Recursively creating hardlinks using python

Question

What I basically would like to do is cp -Rl dir1 dir2. But as I understand it, python only provides shutils.copytree(src,dst) which actually copies the files, but has no possibility of hardlinking the files instead.

I know that I could invoke the cp command using the subprocess module, but I'd rather like to find a cleaner (pythonic) way to do so.

So is there an easy way to do so or do I have to implement it myself recursing through the directories?

Answer 1

You just have to call os.system("cp -Rl dir1 dir2"), no need hand write your own function.

Edited: Since you want do this in python.

You are right: It's available in module shutil:

shutil.copytree(src, dst, copy_function=os.link)

Answer 2

Here's a pure python hardcopy function. Should work the same as cp -Rl src dst

import os
from os.path import join, abspath

def hardcopy(src, dst):
    working_dir = os.getcwd()
    dest = abspath(dst)
    os.mkdir(dst)
    os.chdir(src)
    for root, dirs, files in os.walk('.'):
        curdest = join(dst, root)
        for d in dirs:
            os.mkdir(join(curdst, d))
        for f in files:
            fromfile = join(root, f)
            to = join(curdst, f)
            os.link(fromfile, to)
    os.chdir(working_dir)