Unclear documentation for shutil.copytree()

@iritkatriel

BPO	44347
Nosy	@iritkatriel, @jdevries3133
PRs	bpo-44347: [doc] clarify meaning of shutil.copytree's dirs_exist_ok kwarg #26634 bpo-44347: [doc] clarify meaning of shutil.copytree's dirs_exist_ok kwarg #26643

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = None
created_at = <Date 2021-06-08.09:17:12.166>
labels = ['3.9', '3.10', '3.11', 'type-feature', 'library', 'docs']
title = 'Unclear documentation for shutil.copytree()'
updated_at = <Date 2021-06-10.12:29:33.310>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/tilmanvogel'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2021-06-10.12:29:33.310>
actor = 'jack__d'
assignee = 'docs@python'
closed = False
closed_date = None
closer = None
components = ['Documentation', 'Library (Lib)']
creation = <Date 2021-06-08.09:17:12.166>
creator = 'tilman.vogel'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 44347
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 4.0
messages = ['395315', '395452', '395489', '395494']
nosy_count = 4.0
nosy_names = ['docs@python', 'iritkatriel', 'tilman.vogel', 'jack__d']
pr_nums = ['26634', '26643']
priority = 'normal'
resolution = None
stage = 'patch review'
status = 'open'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue44347'
versions = ['Python 3.9', 'Python 3.10', 'Python 3.11']

I donot understand this sentence:

"dirs_exist_ok dictates whether to raise an exception in case dst or any
missing parent directory already exists."

How can a "missing parent directory already exist"?

My understanding would be that an existing dst would be OK (and copied into) but missing parent directories are just the ones above dst that also don't exist.

Until 3.7, missing parent directories were documented to be auto-created (mkdir -p-style) according to the documentation ("The destination directory, named by dst, must not already exist; it will be created as well as missing parent directories."). Was this feature really removed? If not, then this part was accidentally (?) dropped from documentation?

What am I missing? I think, the documentation should be amended to make that clear.

From the code, this arg is simply passed to os.mkdirs() here:

cpython/Lib/shutil.py

Line 450 in e6e34e4

os.makedirs(dst, exist_ok=dirs_exist_ok)

os.mkdir is documented here: https://docs.python.org/3/library/os.html#os.makedirs

and says just "If exist_ok is False (the default), an FileExistsError is raised if the target directory already exists."

So I agree that the sentence you highlighted can be improved.

Would you like to submit a patch?

I would like to submit a patch for this. This would be my first contribution :)

I am starting on a patch now.

I've created a PR: #26634

I forgot to put a news entry, but hopefully that's ok since this is a very small change.

gh-88513: clarify shutil.copytree's dirs_exist_ok arg (GH-91434)

pythongh-88513: clarify shutil.copytree's dirs_exist_ok arg (pythonGH…

@jdevries3133

#91434 was merged to address this. Thanks for your contribution @jdevries3133! I'll close this issue once the backports (#91464, #91465) are merged.

gh-88513: clarify shutil.copytree's dirs_exist_ok arg (GH-91434) (GH-…

pythongh-88513: clarify shutil.copytree's dirs_exist_ok arg (pythonGH…

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Unclear documentation for shutil.copytree() #88513

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tilmanvogel commented on Jun 8, 2021

iritkatriel commented on Jun 9, 2021

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jdevries3133 commented on Jun 9, 2021

jdevries3133 commented on Jun 9, 2021

JelleZijlstra commented on Apr 12, 2022

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