python copy files to a network location on Windows without mapping a drive

Question

I am running python in a non interactive session on windows and therefore I cannot map a network drive.

Most of what I have researched on here and through google everyone suggests mapping a network drive and copying the files that way.

On linux I would facilitate this with an smbmount but unfortunately the software I am working with is tied to windows.

Are there any options for interacting with files via a UNC path?

have you tried creating a file object with the unc path? i.e. f = open('\\server\dir\file.name'); f.write(strings)? — Ramy, Mar 07 '11 at 20:00
I use UNC paths all the time in Python on Windows. They work fine. — kindall, Mar 07 '11 at 20:23

score 31 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 07 '11 at 20:02

31

Personally, I've never had difficulties getting Python to simply recognize \\\\<server>\\path\\to\\directory\\. The annoying part is that for every "\" in the win. path, there needs to be 2 in python.

answered Mar 07 '11 at 20:02

cwallenpoole

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... unless you use raw strings, which you should. :-) – kindall Mar 07 '11 at 20:23
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or os.sep. uglier but less of a hassle. – Ramy Mar 07 '11 at 20:31
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how do I authenticate to that share with credentials? – pablo Mar 09 '11 at 14:25
@kindall Sure, but for that matter, I shouldn't really be using Windows either. Within a week I'm all *nix! WHOO-HOO! – cwallenpoole Apr 18 '11 at 19:23
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@kindall But remember that raw strings won't let you do the trailing backslash - that always screws me up. – TarkaDaal Jan 21 '13 at 14:16

score 11 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:44

First get access to the network share with "NET USE" - without Drive letter, like:

winCMD = 'NET USE ' + networkPath + ' /User:' + user + ' ' + password
subprocess.Popen(winCMD, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, shell=True)

As in here (but without specifying Drive letter): What is the best way to map windows drives using Python?

Then copy the file/directory with shutil.copy, like:

import shutil
shutil.copy2(networkPath + 'sourceDir/sourceFile', 'destDir/destFile')

As in here: How do I copy a file in python?

python copy files to a network location on Windows without mapping a drive

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