Question

I am trying to do $ mv <file> .. in a python script using subprocess.call(). I am able to do this on ‘normal’ filenames, but on certain filenames it does not work. I do not have control of the filenames that are given to the script. Here is an example:

M filename is "ITunes ES Film Metadata_10_LaunchTitles(4th Batch)_08_20_2010.XLS"

When I try and do the command directly into the python prompt and drag the file into it, this is what I get:

>>> /Users/David/Desktop/itunes_finalize/TheInventionOfLying_CSP/
    ITunes\ ES\ Film\ Metadata_10_LaunchTitles\(4th\ Batch\)_08_20_2010.XLS

No such file or directory

How would I go about moving this file in a python script?

Update:

Thanks for the answers, this is how I ended up doing it:

for file in glob.glob(os.path.join(dir, '*.[xX][lL][sS]')):
    shutil.move(file, os.path.join(os.path.dirname(file), os.path.pardir))

Answer 1

subprocess is not the best way to go here. For example, what if you’re on an operating system that isn’t POSIX compliant?

Check out the shutil module.

>>> import shutil
>>> shutil.move(src, dest)

If finding the actual string for the filename is hard you can use glob.glob to pattern match what you want. For example, if you’re running the script/prompt from the directory with the .XLS file in question you could do the following.

>>> import glob
>>> glob.glob('*ITunes*.XLS')

You’ll get a list back with all the file strings that fit that pattern.