Question

I am writing some code that adds extensions to files depending on the header of the file. With any gzip files I am extracting the data.

When I try and run the code I get a WinError 32. Below is the code and the error

Thanks for any advice.

def extract():
    os.chdir("C:/Users/David/MyFiles")
    files = os.listdir(".")
    for x in (files):
        inputFile = open((x), "rb")
        byte1 = inputFile.read(1)
        byte2 = inputFile.read(1)
        if byte1 == b'\x1f' and byte2 == b'\x8b':
            os.rename((x), (x) + ".gz")
            file = gzip.open((x), "rb")
            content = file.read()
            with open((x), "wb") as outputFile:
                outputFile.write(content)

Error:

PermissionError: [WinError 32] The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process: 'f_000002.gz'

Answer 1

You should close inputFile before trying to rename it :

...
    inputFile = open((x), "rb")
    byte1 = inputFile.read(1)
    byte2 = inputFile.read(1)
    inputFile.close()