BUG: website builder deletes source files when --target-path equals source_path #70082

Pandas version checks

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• I have confirmed this bug exists on the latest version of pandas.

• I have confirmed this bug exists on the main branch of pandas.

Reproducible Example

The following reproduces the issue on Windows PowerShell.

First, create a copy of the website source:


Copy-Item -Recurse web\pandas "$env:TEMP\pandas-web-test"


Verify that the source files exist:


Test-Path "$env:TEMP\pandas-web-test\config.yml"
# True

Test-Path "$env:TEMP\pandas-web-test\versions.json"
# True


Then use the same directory as both `source_path` and `--target-path`:


python web\pandas_web.py "$env:TEMP\pandas-web-test" --target-path "$env:TEMP\pandas-web-test"

Issue Description

The website builder deletes the source directory contents when
--target-path is the same directory as source_path.

I reproduced this using a fresh copy of web/pandas.

Before running the command, both config.yml and versions.json were
present in the source directory.

I then ran:

python web\pandas_web.py "$env:TEMP\pandas-web-test" --target-path "$env:TEMP\pandas-web-test"

The command failed with:

FileNotFoundError: ...\pandas-web-test\config.yml

After the command completed, both config.yml and versions.json were
no longer present in the source directory.

The relevant code in web/pandas_web.py is:

config_fname = source_path / "config.yml"

shutil.rmtree(target_path, ignore_errors=True)
os.makedirs(target_path, exist_ok=True)

...

context = get_context(config_fname, target_path=target_path)

When source_path and target_path refer to the same directory,
shutil.rmtree() removes the source files before config.yml is later
read.

Expected behavior:
The builder should detect that the source and target directories
overlap before deleting anything and reject the operation with a
clear error message.

I used ChatGPT (GPT-5.6 Luna) to assist with investigating the code
path and drafting this issue. I reproduced and verified the behavior
myself.

Expected Behavior

The website builder should detect that the source and target directories overlap before deleting anything.

It should reject the operation with a clear error message instead of deleting the source files.

Installed Versions