're intending to use recursion to check the new filename, but you don't return the result of that call. Here's a stab:
def checkExists(fileName, index=0):
print "checkExists(" + fileName + ")"
if exists(fileName):
splitPath = split(newFile)
splitName = splitext(splitPath[1])
newSplitName = splitName[0] + "-" + str(index)
index += 1
newName = splitPath[0] + "/" + newSplitName + splitName[1]
print "newName = " + newName
return checkExists(newName, index) # recurse
else:
print "(else) fileName = " + fileName
print "(else) fileName = " + str(type(fileName))
print ""
return fileName
I also took the liberty of moving the recursive call closer to the generation of newName and removing the global variable and replacing that with recursion as well.

Here's an iterative approach to a similar problem:
def copyfile(path, dstdir, verbose=True, dryrun=False):
"""Copy `path` file to `dstdir` directory incrementing name if necessary."""
filename = os.path.basename(path)
basename, ext = os.path.splitext(filename)
for i in itertools.count(2):
destpath = os.path.join(dstdir, filename)
if not os.path.exists(destpath):
if verbose:
print(path, '->', destpath)
if not dryrun:
shutil.copyfile(path, destpath)
return
# increment filename
filename = "%s_%02d%s" % (basename, i, ext)

python os.rename(...) won't work !

I am writing a Python function to change the extension of a list of files into another extension, like txt into rar, that's just an idle example. But I'm getting an error. The code is:
import os
def dTask():
#Get a file name list
file_list = os.listdir('C:\Users\B\Desktop\sil\sil2')
#Change the extensions
for file_name in file_list:
entry_pos = 0;
#Filter the file name first for '.'
for position in range(0, len(file_name)):
if file_name[position] == '.':
break
new_file_name = file_name[0:position]
#Filtering done !
#Using the name filtered, add extension to that name
new_file_name = new_file_name + '.rar'
#rename the entry in the file list, using new file name
print 'Expected change from: ', file_list[entry_pos]
print 'into File name: ', new_file_name
os.rename(file_list[entry_pos], new_file_name)
++entry_pos
Error:
>>> dTask()
Expected change from: New Text Document (2).txt
into File name: New Text Document (2).rar
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<pyshell#10>", line 1, in <module>
dTask()
File "C:\Users\B\Desktop\dTask.py", line 19, in dTask
os.rename(file_list[entry_pos], new_file_name)
WindowsError: [Error 2] The system cannot find the file specified
I can succeed in getting the file name with another extension in variable level as you can see in the print-out, but not in reality because I can not end this process in OS level. The error is coming from os.rename(...). Any idea how to fix this ?

As the others have already stated, you either need to provide the path to those files or switch the current working directory so the os can find the files.
++entry_pos doesn't do anything. There is no increment operator in Python. Prefix + is just there fore symmetry with prefix -. Prefixing something with two + is just two no-ops. So you're not actually doing anything (and after you change it to entry_pos += 1, you're still resetting it to zero in each iteration.
Also, your code is very inelegant - for example, you are using a separate index to file_list and fail to keep that in synch with the iteration variable file_name, even though you could just use that one! To show how this can be done better.
-
def rename_by_ext(to_ext, path):
if to_ext[0] != '.':
to_ext = '.'+to_ext
print "Renaming files in", path
for file_name in os.listdir(path):
root, ext = os.path.splitext(file_name)
print "Renaming", file_name, "to", root+ext
os.rename(os.path.join(path, file_name), os.path.join(path, root+to_ext))
rename_by_ext('.rar', '...')

os.rename really doesn't like variables. Use shutil. Example taken from How to copy and move files with Shutil.
import shutil
import os
source = os.listdir("/tmp/")
destination = "/tmp/newfolder/"
for files in source:
if files.endswith(".txt"):
shutil.move(files,destination)
In your case:
import shutil
shutil.move(file_list[entry_pos], new_file_name)

You also want to double backslashes to escape them in Python strings, so instead of
file_list = os.listdir('C:\Users\B\Desktop\sil\sil2')
you want
file_list = os.listdir('C:\\Users\\B\\Desktop\\sil\\sil2')
Or use forward slashes - Python magically treats them as path separators on Windows.

You must use the full path for the rename.
import os
def dTask():
#Get a file name list
dir = 'C:\Users\B\Desktop\sil\sil2'
file_list = os.listdir(dir)
#Change the extensions
for file_name in file_list:
entry_pos = 0;
#Filter the file name first for '.'
for position in range(0, len(file_name)):
if file_name[position] == '.':
break
new_file_name = file_name[0:position]
#Filtering done !
#Using the name filtered, add extension to that name
new_file_name = new_file_name + '.rar'
#rename the entry in the file list, using new file name
print 'Expected change from: ', file_list[entry_pos]
print 'into File name: ', new_file_name
os.rename( os.path.join(dir, file_list[entry_pos]), os.path.join(dir,new_file_name))
++entry_pos

If you aren't in the directory C:\Users\B\Desktop\sil\sil2, then Python certainly won't be able to find those files.

import os
def extChange(path,newExt,oldExt=""):
if path.endswith != "\\" and path.endswith != "/":
myPath = path + "\\"
directory = os.listdir(myPath)
for i in directory:
x = myPath + i[:-4] + "." + newExt
y = myPath + i
if oldExt == "":
os.rename(y,x)
else:
if i[-4:] == "." + oldExt:
os.rename(y,x)
now call it:
extChange("C:/testfolder/","txt","lua") #this will change all .txt files in C:/testfolder to .lua files
extChange("C:/testfolder/","txt") #leaving the last parameter out will change all files in C:/testfolder to .txt