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Been trying to copy folders and files using shutil.tree() function in python but brings FileExistsError

I have tried to use shutil module in python. The shutil.copytree fails to copy folders and brings FileExistsError. I have tried it using different files but it still fails.Please check
import shutil
from pathlib import Path
p = Path(r"C:\Users\rapid\OneDrive\Desktop")
shutil.copytree(p/"folder_1", p/"folder_2")
Please check for the error image

I tried the code myself and works fine the first time.
After the destination folder (in your case folder_2) already created shutil can't create it again and it fails. So you can either delete the destination folder manually or using shutil.rmtree.
Good Luck!

All credit to Timus. He provided the solution on the comment section. Just used
shutil.copytree(p/"folder_1", p/"folder_2", dirs_exist_ok=True)
It works fine. Thanks Timux

Opening a CSV from a Different Directory Python

I've been working on a project where I need to import csv files, previously the csv files have been in the same working directory. Now the project is getting bigger so for security and organizational resaons I'd much prefer to keep them in a different directory.
I've had a look at some other questions asking similar things but I couldn't figure out out how to apply them to my code as each time I tried I kept getting the same error message mainly:
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory:
My original attempts all looked something like this:
import csv # Import the csv module
import MySQLdb # Import MySQLdb module
def connect():
login = csv.reader(file('/~/Projects/bmm_private/login_test.txt'))
I changed the path within several times as well by dropping the first / then then the ~ then the / again after that, but each time I got the error message. I then tried another method suggested by several people by importing the os:
import os
import csv # Import the csv module
import MySQLdb # Import MySQLdb module
def connect():
path = r'F:\Projects\bmm_private\login_test.txt'
f = os.path.normpath(path)
login = csv.reader(file(f))
But I got the error message yet again.
Any help here would be much appreciated, if I could request that you use the real path (~/Projects/bmm_private/login_test.txt) in any answers you know of so it's very clear to me what I'm missing out here.
I'm pretty new to python so I may struggle to understand without extra clarity/explanation. Thanks in advance!

The tilde tells me that this is the home folder (e.g. C:\Users\<username> on my Windows system, or /Users/<username> on my Mac). If you want to expand the user, use the os.path.expanduser call:
full_path = os.path.expanduser('~/Projects/bmm_private/login_test.txt')
# Now you can open it
Another approach is to seek for the file in relative to your current script. For example, if your script is in ~/Projects/my_scripts, then:
script_dir = os.path.dirname(__file__) # Script directory
full_path = os.path.join(script_dir, '../bmm_private/login_test.txt')
# Now use full_path

What is the standard way to use Python module os to specify the paths for third parties?

(I'm not used to writing python programs for other users to use, so hopefully this question is appropriate.)
My users will download a file generic_file.csv and let's assume that this file will be saved in the "current directory".
So, I write a python script named reader.py
#!/usr/bin/env python
from __future__ import (print_function, absolute_import)
import os
import csv
import random
import string
cd_path = os.getcwd() # return path of current directory
filename = 'generic_file.csv' # filename 'test_enigma.csv'
filepath = os.path.join(os.getcwd(), filename) # returns path to open fname
print(filepath)
Now, if the user runs this in the terminal with python reader.py, it should output the name of the file, ONLY IF the file was saved in the current directory.
That's inconvenient. Most users will just download the file, and they would like reader.py to change to the subdirectory Downloads and read generic_file.csv from that directory.
(1) How does one use os.chdir() to work for every user?
(2) What is the standard way to do this if I was writing third-party software? I imagine I would have the user download the specific CSV file and Python script together.

If you are looking to get the path name of User A's download file, you can do os.path.expanduser('~/Downloads'). This will return /Users/A/Downloads

How to copy all subfolders into an existing folder in Python 3?

I am sure I am missing this, as it has to be easy, but I have looked in Google, The Docs, and SO and I can not find a simple way to copy a bunch of directories into another directory that already exists from Python 3?
All of the answers I find recommend using shutil.copytree but as I said, I need to copy a bunch of folders, and all their contents, into an existing folder (and keep any folders or that already existed in the destination)
Is there a way to do this on windows?

I would look into using the os module built into python. Specifically os.walk which returns all the files and subdirectories within the directory you point it to. I will not just tell you exactly how to do it, however here is some sample code that i use to backup my files. I use the os and zipfile modules.
import zipfile
import time
import os
def main():
date = time.strftime("%m.%d.%Y")
zf = zipfile.ZipFile('/media/morpheous/PORTEUS/' + date, 'w')
for root, j, files in os.walk('/home/morpheous/Documents'):
for i in files:
zf.write(os.path.join(root, i))
zf.close()
Hope this helps. Also it should be pointed out that i do this in linux, however with a few changes to the file paths it should work the same

How to set current working directory in python in a automatic way

How can I set the current path of my python file "myproject.py" to the file itself?
I do not want something like this:
path = "the path of myproject.py"
In mathematica I can set:
SetDirectory[NotebookDirectory[]]
The advantage with the code in Mathematica is that if I change the path of my Mathematica file, for example if I give it to someone else or I put it in another folder, I do not need to do anything extra. Each time Mathematica automatically set the directory to the current folder.
I want something similar to this in Python.

The right solution is not to change the current working directory, but to get the full path to the directory containing your script or module then use os.path.join to build your files path:
import os
ROOT_PATH = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
# then:
myfile_path = os.path.join(ROOT_PATH, "myfile.txt")
This is safer than messing with current working directory (hint : what would happen if another module changes the current working directory after you did but before you access your files ?)

I want to set the directory in which the python file is, as working directory
There are two step:
Find out path to the python file
Set its parent directory as the working directory
The 2nd is simple:
import os
os.chdir(module_dir) # set working directory
The 1st might be complex if you want to support a general case (python file that is run as a script directly, python file that is imported in another module, python file that is symlinked, etc). Here's one possible solution:
import inspect
import os
module_path = inspect.getfile(inspect.currentframe())
module_dir = os.path.realpath(os.path.dirname(module_path))

Use the os.getcwd() function from the built in os module also there's os.getcwdu() which returns a unicode object of the current working directory
Example usage:
import os
path = os.getcwd()
print path
#C:\Users\KDawG\Desktop\Python