Automate backup with Python Script (original) (raw)

Last Updated : 31 Aug, 2021

In this article, we are going to see how to automate backup with a Python script.

File backups are essential for preserving your data in local storage. We will use the shutil, os, and sys modules. In this case, the shutil module is used to copy data from one file to another, while the os and sys modules are used to obtain the directory path and so on.

Stepwise Implementation:

Step 1: Import the following modules

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import shutil

from datetime import date

import os

import sys

Step 2: Let us now get today’s date using the datetime module.

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today = date.today()

date_format = today.strftime( "%d_%b_%Y_" )

Step 3: If the user specifies the path to the source file, use the line below to concatenate the path to the source file with the name of the source file.

Python3

src_dir = src_dir + src_file_name

If not, and your file is stored in the same directory as your current Python script, use the os module to determine the current path of the file and create the source directory by combining the path provided by the os module with the source file name.

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Step 4: If the user does not specify the source file name, we must return a file does not exist error.

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if not src_file_name:

`` print ( "Please give atleast the Source File Name" )

Step 5: Now, use the following cases to test the necessary conditions.

If the user provides all of the inputs, such as the source file name, source file path, destination file name, and destination file path.

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if src_file_name and dst_file_name and src_dir and dst_dir:

`` src_dir = src_dir + src_file_name

`` dst_dir = dst_dir + dst_file_name

If the destination file name is None, which indicates that the user did not specify a destination file name, then use the conditions listed below.

Python3

elif dst_file_name is None or not dst_file_name:

`` dst_file_name = src_file_name

`` dst_dir = dst_dir + date_format + dst_file_name

If a user enters an empty string with one or more spaces.

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elif dst_file_name.isspace():

`` dst_file_name = src_file_name

`` dst_dir = dst_dir + date_format + dst_file_name

If the user inputs the backup copy’s name, just concatenate the destination directory, date, and destination file name to create the output file name.

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else :

`` dst_dir = dst_dir + date_format + dst_file_name

Step 6: Finally, we simply need to use the shutil function to copy the file to the destination.

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shutil.copy2(src_dir, dst_dir)

Note: If we want to back up the entire folder rather than individual files, we must use the code below.

shutil.copytree(src_file_name, dst_dir)

Below is the full implementation:

Python3

import shutil

from datetime import date

import os

import sys

os.chdir(sys.path[ 0 ])

def take_backup(src_file_name,

`` dst_file_name = None ,

`` src_dir = '',

`` dst_dir = ''):

`` try :

`` today = date.today()

`` date_format = today.strftime( "%d_%b_%Y_" )

`` src_dir = src_dir + src_file_name

`` if not src_file_name:

`` print ( "Please give atleast the Source File Name" )

`` exit()

`` try :

`` if src_file_name and dst_file_name and src_dir and dst_dir:

`` src_dir = src_dir + src_file_name

`` dst_dir = dst_dir + dst_file_name

`` elif dst_file_name is None or not dst_file_name:

`` dst_file_name = src_file_name

`` dst_dir = dst_dir + date_format + dst_file_name

`` elif dst_file_name.isspace():

`` dst_file_name = src_file_name

`` dst_dir = dst_dir + date_format + dst_file_name

`` else :

`` dst_dir = dst_dir + date_format + dst_file_name

`` shutil.copy2(src_dir, dst_dir)

`` print ( "Backup Successful!" )

`` except FileNotFoundError:

`` print (" File does not exists!,\

`` please give the complete path")

`` except PermissionError:

`` dst_dir = dst_dir + date_format + dst_file_name

`` shutil.copytree(src_file_name, dst_dir)

take_backup( "GFG.txt" )

Output:

Folders BackUp: