shutil.copytree() method Python (original) (raw)

Last Updated : 12 Jul, 2025

**shutil.copytree() method in Python is used to recursively copy an entire directory tree from a source to a destination. It copies all the contents, including files and subdirectories, preserving the directory structure.

Syntax

shutil.copytree(src, dst, symlinks=False, ignore=None, copy_function=copy2, ignore_dangling_symlinks=False)

**Parameters:

• **src: The path to the source directory to be copied.
• **dst: The path to the destination directory where the contents will be copied.
• **symlinks (optional): If True, it copies symbolic links as symbolic links. Default is False.
• **ignore (optional): A callable function that can be used to ignore certain files. It should take two arguments: the directory path and the list of file names in the directory.
• **copy_function (optional): A function to use for copying files. The default is shutil.copy2(), which preserves file metadata.
• **ignore_dangling_symlinks (optional): If True, it prevents errors when copying broken symlinks. Default is False.

**Return Value: This method returns a string which represents the path of newly created directory.

Examples of shutil.copytree() method

Example 1: Using shutil.copytree() method to copy file from source to destination

This code demonstrates how to copy an entire directory, including its contents, from the source path to the destination path using the **shutil.copytree() method.

Python `

import os import shutil

path

path = r'C:\Users\GFG0589\Desktop\vs'

print("Before copying file:") print(os.listdir(path))

Source path

src = r'C:\Users\GFG0589\Desktop\vs\source'

Destination pat

dest = r'C:\Users\GFG0589\Desktop\vs\destination'

Copy the content of source to destination

destination = shutil.copytree(src, dest)

print("After copying file:") print(os.listdir(path))

Print path of newly created file

print("Destination path:", destination)

`

**Output

Before copying file:
['copy_tree_example.py', 'source']
After copying file:
['copy_tree_example.py', 'destination', 'source']
Destination path: C:\Users\GFG0589\Desktop\vs\destination

**Explanation: The **shutil.copytree() method is used to copy the entire content of the source directory (**src) to the destination directory (**dest). The**os.listdir() function is called before and after to show the directory contents. The final output prints the path of the newly created directory.

Example 2: Using shutil.copytree() method to copy file by using shutil.copy() method

This example shows how to copy the contents of a directory from the source to the destination using **shutil.copytree() with a custom copy function, specifically **shutil.copy().

Python `

import os import shutil

path

path = 'C:\Users\GFG0589\Desktop\vs'

print("Before copying file:") print(os.listdir(path))

Source path

src = 'C:\Users\GFG0589\Desktop\vs\source'

Destination path

dest = 'C:\Users\GFG0589\Desktop\vs\destination'

Copy the content of source to destination using shutil.copy() as parameter

destination = shutil.copytree(src, dest, copy_function = shutil.copy)

print("After copying file:") print(os.listdir(path)) print("Destination path:", destination)

`

**Output

Before copying file:
['source']
After copying file:
['destination', 'source']
Destination path: C:\Users\GFG0589\Desktop\vs\destination

**Explanation: Here, **shutil.copytree() is used to copy the content from the source directory to the destination directory. Instead of the default copy2(), **shutil.copy() is passed as the **copy_function argument to handle the file copying. This method copies the content with basic metadata. The **os.listdir() function is used before and after the copy to display changes in the directory, and the destination path is printed at the end.