Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.pyt...@pearwood.info> writes:
> On Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:46:31 -0400, D'Arcy Cain wrote:
>
>> On 03/28/12 16:12, John Ladasky wrote:
>>> I'm looking for a Python (2.7) equivalent to the Unix "cp" command.
>> >>>open("outfile", "w").write(open("infile").read())
> Because your cp doesn't copy the FILE, it copies the file's CONTENTS,
> which are not the same thing.
> Consider:
> * permissions
> * access times
> * file ownership
> * other metadata
> * alternate streams and/or resource fork, on platforms that support them
> * sparse files
> By the time you finish supporting the concept of copying the file itself,
> rather than merely its content, you will have something similar to the
> shutil.copy command -- only less tested.
A minor point, but shutil.copy only "copies" contents and permissions
(no access times, etc.) You probably mean shutil.copy2.
And sparse files are really hard to reproduce, at least on Unix: on
Linux even the system's cp doesn't guarantee sparseness of the copy (the
manual mentions a "crude heuristic").
But of course shutil.copy is the best solution to mimic a raw cp.
-- Alain.
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